The Jan 2023 Inpatient Acupuncture Conference, Submissions are Open

 Tuesday, Oct. 25th, 2022. Announcement: Now Accepting Submissions for the Jan 2023 Inpatient Acupuncture Conference.

The submission form is open until Nov. 15th. Send in ideas and program information via the conference form to be a presenter or panelist at the Jan. 2023 virtual conference. More information about the event is on the HHP event page here.

Safety Practices for LAcs: The Autumn 2022 Presentations from the HHP's Safety Practices Workgroup (Sept, Oct, Nov.)

HHP is the nonprofit collaborative learning network for healthcare system-based LAcs and program managers.

We are the home of the healthcare system-based acupuncturist community network

Help us keep the HHP's work going this year (2022) and into 2023.

Donate $10 (about 2 small cups of coffee) ☕☕today. Thank you.

Safety Practices for LAcs, a new set of resources from the HHP

Updates on this past year’s progress with the HHP’s Safety in Practice Workgroup

For the latest information on this workgroup and its work, from presentations to publications, go to these pages on the HHP's website:

Safety Practices for LAcs, an article getting updated with event info Sept - Nov 2022.

September public presentation, the event page.

October public presentation at the IM4US 2022 conference, "Speaking the Language of Safety in HROs for LAcs." The presentation landing page.

November 12th, 2022, "Introduction to Safety Practices for LAcs in Healthcare System Practice. For Acupuncturist clinicians, safety leads, and program managers." public presentation, the event page.

The Hospital Handbook Project for Acupuncturists and Their Hospital Sponsors is a program of Free Range Health®, a 501(c)(3) public charity. All or part of your donation may be tax-deductible as a charitable contribution. Please consult with your tax advisor. Federal Tax ID #45-4395933

QA/QI Resource: New IHI Report, "Safer Together: A National Action Plan to Advance Patient Safety"

keywords: quality assurance (QA) standards, quality improvement (QI), program leads and program managers, leadership and workplace, metrics

topics: QA/QI and workplace safety and patient safety, the latest standards on patient and workplace safety from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) 

www.thehospitalhandbook.com

Why is this important or what is the practical application of this?

• This is a useful resource for those of you who are updating your quality improvement (QI) processes or serve on quality assurance committees
• This is useful for those of you who work as program leads or program managers
• This sets a standard for patient safety and workplace safety in the healthcare setting

 

What is this, specifically? What is the reference or resource?

This is an announcement about a new Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) report, Safer Together: A National Action Plan to Advance Patient Safety

This report, “provides clear direction that health care leaders, delivery organizations, and associations can use to make significant advances toward safer care and reduced harm across the continuum of care.”

“The report harnesses the knowledge and insights of the National Steering Committee for Patient Safety (NSC) members, including influential federal agencies, leading health care organizations, patient and family advisors, and respected industry experts, into a set of actionable and effective recommendations to advance patient safety.”

“The National Action Plan centers on four foundational and interdependent areas, prioritized as essential to create total systems safety. The recommendations in these four areas build on the substantial body of experience, evidence, and lessons learned that the NSC has gathered and will test and implement together to allow for future refinements as our understanding, experience, and evidence evolve over time.”

The National Action Plan has a list of 17 recommendations “to advance patient safety”. These recommendations fall into the following sub-categories:

1. Culture, leadership, and governance
2. Patient and family engagement
3. Workforce safety
4. Learning system

Read this report and its supporting materials on this IHI webpage.

 

Related HHP Resources

• For more about our HHP recommended resources on leadership, quality assurance issues specific to hospital-based practice, and program lead/program manager resources, send me a message via the website (for specific recommendations). 
• Or you may browse this blog with the search terms "workplace", "leadership", "quality assurance", and/or "program lead". 

 

If you found this content useful or insightful, please support this community work. You can support with cups of virtual coffee, sponsor a newsletter, or sponsor a project via the website.

www.thehospitalhandbook.com

 

A Review of the Hospital Practice Handbook Project's Community Discussions on Pandemic Prep & Response

keywords and topics: community discussions, COVID-19 pandemic, integrative health programs, acupuncturists in hospital-based practice, telehealth in hospital-based acupuncture programs, what does tiered re-opening look like for outpatient integrative health programs?

www.thehospitalhandbook.com

The HHP-hosted Community Discussions on Pandemic Prep & Response, a review of the work & resources so far

This video is a review of my past 3 months of work supporting the hospital-based acupuncture community with community discussion space to share ideas, concerns, and issues on the pandemic prep & response.

Included in this video:

·        How you can support this community-building work 

·        How to access the resource content created

·        How you can join in future discussions

·        Review of the work so far

·        Short review of resources for the two currently most common topics

o   telehealth and

o   what does tiered re-opening look like?

