Last updated 7.14.2024

We, the Society of Hospital & Healthcare System-Based Acupuncturists, are a 501(c)3 organization that supports learning resources for the healthcare system-based acupuncturist community.

The Hospital Handbook Project (HHP) is the collaborative learning network for healthcare system-based acupuncturist work and healthcare system-based programs.

Resources for the Healthcare System-based Program Manager or Director

This page focuses on resources for the program manager or director who works with or manages hospital and healthcare system-based acupuncturists. Licensed Acupuncturist (LAc) is the most common (but not the only) state license title for a healthcare professional who has graduated from an ACAHM-accredited master’s or doctorate program. The Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine (ACAHM) is a specialized accreditation agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education to accredit graduate degree programs in the field of acupuncture.

The Society of Hospital and Healthcare System-Based Acupuncturists is a 501(c)3 organization that supports learning (educational) resources for the hospital and healthcare system-based acupuncturist community (clinicians, program managers, admin). We are the go-to resource for healthcare system-based acupuncturist employment practices and program standards. We are a community of healthcare system-based acupuncturist clinicians, leads, program managers, researchers, and more. We have online resources and a virtual (synchronous and asynchronous) community discussion space. Over time, we continue to build an ecosystem of learning resources, based on the community’s needs and feedback. Learn more about who we are on our Home page, About page, and Blog.

We create and host resources, both asynchronous and synchronous, to communicate best practices for acupuncturists’ clinical work in the healthcare system setting. This includes hiring and credentialing LAcs, professional practice evaluation specific to LAcs, program standards, clinical metrics, and knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) for general practice and specialty practice settings.

Working in the established healthcare system means patients can access acupuncture and integrative health care where they are already receiving care. 

This improves patient's access to acupuncturists’ services, which include acupuncture, meditation and movement therapy (qi gong and tai chi), massage and bodywork (tuina, medical massage, cupping, gua sha, acupressure), patient education, and more (see your local state scope of practice and delineation of clinical privileges for details).

Our work is useful to team care "champions” and change-makers in the integrative health field who are setting up programs or expanding programs at their healthcare facility. We host virtual space(s), synchronous and asynchronous, for colleagues to connect and share wisdom to help avoid the problem of working in silos or “re-inventing the wheel.” We create and host space to communicate with each other and thus share the collective wisdom of colleagues working in the unique space(s) of hospital & healthcare system-based practice (general practice and subspecialties). We encourage each other to improve our knowledge and practice standards together and help each other avoid re-inventing the wheel. In our collaborative learning system, we encourage the model of continuous learning and continuous improvement.

Read on for specific resources we recommend for program managers and directors.

Recommended Resources for Program Managers and Directors

The following are resources we recommend for program managers and directors. Please remember that the we are often working on improving and growing our resources, so this list can change and evolve over time.

Consultation. I recommend starting here. With a consultation, you can get a jump start on connecting to resources specific to your program needs and stage. During a consultation you get time with our director or one of our board members who have worked with program leads, managers, and directors from across the U.S. All proceeds from consultations go directly to support our nonprofit work. Consultations are available on a limited basis. To request a consult, fill out a request on the consultation page.

Join the Community Discussion platform at Tier 2. This is our premium learning platform subscription plan and is recommended for program leads and managers. You can connect with other program leads and managers nationwide on the community discussion platform. For a sampling of some of our current community members, go to the “Meet the Community” page.

Tier 2 subscription includes access to all the “bells and whistles” of our learning network and topic-based resources.

The virtual resource, the Issues in Hospital-based Practice webinar + interview series, combines live events with their post-event resources. These resources may include event recordings, slideshow PDFs, and “Notes” resource PDFs that include time stamps and hyperlinks to references or lists of citations mentioned. A Tier 2 subscription includes access to this resource.

The slideshow above includes images of topics currently tagged in the discussion platform. This is not an exhaustive list of discussion topics.

The Issues in Hospital-based Practice Webinar + Interview Series.

This resource is a combination of live events, event recordings, and post-event materials (presentation slide pdfs, “Notes” document with timestamps and reference points in the recordings, etc). This resource is open to anyone who wants to subscribe to it. The “Issues” resource access is included with Tier 2 community platform subscription.

Sessions in this series that may interest you:

• “How to Hire & Credential an Acupuncturist: Revenue Capture & Clinician Retention,” from the 6.25.2022 event.

  • This is the first presentation from our Employment Practices Workgroup. The resource content was created by program leads and managers. The Q&A session with leads and managers dives into related topics. Keywords and topics covered in this presentation include

    • minimum standards for job announcements and position descriptions,

    • credentialing standards for acupuncturists in healthcare system-based practice,

    • revenue capture and coding to benefit your program and healthcare system, and

    • current known best practices in clinician retention for new employees and current employees.

      Go to the blog article for this event to learn more.

• “Introduction to Safety in Practice for Program Leads and Managers.” Three presentations in fall 2022 from the HHP’s Safety Practices Workgroup. This workgroup focuses on identifying topics and subtopics related to safety and LAcs working in healthcare system-based practice.

  • Sept 10th, 2022, is the first public presentation from the HHP’s Safety-in-Practice Workgroup. Recording and post-session materials are available in the Issues in Hospital-based Practice webinar series 2022 online resource under the September section here.

