Saturday, January 11, 2020

2019 at the HH Project: Review and Accomplishments

keywords and topics: year-in-review, progress in goals and projects, review of current resources


"Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible..." Saint Francis of Assisi
Outline
Home and family
Review of the HH Project work in 2019
Goal setting & re-evaluating
    2018 goals that led to 2019 goal restructuring
    2019 goals
Resources that grew significantly in 2019
this also went out as an email newsletter 01.13.2020. Go here for the newsletter version.



Home and Family
First trip to collect sap from the maple trees
Now that we live in the Mid-South and my husband is on shore duty, I am taking the opportunity to travel with my kids to visit my family (just a two-day drive in the car each direction now) in Minnesota as much as we are able. As you may remember, we moved from the Pacific Northwest to western TN in the Mid-South of the U.S.A. in July 2018. One of my kids had a flare in a chronic health condition so we didn't travel until late March 2019, during spring break.

For our first "maple syrup March" we headed to the multi-generational family farm to assist (mostly watch and learn from) my uncle gather sap from the sugar bush (grove of maple trees). In summer we escaped the southern heat for a few weeks visiting family and then attended a family funeral.

Mayo Clinic books on Integrative Medicine
In fall we again were able to escape the autumn heat of the Mid-South during fall break where we squished in time with extended family in Rochester and the North Shore, including a wedding, and a quick visit with our integrative health colleagues at the Mayo Clinic. I received a copy of their latest (2017) Guide to Integrative Medicine: Conventional remedies meet alternative therapies to transform health by Brent A. Bauer, MD. I recently rediscovered one of the older copies that survived all the household moves (2007).

In early September my oldest was officially in remission (no more flare). Hooray! In late September my mom was hospitalized for anemia and later diagnosed with cancer. So this fall has been a rollercoaster of health issues with my family.


Review of the HH Project Work in 2019

Interview

May 2019 submission to The 2020 International Congress on Integrative Medicine and Health (ICIMH). At the encouragement of my hospital-based colleagues, I submitted a multi-day pre-conference idea for “Basics of Hospital-based Practice for Acupuncturists and their Hospital Admin.”

Late June 2019, I attended the 2019 Society of Acupuncture Research Conference in Burlington, Vermont
This conference experience was wonderful. I was able to cheer on my colleague, Lisa Taylor-Swanson, PhD, in presenting our work related to WA State Workers' Comp Pilot. I met up with many of my hospital-based practice colleagues and introduced more people to the Project community.
You can read more about the conference in the article I wrote for JASA and see notes, photos, citations of work from the conference, and how to join SAR in the Notes from the 2019 SAR Conference online module.
Gale, M. Report on the Society of Acupuncture Research International Conference. JASA: The Journal of the American Society of Acupuncturists: 2019 6(3): 32-34.
 
Screenshot. Go download the article!

July 2019—published two articles in the peer-reviewed journal, Journal of the American Society of Acupuncturists (JASA), formerly Meridians: Journal of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (JAOM)



"There are two objects of medical education: to heal the sick, and to advance the science...Medicine is both an art and a science, and both make appeal to the true physician." C.H. Mayo
October MN trip—visited the Mayo Clinic's integrative medicine team. See our Facebook Page for an album of photos from this trip, especially if you have never visited the Mayo Rochester complex. For more about the history and architecture of the Mayo Rochester health system, two useful resources are the Olmsted County History Center and the Mayo Clinic History website.
My favorite door to a hospital building.
Amazing artwork and symbolism of health in the community and the practice of medicine.
See more photos here.