·        Announcing the future telehealth roundtable panel:

o   how to participate, submit questions, and space for sponsorships

send me a message at https://www.thehospitalhandbook.com/contact-1

What is "hospital-based practice"?

I define this as working at a facility or organization that is accredited by or eligible for accreditation by The Joint Commission. This includes FQHCs, some county clinics and hospitals, and hospice.

The Hospital Practice Handbook Project has multiple platforms (website, blog, and social media page & closed discussion groups) to connect hospital practice East Asian Medicine Practitioners (Acupuncturists) with each other (living resources) and to published resources. Learn more about this community resource project at http://www.thehospitalhandbook.com/

How to participate in the virtual community discussions

1. First, you must be a hospital-based acupuncturist or a program manager of hospital-based acupuncturists.
• see definition above for "what is "hospital-based practice"
2. Then, contact me via the website about your interest, where you work, and how you heard about this work.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

• This work sounds valuable, how can I support it? I am not a hospital-based acupuncturist.
• You can directly support the community discussions via this link on our website.
• I am interested in this content as a clinician. However, I am not a hospital-based acupuncturist. How can I support this work and get access to the content?
• As a clinician, the best way to support this work while also getting access to the content is to sign up for the "Issues in Hospital-based Practice webinar series"
• I am a philanthropist or I work with a philanthropic organization or school. I am interested in this work. How may I learn more about it? 
• For a list of our current projects to peruse, go to this webpage.
• For information beyond that, please contact me via the website contact page. :)
• I am a hospital-based acupuncturist or program manager of hospital-based acupuncturists. I am not able to attend all the sessions due to my schedule. How may I access the content?
• Access to just the online resource module for the Community Discussions on Pandemic Prep & Response
• Or,
• Access the "Issues in Hospital-based Practice webinar series" 
• this includes the "Community Discussions on Pandemic Prep & Response" module
• AND, please contact us so we can connect you to ongoing resources and discussions in your field of work.

More resources

• Our Vision Statement
• Our email newsletter
• Our website
• How to support this community resource work
• more options here
• Our public Facebook page
• our Facebook videos
• Our YouTube Channel
• curated playlists of interest include
• Our projects
• telehealth learning
• COVID 19 prep & response resource
• Basics of Being an Employee in a Mid to Large Healthcare System
• Breathing practice (for self-care)

www.thehospitalhandbook.com

Embedding Social Determinants Into Healthcare: A Resource Review for the Community

keywords and phrases:
Health equity, biopsychosocial model, integrated healthcare, social determinants of health (SDOH), data, telehealth, technology, electronic health record (EHR), interprofessional work, leadership and workplace, precision healthcare, reimbursement, health policy, public health, Lunchtime Listen recommendation

Resource Review: CHC’s interview on Embedding Social Determinants Into Healthcare System Process

Guest post by Steven Mui, MSOM, CAc

Resource reviewed: CHC Radio episode

Source

Resource reviewed for this post was the podcast episode, “Addressing Upstream Causes of Poor Health: UCSF’s Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo on Embedding Social Determinants Into Healthcare” from the ongoing podcast Conversations on Healthcare®, published October 7^th, 2019. 

An audio recording of this episode is about 25 minutes and available at this link.

For video, audio, and more information from the episode, go to this link. 

  

Target audience: Hospital-based acupuncturists, social workers, community health workers, healthcare system leadership, those interested in research

Review

Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, Chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California at San Francisco discussed a report from the National Academy of Sciences on ways to incorporate social care into health care. She shared examples of what shifts are occurring in the American health system in managing upstream causes of disease. These upstream determinants include where we live and work and what we eat. She also shared how healthcare organizations can integrate and what components are needed to make it a reality.

Dr. Bibbins-Domingo identified two activities that must happen within a healthcare system to address social determinants of health: direct assistance to patients (i.e. vouchers for transportation and implementing telehealth options) and partnering with community organizations in alignment and advocacy to create policy. There was more emphasis on involving the community partners and participating in community-based settings as the key to success in these endeavors.

From a leadership standpoint, they must ensure that their interprofessional teams include experts in addressing social needs (i.e. social workers, community health workers, gerontologies), valuing what those areas of healthcare offered to the whole picture of health for the patient. All team members should be at least aware of the social determinants of health even if they are not directly treating that cause. Leaders should see the value in this type of focused care coordination for populations with complex co-morbidities.

When asked about major trends, Dr. Bibbins-Domingo spoke about a shift of reimbursement based on volume to value. This has forced healthcare systems to rethink their approach to these complex diseases and put the focus on the social factors of health. The other major trend is treating the adolescent population at high risk for disease by treating risk factors before the disease has a chance to take hold. As a researcher, Dr. Bibbins-Domingo also emphasized the importance of data in the efficacy of population health initiatives. She spoke about the need for diverse data in shaping healthcare strategies and providing new insights for population health. “Insights in biology comes from understanding the heterogeneity that exists in our population”, she said. These insights can then be used to create evidence-based policy by working with policymakers.

