TOP HEALTHCARE FACILITIES WITH WELLNESS PROGRAMS

Integrative medicine is typically the name given to the combination of health care and wellness offerings provided by health care facilities with the goal of treating the “whole” patient to include the range of physical, emotional, social, and other factors that influence health. It is also commonly referred to as treatment that combines Western training with Eastern and holistic approaches. Wellness programs provided by healthcare facilities provide acupuncture and trigger point injections, cognitive behavioral therapy, massage therapy, and fitness and wellness programs among others. We identified top programs offered by Duke, John Hopkins, UCLA, and Northwestern Medicine and summarized them below. Pictures of the facilities are included as well.

1. DUKE INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE

• Duke provides patients with an integrative medicine healthcare team that provide primary care in addition to wellness services such as psychotherapy and emotional wellness, nutrition and weight management, acupuncture, massage therapy, individual yoga therapy, gentle yoga classes, health coaching, and wellness strategies for cancer patients.
•  Wellness strategies for cancer patients includes individual yoga, health coaching, acupuncture, integrative nutrition, and mind/body focus that includes mindfulness-based stress reduction through meditation, yoga, hypnosis, and cognitive-behavior therapy.
• Their Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Motivational Interviewing approaches help relieve symptoms of anxiety, depression, OCD and others; strengthen problem solving skills; develop communication skills; regulate emotions; address marital concerns; improve assertiveness, self-confidence, and self-image; and define and create a more meaningful life.

2. JOHN HOPKINS INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE AND DIGESTIVE CENTER

• They use a patient-centered approach that includes a broad range of services to improve health and promote wellness while treating chronic illnesses and diseases. Some services they offer are acupuncture, cognitive behavioral therapy, Gastroenterology consultations, weight management consultations, integrative psychotherapy, Reiki, and therapeutic massage.
•  Acupuncture is used to treat a wide range of conditions including but not limited to acute and chronic pain, autoimmune disorders, cognitive issues, gastrointestinal issues, gynecological and obstetric issues, neurological conditions, and others.
•  Integrative Psychotherapy, or Mind-Body Therapy, incorporates traditional psychotherapy with holistic medicine to promote healing on all levels and create a healthy alliance between mind and body to manage stress and create a healthy lifestyle.
•  Reiki sessions seek to transmit “Universal Life Energy” to the patient by creating deep relaxation to speed healing, reduce pain, and decrease other symptoms. Therapeutic massage options include Swedish massage, deep tissue, reflexology, lymph damage therapy, Reiki, hot stone, among others.

3. UCLA CENTER FOR EAST-WEST MEDICINE

• Clinicians are trained in Western biomedicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine, and acupuncturists and “Western-trained, Board-certified physicians”, trained in TCM, and they all work together at all stages of patient care. Their services include acupuncture, bodywork, dietary advice, trigger point injections, and medication adjustments.
•  Trigger point injections are a type of needle-based treatment that uses a slightly bigger needle to deactivate trigger points that cause muscle tension and spasms.
• They also offer a musician-centered, problem solving approach to help optimize the musical performance of “athletes of the small muscles” to maintain their precision, coordination, fluency, and stamina required of musicians.

4. NORTHWESTERN MEDICINE OSHER CENTER FOR INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE

• The center provides integrative and wellness services that bridges the gap between conventional primary care and holistic approaches. These services include chiropractic care, massage therapy, energy medicine, TCM (acupuncture and herbs), fitness and wellness classes, behavioral medicine, and integrative women’s health.
• They provide fitness and wellness classes specific to expectant parents, yoga and Pilates, and support groups.

5. NYU LANGONE HOSPITALS INTEGRATIVE HEALTH SERVICES FOR ADULTS

• NYU Langone Hospitals run the integrative health services program for adults. The wellness activities offered include acupuncture, yoga, massage, mind–body bedside care, guided imagery, and energy therapies. The hospital also works with The Monday Campaigns to train patients and staff to engage in healthy behavior such as doing more exercise, eating less meat, quitting smoking, and limiting stress.
• The Mind–Body Patient Bedside Program sessions are offered free of charge to patients at NYU Langone’s Kimmel Pavilion and Tisch Hospital. Holistic treatment helps to reduce anxiety, pain, stress, and improve sleep. NYU Langone also offers recreation and creative arts therapies to patients during their hospital stay to meet their physical, social, emotional, and cognitive needs. The activities are unique to each patient and include painting and music to help share new ways to ease stress, improve emotional well-being, and speed up the healing process.

6. UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN HOSPITALS INTEGRATIVE FAMILY MEDICINE

• The University of Michigan Hospitals’ integrative family medicine program offers wellness programs to suit each patient’s unique body, mind, emotional, and spiritual needs. Integrative therapies offered at the hospital include acupuncture, holistic nutrition, massage, relaxation techniques, herbs, and supplements, which are used in conjunction with medical science and technology.
• The use of integrative family medicine at the hospital is intended to foster optimal wellness and healing irrespective of the health challenges or illness that the patient is faced with. Physicians integrate all aspects of a patient’s well-being, including physical, mental, environmental, emotional, social health, and spiritual, to contribute to the healing process.

7. STANFORD HEALTH CARE-STANFORD HOSPITAL INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE

• The Stanford Health Care-Stanford Hospital offers the integrative medicine wellness program that uses alternative non-traditional treatment options to provide care for the whole person. Treatment options include hypnosis, acupuncture, mindfulness, and education on dietary supplements.
• The wellness programs are used to treat conditions such as chronic pain, headache, joint pain, nausea and vomiting in pregnancy, smoking habits, anxiety, depression, stress, fatigue, and phobias. Individual psychotherapy sessions are used to help patients cope with the stress that leads to chronic pain, anxiety, and depression.
• With acupuncture, the staff at the hospital such as a Chinese-trained and licensed acupuncturist, a naturopath, and an anesthesiologist carefully evaluate patients to come up with an individualized treatment plan. The patient receives a series of treatments depending on their condition. Treatment sessions last around an hour and are used to treat conditions such as chronic pain, headache, joint pain, gastrointestinal conditions, and urinary problems in women.

8. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN HOSPITALS WELLNESS PROGRAM

• The hospital has a wellness center that helps patients to identify what changes they can make to their lifestyle and encourages self-care practices using unique and personalized plans. A variety of movement classes are offered to promote a holistic approach to the patient’s well-being and health.
• The hospital also has an aquatic center that provides swimming classes to help patients to improve their fitness. A learning kitchen led by culinary and health care professionals is also available to offer patients various cooking classes and nutrition consultation to enable them to learn how to prepare healthy meals. The hospital also provides group medical visits where patients with common healthcare issues meet together with one or more physicians to learn from each other on what is needed to help them to live a healthy life.
• Other activities in the wellness program offered at the hospital include acupuncture, health psychology, mindful based stress reduction, mind-body skills groups, and fitness assessment. Yoga is also provided to empower patients to take better care of the whole body.

RESEARCH STRATEGY

To provide additional wellness programs at top healthcare facilities in the US, our first strategy was to identify those that had already been mentioned in the first part of the project and the strategy document so that we did not duplicate the information. Our second strategy was to look at the US News list of the top hospitals in the US and focused on those in the top 20. We reviewed the services offered at these hospitals and looked for information on those that blended wellness programs and conventional healthcare services.
This strategy enabled us to identify additional top healthcare facilities in the US that are combining health care with wellness offerings. We further investigated their offerings to find those with unique offerings such as Qi Gong, Dinner and a Speaker, and Reiki. However, we found that the remaining hospitals in the top 20 of the US News list of the top hospitals in the US offered other types of wellness services which were included in our findings.