  • Oct. 7th, 2022, presentation at the virtual 2022 IM4US conference, “Speaking the Language of Safety in HRO Systems as LAcs.” The landing page has information on the IM4US conference and post-presentation materials.

  • November 12th, 2022. The final (and most refined) presentation from the Safety Practices Workgroup for the year 2022. HHP-hosted live presentation + time for community discussion.

  • What is the Safety Practices Workgroup?

    • This workgroup looks at safety, accountability, and transparency issues affecting LAcs working in healthcare system-based practice. This includes quality assurance, quality improvement processes, patient safety, and workplace safety. Some of these issues and standard operating procedures (SOPs) are evergreen, and some are new topics in the healthcare field.

    • Being able to identify what the categories are, the various topics included, and related resources are essential to work in the healthcare system setting successfully. With an increased focus on safety, accountability, clear communication, and transparency in the new High-Reliability Organization (HRO) healthcare model, there is an increased emphasis on identifying and understanding these issues. And there is a need to know how to develop processes around these issues that help you and your team improve over time. These improvement goals and growth mindset is part of the model of continuous learning & continuous improvement that the HHP encourages.

    • With the HRO model, safety/accountability/transparency are tied in with (a) leadership skills on individual and organizational levels and (b) organizational culture.

• How do you schedule multiple integrative health providers (including 2 LAcs) in a patient-centered, team-based care functional rehab model? What does it look like?

  • A conversation with schedule images and explanations with Dr. Tara Fernalld, DACM, MHA, IPMC clinician, Madigan Army Medical Center. May 2021.

• For more topics in this series, see the “Issues” resource landing page.

Inpatient Acupuncture Programs and Service Lines

Are you setting up an inpatient acupuncture program? Adding acupuncturists to your inpatient clinician team? Expanding your inpatient integrative health program? Want to learn how other inpatient acupuncture programs are set up?

We have resources specific to this unique setting. You can meet others working in this setting through the community discussion platform and join the Inpatient Acupuncture Discussion Group. As of April 2023, the Tier 2 discussion platform includes content from the Jan 2023 Inaugeral Inpatient Acupuncture Conference. This includes presentation recordings and Notes pdfs.

More Topic-related Resources That Are Useful to Managers/Directors

The following is a list of more topic-based resources recommended for leads/managers/directors that are accessible with Tier 2 platform subscription. And that are not otherwise mentioned above.

• Summary of Healthcare System-based Acupuncture Program Publications, Research Citations, and More. This is an HHP community publication. If you are looking for a list of hospital and healthcare system-based acupuncture program citations, this is it! You can buy your own copy from our website store. Or, you can access it for free when you subscribe to the HHP’s community discussion platform.

• A current list of all our programs and projects is available as a free PDF on our website shop.

• The 2023 Inpatient Acupuncture Conference Resources. As of April 2023, the Jan 2023 conference resources (including presentation recordings) are available in a unique virtual space/group within the Tier 2 subscription. The Inpatient Acupuncture Workgroup hosts and curates this space.

• Job Announcements to Share, Writing Position Descriptions, Basics of Being an Employee in a Medium to Large Healthcare System: Focus on Performance Management.

  • In the community platform available to Tier 1 and Tier 2 subscribers is the topic-focused space, “Job Announcements in the Field.” This space includes job announcements shared by any community member (which may be obvious by the topic name).

  • This space includes articles about writing position descriptions and references for writing position descriptions for acupuncturist clinicians in general practice versus specialty practice or other advanced work.

  • It also includes some presentation and interview series recordings on how to be an employee in a medium to large healthcare system. This interview series focused on performance management aspect and a few episodes are included in the platform to view that cover these topics:

    • what to expect in the onboarding process,

    • know how you are being measured (as an employee—performance metrics and clinic metrics), and

    • mentor relationships & career path mapping.

• Short courses in practical pain management tools for your team

  • As we are transitioning with the new nonprofit, our courses are being updated. Please stay tuned to the email newsletter about what may be available and when. Also, check out the “Events” calendar for upcoming events.

Publicly Available Resources Recommended for Program Managers and Directors

1. The email newsletter. Sign up for the newsletter and peruse past newsletters on this page.

2. The YouTube channel.

   • Please remember that most of our videos are not publicly available on the YouTube channel. Most of our video content is accessible on the HHP community discussion platform and in our online resource modules on our Teachable platform. However, the following are available to view on our YouTube channel.

   • What is the HHP? playlist

   • News & Updates playlist. Most of the updates are on the community discussion platform. Just a few make it to this public list, usually because they are connected to a published blog post or newsletter.

   • Telehealth, a playlist. However, the context for this playlist and more videos are available in the Telehealth Roundtable Event online resource. In 2024, this is one of the resources that is being re-evaluated for content and updates. If this topic interests you, please send us a message.

   • HHP Lunchbreak Listen Recommendations. Megan curated this list while creating the HHP learning platform resource between 2015-2022. The context for these recommendations is usually in a companion blog post, article, or discussion thread. The YouTube playlist only includes video content that is publicly accessible on the YouTube platform.

   • Breathing Practice for Clinician Resilience. Short 30 - 60 second videos to support colleagues in pausing and practicing a breathing exercise reset. Copyright for these videos is held by Megan Kingsley Gale. We have limited time permissions use to share them with you.

3. Our public Facebook page

4. Connect on our LinkedIn page for the Society of Hospital and Healthcare System-Based Acupuncturists

5. Content on this website