She finished the interview with a vision of more healthcare students who would be equally interested in research.

Keep building bridges!
photo credit Megan Kingsley Gale

This is important to hospital-based acupuncturists because…

Hospital-based acupuncturists can use this language when building relationships with other departments and specialties. Our medicine is grounded in the biopsychosocial approach to health and a significant portion of our patient population has complex co-morbidities. We can expand our roles out of the strictly “acupuncturist”, [we also teach self-care tools, such as] tai chi, qi gong, meditation, etc. To the teams we work with, I believe that we [have much to] offer.

Thank you to hospital-based practice colleague Steven Mui, MSOM, CAc for this resource review!

Related reading

• NAM paper, a consensus report, “Integrating Social Care into the Delivery of Health Care: Moving Upstream to Improve the Nation’s Health” 
• On the connection of EAM (acupuncture) practice and how it positively affects patients' social determinants of health, read Dr. Fujio McPherson’s published research on how the principles of EAM influence patient self-awareness and then affects a patient's health behavior, which, in turn, affects SDOH at this citation:
• McPherson F, Melvin KC, Belew DL, McGraw LK (2016) Health Perception and Wellness Behavior Survey among Military Beneficiaries. Ann Psychiatry Ment Health 4(2): 1060.

National Academy of Medicine

More Blog posts related to Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) 

• The CHRONIC Care Act
• Potential Health Policy: The Rural Health Agenda
• Autumn Health Policy News

Did you find this information useful or interesting?
Subscribe to our email list for the latest updates and follow us on the public Facebook Page.

www.thehospitalhandbook.com

Survey: Preparing for a Joint Commission Visit

keywords and phrases: hospital-based acupuncturists, community surveys, wisdom-share, quality assurance, federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), preparing for a Joint Commission visit, resources for learning more about The Joint Commission

www.thehospitalhandbook.com

Community Survey this Season: 

Preparing for a Joint Commission Visit

For all acupuncturists working at a Joint Commission-accredited facility (or facility eligible for TJC accreditation) and their hospital sponsors (admin)

TJC = The Joint Commission, a non-profit accrediting body for healthcare facilities that focuses on safety and quality assurance measures.

Please share the survey link with colleagues who can add their wisdom.

Survey Link

Suspense Date: OPEN
Since we go through several rounds of this every year, I decided it is time I write something on this subject for the community. As of Jan 2020, the plan is to keep this survey open and compile responses every 6 months or as time & opportunity allow.

Goal: Learn about the community's current questions and concerns about preparing for a Joint Commission visit. Share your "lessons learned" for a Joint Commission visit. Share any standard operating procedures (SOPs) or other advice that was helpful to you in preparing for a Joint Commission visit. Share any other advice or questions you have on this subject. Continue the discussion in the community on this topic.

How will this info be used?

1. Continue the discussion in the community about the topic
2. When enough information gathered, will create a summary document(s) available to the discussion community and a public blog post summary via the blog 
3. Follow up interview potential about specific programs for those interested in participating, part of the "issues in hospital practice" community webinar/interview series. For more about this special Project series, go here.  
4. I will have the survey open through the holidays with a suspense date of 1.1.2020. I will compile responses received up to that time period. However, I can keep the survey open or re-open in the future and then compile notes received about every 6 months for the community. *Waiting to hear in this first round of information what the community would like as a resource.*

The survey link 

Why this survey

• In the U.S., every hospital-based acupuncturist will come across The Joint Commission preparation and visit. And so will every acupuncturist who works in a Joint Commission accredited facility, including FQHC community health clinics. In an ideal situation, you had an awesome program manager/hospital admin who set up the whole program, from position description to credentialing to SOPs, to fly with sailing colors of quality assurance through the TJC process. And, that person has kept everyone up to par on all the quality assurance measures to stay compliant. However, that is an ideal situation. Many acupuncturists are new employees and might be encountering TJC prep rounds for the first time. This is an opportunity to connect with your community to wisdom-share with those who have set up programs, those in the process of setting up programs, and those who love the Metal Element of quality assurance. Because we need our Metal colleagues and their talents to round out all of us. When it comes to TJC visits, they shine. :) 
• The Hospital Handbook Project is about connecting people to each other and sharing wisdom. This is an important topic for us to start a more structured discussion on. I am looking forward to your feedback. 
• However, the Project is not a substitute for finding mentors in your own facility. The Project can connect you virtually with others dealing with the same or very similar issues and their solutions. For more about how much we value mentor-relationship building, please see the First Steps resources, available on the website.
• Get Your Foot in the Door of Hospital-Based Practice: First Steps For the Acupuncturist or Integrative Health Student
• Workbook Companion to First Steps--highly recommend this. It walks you through how to implement the advice given in the booklet. All proceeds from sales on the website go directly toward off-setting basic operating costs of running the HH Project.

