The journal of alternative and complementary medicine : research on paradigm, practice, and policy
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J Altern Complement Med · May 2007
Policy for therapeutic massage in an academic health center: a model for standard policy development.
Massage is the most common complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapy used in hospitals in the United States. As such, it is often the first CAM therapy to be integrated with conventional medicine. However, few academic medical centers have a written standard policy to guide this integration. This lack of standard policy may impede institutions from offering massage therapy as a clinical service, and may put health care professionals and institutions at risk through a failure to clearly address criteria for practice credentials or malpractice liability. ⋯ With minor modifications of this policy by individual institutions, adoption of this policy may facilitate the thoughtful integration of this CAM therapy into academic health care settings, meeting the unique requirements of academic health care institutions while serving the needs of patients.