Early October 2019—submitted two distinct session proposals to the Academic Consortium's 2020 conference, The 2020 International Congress on Integrative Medicine and Health (ICIMH) 
  1. “Hiring and Credentialing LAcs”
  2. “Reimbursement Issues”
December 2019: ICIMH 2020 session proposal accepted! 
Our session proposal on reimbursement issues & revenue streams was accepted! I will lead the session, “Reimbursement Issues and Revenue Streams for Hospital-based Programs and Organizations with Acupuncturists: Current Practices, Innovations and Issues” with Christine Kaiser, Timothy Suh, Annie Budhathoki, and Paul Magee.  We are scheduled to present Friday, May 1st, 2020 at the 2020 International Congress on Integrative Medicine and Health (ICIMH) in Cleveland, Ohio.🎉

Integrative Oncology—what does success look like in an integrative oncology program?
The survey closed in late October 2019. Submissions still being processed. Current public HH Project resource page on integrative oncology is Research Thursdays: Oncology

I haven’t compiled answers. I did, at the June 2019 SAR conference, present and submit questions to the hospital-based practice session on EHR templates and use at the June 2019 SAR conference.

Sept 2019 webinar: “Issues in Hospital-based Practice: Hospital Contracting” with Dr. Timothy Suh was done live. I have received permission to publish and share part of the recorded session. I will share this soon.

Review of 2018 HH Project Goals and How They Led Us to Our 2019 Work

The main HH Project goals in 2018 were to
  • maintain the space for the community in closed social media groups
  • post share-able information on the blog
  • start the HH Project Learning Opportunities Directory and
  • publish monthly general newsletters in 2018
  • finish beta-testing the membership site community space option

The goal with the creation of the membership site
The goal was to have an online community space that is not dependent on social media and it is accessible through online direct login and/or by email with updates and reminders available to be sent via email. This, the membership site, was a strong request from about 25-30% of the community who are opting out of social media and 50% who have social media accounts but prefer email communication.

The New HH Project Goal in 2018
The new HH Project goal in 2018 was to identify types of people using the HH Project resources and brainstorm ideas on how to best serve them. So, in 2019 I created the following "user-flow" outline and started the “specific resource generation” work

This Leads to the 2019 Project Goals

Maintain the Basics
So, in 2019, I continued to nurture the community discussion groups (mainly Facebook and membership site in 2019; LinkedIn has not been actively engaging), the blog, the website, and the monthly newsletters.

The New 2019 HH Project Goal: Create Resources Specific for Identified User-Types in Community
The new goal that started in 2019 was to create stand-alone starting resources for the following user-types identified in 2018.

  • The new hospital (LAc) employee (0-5 years practice)
    • Resource packets on the process of getting hired, what it is to be an employee in a hospital/healthcare system, and more resources identified by the community as needed for the practitioner 0-5 years into hospital-based practice
    • The resource is in the beta-testing process. The online resource is available for early purchase at a low rate to help support the project while still in the beta-testing phase
    • The article on this resource is here
    • Sign up for updates on this resource here
  • The established hospital employee (5+ years)
    • Ongoing resource
  • The lead acupuncturist or program manager
    • Ongoing resource
  • The hospital administrator
    • Ongoing resource

HH Project Resources that Grew Significantly in 2019 
The following online resources grew significantly in 2019:
  1. Membership site
    • More resources added each month
    • Lots of pdfs and more available by request
    • Access to some courses from the online school on a temporary or rotating basis, depending on community feedback.
    • Want to join the membership site? 
      • You are eligible if you work at a hospital or other types of facilities that are accredited by or eligible for accreditation by The Joint Commission, and you have a sponsor/mentor to the group. Just send me an email with some information about where you work and who your sponsor/mentor to the group is. If you don’t have a sponsor/mentor, contact me, and I will endeavor to connect you to a potential sponsor.
  2. Online school
  3. Website
  4. Coffee/Tea/Cocoa support

   4. The Blog
  • 40 new articles in 2019
  • Many of the previous 166 posts were revised or updated

Volunteer hours I averaged working on the HH Project in 2019: 
32 hours/week 


I hope you have found some part of this work helpful.

You can help shape future HH Project work by giving me your feedback by email:
  1. What did you enjoy most or find most helpful related to the HH Project this year?
  2. What would you like to see more of in 2020 and 2021?
  3. Tell me more about the ways you would prefer to support this community work.


Thank you.
Megan Kingsley Gale, MSAOM
Founder and Facilitator, The Hospital Practice Handbook Project for Acupuncturists and Their Hospital Sponsors

"Transformation doesn't just happen. It requires intentionality."
Matthew Kelly


www.thehospitalhandbook.com