So, without further ado! Would you fill out this survey to share your questions or wisdom?

Thank you. 🏥🦋🙂☕️

If you are a student or practitioner in the field and are interested in connecting to mentors or programs,

1. First, check out our Hospital-based Practice Learning Opportunities Directory.
2. Then, if the options in the directory don't fit your needs, you can contact me via the website with your query. 
3. For free and low-cost resources already available for prospective hospital-based practitioners, go to the First Steps resources at our website, stay connected to this blog, and sign up for the email list.  
4. For the New Hospital Employee, here is a new resource landing page for you.
5. The current resource landing page for the Program Lead and Hospital Sponsor is here.
6. Welcome to the community!

Blog posts related to The Joint Commission and Acupuncturists 

• Gale M, Hospital Practice: Recognition of Acupuncturist as a Licensed Independent Practitioner (LIP). Meridians: JAOM, 2016 3(4): 11-16, 41.  This is a public access article available in electronic and print format at the journal's website. The journal is Journal of the American Association of Acupuncturists (JASA), formerly Meridians: Journal of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine.
• Credentialing and Privileging: Joint Commission references
• Peer Record Review
• The Joint Commission Pain Management Clarification Statement--a step forward for integrative health access in pain management for patients
• The Joint Commission: Understanding FPPE and OPPE processes
• The BLS Occupational Code for Acupuncturists is published! What it means for credentialing, privileging, and TJC processes

All blog posts are also available as pdfs for about the cost of taking me for coffee ☕. Just send me a message via the website contact page with which blog post(s) you would like in pdf form.


Other Community Survey Blogposts

• Community Survey: What Does Success Look Like in Integrative Oncology
• Community Survey: EHR use

Did you find this information useful or interesting?
Subscribe to our email list for the latest updates and follow us
for "Leadership and Workplace Mondays" on the public Facebook Page.

You can support this community-wisdom-sharing work by buying me a coffee or sponsoring a newsletter via our website.  Thank you.

If you are interested in a pdf copy of an article/post on this blog,
send me a message via the website with which post you are interested in.
A pdf copy is available for about the cost of a cup of coffee. ☕ All proceeds from the website go directly toward helping offset the basic operating costs of The Hospital Handbook Project. Thank you.

www.thehospitalhandbook.com

Resources for The New Hospital Employee (Acupuncturist)

keywords: hospital-based practice, hospital-based acupuncture practice, employment in a hospital or other medium to large healthcare organization, employee, new employee, hospital practice 0-5 years, lead acupuncturist, program lead

https://blog01.thehospitalhandbook.com/

Are you a new hospital employee with a background and degree in integrative health as an acupuncturist/east Asian medicine practitioner?

It's a big world and getting connected to other hospital-based practitioners in your field is essential to help you avoid repeating their mistakes, avoid re-inventing the wheel, and having that connection to the community to help you grow in your professional practice.

Have you already read and downloaded our beginner hospital practice resource, the First Steps resources?

• Get Your Foot in the Door of Hospital-Based Practice: First Steps for the Acupuncturist or Integrative Health Student Interested in Hospital Practice (booklet)
• First Steps Companion Workbook

If so, then you are probably looking for the next practical boots-on-the-ground guide, the New Hospital Employee resource.

Who is the New Hospital Employee resource for?
The New Hospital Employee resource is for acupuncturists just getting hired into hospital practice and employees within their first 5 years at a hospital or related organized healthcare system. It is also recommended as a background resource for any acupuncturists in a leadership position (lead acupuncturist, program lead, or department head) at a hospital or healthcare system.

This resource is a work in progress and I am re-organizing the content in fall and winter 2019. To be notified when the consolidated resource is published, sign up on this form for the email newsletter.

What you can do while you are waiting for the publication
Many of the resources are already available on the blog, website, and community. They are just not consolidated in one location yet.
So, to access the content you may need now:

1. Sign up to the newsletter through this landing page
2. Read the First Steps resources--the New Employee resource will assume you have already had that information and will just build upon it.
3. Connect to the community via social media here
4. Subscribe and follow the blog and the website
   • At the blog, use the search feature to find blog posts related to issues as a new employee, including these terms and tags: credentialing, teamwork, leadership, employee, research literacy, and the "leadership and workplace Monday" series.
   • I also recommend the upcoming interview series with Sondra Abanto, MBA, "Basics of Being an Employee in a Healthcare System: Focus on Performance Management"
5. If you don't find what you need on the blog and website, please contact me with your query via the website contact page and I will endeavor to help.

Review
So, if you want to pre-order it the New Hospital Employee resource, please sign up here, through this form, and I will send you a notice when the resource packet is published.

In the meantime, keep an eye on the blog, website, and newsletters for posts and articles tagged with "teamwork", "leadership", "employee", "research literacy", and the "leadership and workplace Monday" series.

