Hospitals are making room for alternative therapies (LA Times)

Hospitals are making room for alternative therapies

As hospitals elbow one another to attract patients, increasingly they're hoping to tap into Americans' interest in — and willingness to spend money on — complementary and alternative therapies such as acupuncture and massage.

According to a recent survey by the American Hospital Assn. and the Samueli Institute, a nonprofit research group focusing on complementary medicine, 42% of the 714 hospitals that responded offered at least one such therapy in 2010; five years earlier, only 27% of hospitals offered such treatments.

According to the survey, the top treatments offered at outpatient centers were massage therapy, acupuncture and guided imagery. (The latter uses mental techniques, including visualization, to achieve such goals as reducing stress.)

Link to Full Story: 

www.latimes.com/health/la-he-hospitals-alternative-medicine-2012010...