The Society of Hospital and Healthcare System-based Acupuncturists and The Hospital Handbook Project®

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Creating a Resource for Workers' Comp Pilot Participants

Megan Gale

The Pilot ended (October 2019). It was successful.

If you an LAc treating WA state workers’ comp cases, contact WAEMA and support their practitioner-centered work.

To register for the program and get the latest program details, contact WA State L&I acupuncture program lead, Zachary Gray, MPH, and team.

keywords:  projects, resources, workers' comp, return-to-work model, documentation standards

For the last few months, I have been creating a Documentation Toolkit as a resource for my fellow WA state EAMP colleagues.  This is intended as a supplement resource for practitioners enrolled in the new WA State L&I Acupuncture Pilot.  It is a work-in-progress and I will link to the course when it is more refined.

However, there are some outgoing expenses for the worker's comp Practitioner resource.  If you are interested in supporting this specific project, you can donate to WEAMA, the nonprofit state professional organization that has been spearheading this work for the last 5+ years.  To donate, please go to the WEAMA webpage and tag "for Megan's L&I Resource" in the comments section of your online donation.  Donations to WEAMA are tax-deductible.

Here is the update I posted on another page:

Happy Autumn!  Our family is still here in the Pacific Northwest.  Military family life is about "making plans and then making plans again and then going back to plan A or C" someone probably once said.

We are enjoying the cool weather and the transition back to school for my oldest. 

In my last post, I mentioned my volunteer professional work with creating supportive materials for L&I Pilot Project participants was taking up a significant portion of my time.  The work has continued and hope to unveil the link to my first online course, "Practitioner Perspective" at the state professional association meeting (Washington East Asian Medicine Association) on Sunday, October 22nd, at Bastyr University in Kenmore, WA. 

The resource I created is a documentation toolkit to support Practitioners involved in the WA state Workers' Comp Acupuncture Pilot to be successful by reviewing professional documentation standards in our field, with introduction to the return-to-work/rehab model and how Acupuncturists fit into it, and resources, with examples, on how to collect a few specific functional measures. 

There are outgoing expenses associated with creating this Resource. If you know someone, a professional, or a business that would like to donate toward this specific project, donations are accepted through Washington East Asian Medicine Association (WEAMA) at the donation page.  Caveat:  for the money to go toward the project, you must tag "for L&I project" in the comments field of your donation.  WEAMA is a 501c6 non-profit.

Thank you for sharing this post!

Megan

2020 update

Learn more about how this project began and progressed at the following links:

  • Alumna Expands Workers' Comp Coverage for Acupuncture Treatment, Inside Bastyr, 2018 spring: 2.

  • WEAMA, which later changed its name to WAEMA, has a series of blogpost updates about the Pilot.

  • Systematic Review of Acupuncture for Low Back Pain: Efficacy and Clinically-Meaningful Change (2018)

    • Taylor-Swanson L, Stone J, Gale M, Gaitaud A, Huson C, McPherson F, Martens J, Godwin J, and Yule M: Systematic Review of Acupuncture for Low Back Pain: Efficacy and Clinically-Meaningful Change. Meridians: JAOM, 2018 5(3): 18-24, 38-39.

  • For more narrative about this process, go to this citation:

    • Taylor-Swanson L and Gale M: Making the Case for Workers' Compensation: Acupuncture for Low Back Pain. Meridians: JAOM, 2018 5(3): 16-17.

2021 update

Functional Rehab Model & LAcs

If you are interested in the functional rehabilitation model of care for your integrative health pain management program, contact the HHP to schedule a consult.

If you are interested in learning more about this model, we have some published resources that play key roles within a larger program. Here are some that are available (as of 2021):