Welcome to the Hospital Practice Handbook Project community!
Megan Kingsley Gale, MSAOM
Founder and Facilitator, The Hospital-based Practice Handbook Project for Acupuncturists and Their Hospital Sponsors (Admin)

Related Blogposts

• Get Your Foot in the Door of Hospital Practice series
• Basics of Being an Employee in a Healthcare System
• Research Literacy and Practical Applications for the Hospital-based Practitioner
• Credentialing: The Acupuncturist's Standard Occupational Code (SOC)
• The Sponsor Issue
• The Hospital Administrator
• The Hospital-based Learning Opportunities Directory
• Lunchtime Listen Recommendations page
• Gift Ideas: books/audiobooks, Yeti thermos, RFID-blocking wallets
• Leadership and Workplace Mondays series

Did you find this information useful or interesting?
You can request a pdf copy of this blogpost via the website for the cost of a cup of coffee. All proceeds go toward basic operating costs to keep this HH Project work going. Thank you.

Subscribe to our email list for the latest updates and follow us on the public Facebook Page.

You can support this community-wisdom-sharing work:
 buy me a coffee or sponsor a small Project via our website.  Thank you.

www.thehospitalhandbook.com

The Hospital Practice Handbook Project Resource: For Students, Prospective Practitioners, the New Hospital Employee, and the Current Hospital-based Acupuncturist

keywords: resource landing page (a work-in-progress), students, acupuncturists

www.thehospitalhandbook.com

Resources for Students and Prospective Hospital-based Practice Practitioners

• We finished the “prospective practitioner or student-interested- in-Hospital-practice” resource set in spring 2019 and you can order your copy of these resources at the website:
• Get Your Foot in the Door of Hospital-Based Practice: First Steps for the Acupuncturist or Integrative Health Student
• Workbook Companion, a resource with exercises to guide you through the “First Steps” outlined in the booklet.

Resources for the New Hospital Employee

• I have been beta-testing the reorganized resource for new employees (new hires to hospital practice) since spring. Here is the link for more info. 
• In the meantime, if you are new hire into hospital-based practice and don’t have several hospital-based practice mentors, please contact me via the website and I will endeavor to get you connected to some resources.
• Interview Series: Basics of Being an Employee in a Healthcare System: Focus on Performance Management
• I finished recording this interview series with Sondra Abanto, MBA, this spring. The next step is to work with a video editor.
• We are open to sponsors to help cover the costs of editing video and creating print and electronic resources for this series. If you know someone or a business or organization that may be interested in sponsoring or co-sponsoring an episode or the series, please share this post with them. Thank you!

Current Hospital-Based Acupuncturists and Their Hospital Sponsors

• The resources for current hospital practitioners include information on:
• the website
• the blog, and the closed discussion groups. 
• Resources on the blog include:
• The Hospital Practice Learning Opportunities Directory
• The Lunchtime Listen recommendations page. This is a growing list of audio or audiovisual resources recommended for integrative health practitioners in a hospital-based practice. 
• The blog has many more resources that are read-only
• If you are a current hospital-based acupuncturist and have not connected to these resources yet, contact me with your request, where you work, why you want to connect, and who your sponsor/mentor connection to the group is. If you don’t have a sponsor/mentor, let me know and I can work on connecting you to one.
• Tags in the blog that might interest you include
• leadership and workplace
• research literacy
• From the Gift Ideas page, you may find these categories interesting:
• Integrative Medicine: The Philanthropic Movement into Mainstream Medicine
• Reflecting on Leadership
• The Hospital Sponsor/Hospital Administrator
• The Researcher
• Gift ideas for the hospital-based practitioner

Did you find this information useful or interesting?
You can request a pdf copy of this blogpost via the website for the cost of a cup of coffee. All proceeds go toward basic operating costs to keep this HH Project work going. Thank you.

Subscribe to our email list for the latest updates and follow us
 on the public Facebook Page.

You can support this community-wisdom-sharing work by buying me a coffee or sponsoring a newsletter via our website.  Thank you.

www.thehospitalhandbook.com

More Documentation and Coding Resources

keywords: documentation, charting, coding, CPT, E/M, and modifiers, licensed acupuncturist, east Asian medicine practitioners, integrative health

Here are some new resources for reviewing documentation and coding standards in the profession

Documentation and Coding Review Video with Sam Collins, DC of the American Acupuncture Council Information Network, dated May 15th, 2019:

• Link to YouTube Video (14 minutes):

Coding and Use of Modifiers with Evaluation and Management (E/M) codes

• Article by Sam Collins, DC in the May 2019 edition of Acupuncture Today, volume 20, issue 05.  "The Most Common Modifier for Acupuncture Claims".
• Summary of content: 
• An insurance company can deny a claim if you do not code your work to their standard. The common denial issue he discusses in this issue is choosing and using the correct modifier with your E/M code.
• Types of modifiers he covers in this article include: level 1 modifiers, modifier 25, and modifier 59.  There is also the special case GP modifier that is common in the VHA program that covers acupuncture services by some vetted community providers, "Veterans Choice".
• source: article by Sam Collins, DC in the May 2019 edition of Acupuncture Today, volume 20, issue 05.  "The Most Common Modifier for Acupuncture Claims". Link to the digital edition of this article. And the webpage version of the article on Acupuncture Today.

