The Hospital Handbook Project Fall 2021 to Dec 2023

February 1, 2024 Megan Gale

In Review, The Hospital Handbook Project

Fall 2021 – Dec 2023

February 2024.

This is a short summary regarding my activities in representing HHP on the national level and its evolution from its status as a not-for-profit program to an entirely new 501c3 nonprofit organization, the Society of Hospital & Healthcare System-Based Acupuncturists (SOHHA).

November/December 2021

In November 2021, representing HHP, I was a guest speaker at the in-person Atlantic Symposium in South Carolina.

During this time, I was also interviewed by Michael Max of Qiological, a well-known podcaster in the acupuncture field. He asked me about my path into hospital-based practice and my subsequent creation of the HHP®.

Moving the HHP under the umbrella of a 501c3

For most of 2021, I worked on contract negotiations to move the HHP (a not-for-profit program) under the umbrella of an established 501c3 organization. This enables its legal and business structure to remain consistent no matter where I live. (My husband is in the military, so moves from state to state are relatively frequent.)

2022

On January 22, 2022, I signed an official two-year renewable fiscal A contract agreement for HHP (a program) with Free Range Health, a 501c3 nonprofit organization. I spent the first half of 2022 setting up all the necessary aspects of this new arrangement.

I also hosted and participated in a series of events, both inside and outside the HHP community:

2022: HHP community discussions (internal with the community platform). This recurring event page and this page.
2022: Workgroup meetings (internal): Employment Practices Workgroup, Inpatient Acupuncture Workgroup, Safety Practices Workgroup
April 2022: HHP interviewed Risi Idiokitas, an inpatient pediatric acupuncturist specialist who works at Children’s National (a children’s hospital in Washington, DC). This was our first public presentation on inpatient pediatric acupuncture.
May 2022: I spoke at a virtual public event hosted by the Maryland Acupuncture Society, “Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine EHR and Tech Expo.”
- HHP hosted a virtual booth with information about our programs
Late May 2022: I gave an in-person presentation at the Academic Consortium’s 2022 International Congress on Integrative Medicine and Health. This was HHP’s 2nd public presentation on inpatient acupuncture and integrative health programs.
June 2022: HHP’s Employment Practices Workgroup hosted its first live, virtual presentation, “How to Hire and Credential Acupuncturists into your Healthcare System: Revenue Capture and Clinician Retention.”
- Materials on view in the community discussion forum.
July 2022: We hosted this live, virtual presentation on the HHP platform, “A Review of SOAP Documentation Basics for Acupuncturists.”
Sept. 10th, 2022: We hosted this live, open to the public, virtual event. “Introduction to Safety in Practice for Acupuncturists.” This is the first presentation held by the HHP’s Safety Practices workgroup.
- Materials on view in the community discussion forum.
October 2022: A virtual conference was hosted and recorded by the nonprofit Integrative Medicine for the Underserved (IM4US). “Speaking the Language of Safety in HRO Systems as Acupuncturists (LAcs). Cultural Competence: Recognizing the language of safety and how it applies for those new to working in the U.S. healthcare system setting.” This was the second public presentation by HHP’s Safety Practices workgroup.
- Recording is available to view on the HHP’s Safety Practices playlist (YouTube channel).
- All materials from the presentation are on view in the community discussion forum
Nov. 12, 2022: We hosted the first virtual, open to the public, event that offered CEUs/PDAs to attendees. “Introduction to Safety-in-Practice for Acupuncturists, Safety Leads, and Program Managers. Quality Assurance, Quality Improvement Processes, Patient Safety, and Workplace Safety. How they relate to the healthcare system-based LAc clinician and acupuncture program manager.”
- Links to materials in the community forum are here.

2023

January 21st, 2023: HHP, with the guidance of our Inpatient Acupuncture Workgroup, hosted our Inaugural Inpatient Acupuncture Conference. CEUs/PDAs were available. The 2023 Inpatient Acupuncture Conference was the very first one specific to inpatient acupuncture practice and programs.

Big Changes After the January 2023 Conference

March 2023: A group of us founded the new 501c3 nonprofit organization, Society of Hospital & Healthcare System-Based Acupuncturists (SOHHA).
As of April 2023, SOHHA is now the new home of the Hospital Handbook Project (HHP) program. https://www.thehospitalhandbook.com/blog/2023/5/12/introducing-the-new-nonprofit-society-of-healthcare-system-based-acupuncturists

May 18th-21st, 2023: A team from HHP presented for the first time at the Society of Acupuncture Research (SAR) conference. SOHHA community members were in high attendance. The HHP’s Employment Practices Workgroup collaborated on a presentation about team-based clinical care. “Team-Based Clinical Care Work as a Healthcare System LAc. Cultural competencies, KSAs, Challenges & Success Stories; Metrics and Data Collection.”

Spring and Summer 2023

The HHP contract with Free Range Health ended March 31st, 2023. As stated above, a new nonprofit was created: The Society of Hospital & Healthcare System-based Acupuncturists (SOHHA). I moved HHP’s previous nonprofit work to this new nonprofit, a task that required my attention for most of 2023.

Early 2024

Our board is continuing to focus on administrative setup for the new nonprofit, SOHHA. It is incorporated in the state of California as a nonprofit public benefit corporation organization for charitable purposes. In other words, it is a 501(c)3 nonprofit.

Join the SOHHA Community on our Community Networking Site

SOHHA’s community platform is now hosted by Mighty Networks, a paid, no ads resource:

logo and url for the community discussion platform

Walking labyrinth in southern California. Photo credit Megan Kingsley Gale. Photo used with permission.

On a Personal Note

What I’m reading/listening to

I use audio (podcasts and audio books) whenever I have that option for taking in information. I listen while out walking, doing some chores, or driving. For reading research articles, I have yet to find a screen reader that can read online articles to me well. If you have a recommendation, please share!

I love that the market for audio has greatly expanded in the past 10 years. Listening to information prevents eyestrain and can allow me to multi-task.

Here’s a list of what I can recommend to those of you who may be interested.

The following list includes books related to leadership and professional work learning.

Audiobooks

The Little Book of Boards by Erik Hanberg. Great book for starting or maintaining a small or very small nonprofit organization in the U.S.
Teaming by Amy C. Edmondson. A how-to book on creating, working with, and working within, teams as an employee. This is one of the resources our Employment Practices Workgroup recommends in our team-based care resources.
The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker. This encouraged me and helped to prepare me in setting up the January 2023 Inpatient Acupuncture Conference.
Pre-Accident Investigations by Todd Conklin. A nonfiction book especially for people who work in places where accidents or safety events are possible. This is one of the deep-dive resources recommended in our Safety Practices resource list.

Podcasts

All are related to health care. When I find an episode particularly useful, I share a review of it on our community discussion forum. On the platform, go to “Feed” and type “podcast” into the search bar to find a review.

Nature podcast—life sciences research podcast
Advancing Health, a podcast from the American Hospital Association. Includes topics and culture related to hospital-based practice.
Conversations on Health Care by CHC Radio—This focuses on primary care and community healthcare clinics and how federal and state policy affects health care and patient access.
Qiological. This podcast is very specific to acupuncturists. This is a long-form interview podcast hosted by a senior acupuncturist. I enjoy listening to episodes that interview friends, colleagues, mentors, and teachers I admire.

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