Related Blogposts on Documentation include

• Peer Record Review
• Physical Exam Training for Acupuncturists
• Prescribing in the Hospital Setting: pharmaceuticals, medication review, nutraceuticals, self-care
• The Medication Review and Calculating Morphine Equivalent Dose
• Professional Practice: Discerning Medication Side Effects from Symptoms and Signs
• The Pain Scale in Your Chart Note: Using a Validated Tool
• From the NAM Clinician Well-Being Series, see their resource, Care-Centered Documentation in the Digital (EHR) Environment: Solutions to Alleviate Burnout
• The EHR use Community Survey and SAR 2019 conference prequel
• HIPAA
• Acupuncturists are healthcare professionals, Licensed Independent Practitioners
• Gale M, Hospital Practice: Recognition of Acupuncturist as a Licensed Independent Practitioner (LIP). Meridians: JAOM, 2016 3(4): 11-16, 41. open access article.

Did you find this information useful or interesting?
You can request a pdf copy of this blogpost via the website for the cost of a cup of coffee. All proceeds go toward basic operating costs to keep this HH Project work going. Thank you.

Subscribe to our email list for the latest updates and follow us
 on the public Facebook Page.

You can support this community-wisdom-sharing work by
 buying me a coffee or sponsoring a newsletter via our website.  Thank you.

www.thehospitalhandbook.com

Basics of Being an Employee in a Healthcare System: Focus on Performance Management, a Wisdom-Share Series with Sondra Abanto, MBA

keywords and phrases: hospital employee, being an employee, basics of being a health care professional in a U.S. health care system, clinician employee, employee acupuncturist, integrative health employee, basics of performance management for the professional health care employee; interview series, special topic; milspouses Megan and Sondra share wisdom for the integrative health community :)

Wisdom-Share Interview Series with Sondra Abanto, MBA

https://mailchi.mp/461201343930/wisdomsharesondra

updated February 2020

This interview series is coming to you from the corner of Courage and Commitment.  After 5 years of military PCS moves, our (Sondra and Megan's) worlds are overlapping again.  So, let's take advantage of it!

This is a relaxed interview series where Megan interviews Sondra about the basics of what to expect when you are an employee in a medium to large organization, with emphasis on health care organizations and asides about working as an integrative health care clinician within the system.  We talk about what to expect in an ideal situation from parameters to resources.

This is a series of interviews we (Megan and Sondra) recorded in winter and spring 2019 where Sondra covers the following topics related to performance management:

1. employee orientation process basics (onboarding) (video published 2.5.2020)
2. performance plans (video published 2.12.2020)
3. cultivating mentor relationships and career path mapping (video published 2.20.2020)
4. team communication

This series is intended for the acupuncturist or related integrative health care professional working (or interested in working) in hospital-based practice in the U.S., whether the civilian sector or the federal sector of employment.  However, we go over basics that apply to any health care professional employee in the system. This is also a good introduction to this type of work to a professional healthcare student.

Sondra Abanto, MBA, program analyst, has significant experience in both civilian and federal sectors on program and performance management (metrics) who has also trained as an MSA (acupuncture) student.

As of summer 2019, the sessions have finished recording and will be going to the video editor. If you are interested in this interview series, sign up on the landing page email list and you'll be notified when the recordings and related materials are published. Go here to sign up.

As of February 5th, 2020, the playlist for these videos is here. They will each be uploaded and published to this list after they have finished their video edits.

Access all the content from this series, as it becomes available, including the download-able pdf(s) at the online course.

Sponsorship (updated February 2020)
We are still looking for sponsors for this series, if you or your organization is interested in sponsorship, you can sponsor an episode today. If you are interested in sponsoring the entire series as a silver, gold, or platinum sponsor, contact via the website contact page very soon as we would like to start publishing these episodes in early 2020.

Sponsorship helps with the following: out of pocket costs for video editing and hosting and making these sessions publicly available.

You can also provide feedback on the series and what you would like to see more of at the website contact page.

Sponsors of This Interview Series

Episode 1: "What to Expect in the Employee Orientation Process (on-boarding) as  Professional Healthcare Clinician", published 2.5.2020

is sponsored by 

Sandro Graca, Lic. TCM, FABORM

www.evidencebasedacupuncture.org 

Thank you, Sandro!

www.evidencebasedacupuncture.org

Episodes 2-6 are still available for sponsorship, for those of you interested! Go here to learn more or sponsor directly.

Access all the content from this series, as it becomes available, including the download-able pdf(s) at the online course.

Interested in a Different HH Project Interview or Webinar Series?
As of December 2019, there are other interview series that need sponsorship to get off the ground in 2020, including Issues in Hospital Practice, How Do You Change Healthcare Policy? The WA Workers' Comp Process Story, and the Paths to Practice/Pioneer Perspectives series. Learn more about them and how you can help get them off the ground at our website. Thank you.

I am looking forward to hearing from you!
Megan Kingsley Gale, MSAOM
Founder and Facilitator of The Hospital Practice Handbook Project for Acupuncturists and their Hospital Sponsors

https://www.thehospitalhandbook.com/sponsorscontributors

Resource: The Teaching Kitchen Collaborative (TKC) and Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives

www.tkcollaborative.org

key concepts:  improving public health through whole systems nutrition, patient-centered care, Traditional East Asian Medicine paradigm of wellness, incorporating integrative health paradigms into modern health care system practices, teaching cooking skills to improve health, teaching patients self-care, modifying determinants of health through changing individual behavior around eating & cooking..nutrition

keywords: mind-body medicine, integrative health, community health and wellness,  learning nutrition for health, Teaching Kitchen Collaborative (TKC), Healthy Kitchens Healthy Lives® conference
TCM = Traditional Chinese Medicine
NCCAOM® = National Certification Commission on Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine
HKHL = Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives®

“If a patient has a chronic condition, first modify diet and lifestyle, then add medicine”.  –paraphrase, inspired by Sun Si Miao

In East Asian Medicine, we know that, for best long-term self-care and health maintenance, we prescribe patients foods to incorporate in their diet.  Why? To manage their conditions and support their constitution.  For example, individualized TCM nutrition consults were a self-care session I would do with my chronic pain patients when they were interested in learning more about food as a basic support system for health.  As a board-certified TCM herbalist (NCCAOM®-board certification), it took me time to research and put their personalized plan together.  And, for a patient, modifying diet takes courage and commitment and follow up.

There is a new resource for helping patients learn and practice cooking healthy meals coming to a neighborhood medical facility or academic center near you, the "Teaching Kitchens".  Well, maybe not so new.  Several of these teaching kitchens have been around for a decade, but the hope is, that with the collaborative now helping stand-alone centers connect to more resources, that the movement will grow and expand.

What is this new resource for providers and patients?
The Teaching Kitchen Collaborative

Twenty years ago, Dr. David Eisenberg noticed that few health professionals understood the science of nutrition and most of them knew even less on how to cook healthy meals for themselves, let alone teach such skills to their patients.  So, he worked with a team (Harvard School of Public Health and the Culinary Institute of America) to create an annual conference for health care professionals to bring together physicians, dietitians, nurses, allied health professionals, hospital administrators, and culinary specialists together, the Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives® conference, the first of which was in 2006 [Eisenburg, JACM, July 2018],

Dr. Eisenberg was an early advocate of the integrative health paradigm and, from the enthusiasm and success of the Healthy Kitchens Healthy Lives® conference, launched The Teaching Kitchen Collaborative (TKC). 

The resource-sharing collective that the TKC can be, has the potential to encourage academic health institutions to recognize that nutrition and lifestyle change is a viable part of the treatment plan.

TKC is a "data-driven, taste-driven, whole system, experiential ... transformation campaign to put food, nutrition, and lifestyle front and center, in transitioning our medical industry toward ... a health care system."  [Eisenburg, JACM, July 2018]

TKC launched in 2016 by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health-Department of Nutrition and The Culinary Institute of America (CIA).  The TKC "is an invitational network of over 30 organizations using teaching kitchen facilities as catalysts of enhanced personal and public health.  The TKC's mission is to enable early adopters to learn about one another's facilities and educational programs, to develop best practices for reproducing and scaling emerging models, and to document the clinical, behavioral, and financial impact of teaching kitchens for a broad range of populations."

Individual Teaching Kitchens include:

• The Cleveland Clinic Center for Lifestyle Medicine
• Maine General Health
• Kaiser Permanente San Francisco Medical Center 
• Turner Farm with University of Cincinnati Center for Integrative Health and Wellness
• University of Michigan's MHealthy 
• University of Minnesota's Center for Spirituality and Healing 
• Vanderbilt University Medical Center's Osher Center for Integrative Medicine and Center for Biomedical Ethics 
• The Sampson Family Branch of YMCA Greater Pittsburgh
• Google
• member list landing page

The Teaching Kitchen Collaborative is a movement to connect teaching kitchens to each other.  Because a Teaching Kitchen can, potentially, be a "catalyst of enhanced personal and public health across medical, corporate, school, and community settings.”

The TKC regularly hosts research days or other opportunities to share your program’s story, progress, and research.  If you are already doing this work, the TKC seems like a great way to share what you are doing and be connected to others doing similar work.  It seems like it would be a good place to support each other while changing the U.S. culture of health, wellness, and “food as grounding for health”.

Why join the TKC?
For all the reasons, watch the video below.  Here are some useful quotes from the video:

from long-term research studies:

“We've learned that healthy dietary choices have a huge impact on the number of years that we live and how we feel during those years that we're alive and the teaching kitchen collaborative is a way to translate what we've learned into the… meals that people can have available and enjoy.” minute 0:11 Walter C. Willett, MD, DrPH

On benefits of being a member: 

"tap into the expertise of all the other members on things like outcomes based research” minute 3:27   

“It's just been fabulous hearing from all the other members, the discussions, the collaborations, and opportunities that we have going forward to work as teams and across institutions all over the country” minute 03:32

“The benefit from being part of the collaborative is [it] helps… resource good information.  So, I see it as it’s not just a network of people collaborating together,  but… it will … be a rich database…to access…the research...  It is a network, too, so the ability to develop relationships with people around the country--for that matter around the world--is an opportunity that I think we couldn’t have gotten anywhere else.” Lori Knutson, RN minute 4.56

TKC kitchens are places/groups 

“who are using kitchens as catalysts of personal and societal health enhancement.  [Teaching kitchens are] the vehicle to teach people about food, nutrition, and new habits.” minute 00:31 

A teaching kitchen is “a platform to really acknowledge the crucial role of nutrition and dietary information in the entire whole look at a person's lifestyle choices and wellness” minute 01:40

“[Teaching] kitchens, when used appropriately for different populations in different settings, will change behaviors for the better…will change health outcomes for the better…will be sustained changes."  

"And ultimately we hope to prove that they will change [lower overall population healthcare] costs either by preventing chronic disease [or by] bringing people with chronic disease portfolios back to a healthier state.” David Eisenberg, MD  minute 4.19

“So I think the capacity for multi-site research trials around food and mindful living and exercise and movement is enormous to be able to scale up as opposed to a one kitchen .”  [TKC has] “the capacity to reach so many more kids and families.  The capacity to prevent cardiovascular disease…prevent diabetes and hypertension…prevent the major chronic conditions that we know are very heavily influenced by lifestyle… the capacity as a collective group is enormous.” Sian Cotton, PhD minute 5.16

“But the goal is to show that we can build reproducible teaching kitchens that will change our society for the better on the individual basis and across populations.  And that we will also save money while doing that.” David Eisenberg, MD minute 5.48

The conference for the TKC, the Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives conference, is next week, February 6-8^th, 2019

Is your program or hospital system connected to this resource? 

Sources

• the opening presentation for the research day and abstracts:
• David M. Eisenburg.  The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.  Jul 2018.  http://doi.org/10.1089/acm_2018.29052.dme.  volume: 24 Issue 7:  July 1, 2018.
• The Teaching Kitchen Collaborate
• video is https://youtu.be/rMAy5SBsCBE
• website: http://www.tkcollaborative.org/ 
• Overview of the TKC  
• The Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives conference, annual 
• “A leadership conference bridging nutrition science, healthcare, and the culinary arts”
• http://www.healthykitchens.org/
• PBS NewsHour 8 minute video 
• The 2018 TKC Research Day Abstracts
• The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.  Volume 24, no. 7. Teaching Kitchen Collaborative Research Day Abstracts.  The Estate Yountville, Napa Valley, CA, USA. February 7^th, 2018
• “A day of original research and innovative strategies involving teaching kitchens and their potential to positively impact behaviors, improve health outcomes, and reduce costs.”
• Published online 1 Jul 2018
• Citation:  The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.  Jul 2018. Ahead of print. Published in volume: 24 issue 7:  July 1, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1089/acm.2018.29049.abstracts

Related blogposts  

• Nutrition for health with your family, reading recommendations
• Blue Zones, nutrition, and community philanthropy

More on Teaching Kitchens (added October 2019)

• How to Set Up Your Own Teaching Kitchen (a guide from TKC)
• The 2020 Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives conference landing page
• The TKC research page and their blog
• Boston Medical Center's Teaching Kitchen example is supported by philanthropy, has free classes, a variety of classes to meet unique populations, a preventive food pantry, and a rooftop farm!
• video of Teaching Kitchen: https://youtu.be/gGMcl3sa--0 
• video of the rooftop farm and how it connects to their Teaching Kitchen and the hospital's nutrition services: https://youtu.be/1bM-V_ySC_w

• 🥕🥗

If you enjoyed this post, subscribe to our email list for the latest updates and follow us for "research and metrics Thursdays" on the public Facebook Page.

You can support this community-wisdom-sharing work by buying me a coffee or sponsoring a newsletter via our website.  Thank you.

www.thehospitalhandbook.com