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Alumni Profile: Old-Fashioned House Calls Get a New Twist
In the so-called "early days" of Western medicine in the United States, most patients didn't go to hospitals for check-ups, surgeries, medicine or even to give birth. Instead, doctors frequently made house calls to people's homes, offering treatment and aid whenever they could, day or night.Those days are, of course, long gone. Today, we live in an era of
Medicare and urgent care centers, which theoretically make up in efficiency what we lost when the more personal house call became a thing of the past. But thanks to the efforts of a few acupuncturists, medical house calls are making a comeback.
For Eileen Wein, a licensed acupuncturist and graduate of Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, it all started at a street fair in September of 2002. Not long before, Wein had started treating off-Broadway New York actors. When it came time to host the street fair to raise money for AIDS research, the theater guild asked Wein if she wanted to set up a table and give acupuncture treatments to some of the other performers. Wein accepted the offer, and set up eight chairs to give auricular acupuncture to any passers-by that wanted to give the treatment a try.
"It took a while to get started," Wein said of her booth's popularity, "but after a while, there were always at least six people asleep [in my chairs], sitting up straight. People were just amazed." After the success of her street fair booth, Wein got to thinking: If she could relax people in chairs on the street, why couldn't she do the same thing for people where they work? So Wein started making phone calls to local businesses, telling them that if there is evidence of poor morale, depression and anxiety, or chronic medical complaints, they might want to consider using acupuncture as a way
for their employees to de-stress.
"Many illnesses can be exacerbated by stress," Wein tells employers in her "De-stressing in the Workplace" brochure. "The immune system is weakened when a person is feeling stress, and outside influences have a greater effect on the health of that individual. Latent conditions seize the opportunity to become active. Allergies are more prominent; asthma, diabetes, heart conditions, skin conditions, hypertension, sleep disorders, headaches, digestive disorders and
more are worsened when the stress is present."
It didn't take long for employers to see the benefits of having a licensed acupuncturist maintain the health of their workers. Wein visits three businesses once a month to treat employees for a variety of conditions, though stress and repetitive injuries are the most common complaints she sees. Kolmar Labratories, a company that manufactures cosmetics, has actually brought Wein on staff because so many of its employees develop carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis. About a dozen other businesses in New York and Pennsylvania also utilize Wein's services on an as-needed basis.
Wein is currently negotiating with Blue Cross/Blue Shield to provide its employees acupuncture once a month. Wein said that after doing an acupuncture demonstration, "I got quite a good response from the employees."
Wein treats her acupuncture house call clients as they sit in a chair, using only auricular acupuncture. Wein said that the hardest part of her job is convincing the companies to give their employees the required 45 minutes time off.
Wein explains that acupuncture can be an extremely cost-effective solution to maintain employee health. Acupuncture can alleviate stress symptoms by releasing endorphins, the body's own natural painkillers. Acupuncture also decreases the stress hormone cortisol, lowers blood pressure, reduces heart rate, and relaxes muscle tissue.
In 1999, the New York Times reported that 640,000 people miss work every year because of repetitive stress injuries. Statistics show that stress is even more prevalent and more costly in the workplace; $300 billion, or $7,500 per employee, is spent annually in the United States on stress-related compensation claims, reduced productivity, absenteeism,health insurance costs, direct medical expenses, and employee turnover.
While employers may value the cost-effectiveness of Wein's acupuncture house calls program, Wein herself enjoys promoting her field. "Nine times out of 10, [the employees] ask a lot of questions." Wein said. "You get spin-offs into your office. It's like being an evangelist for acupuncture; just by going and talking to people, they learn more about the benefits of acupuncture." Much like Wein, licensed acupuncturist Patricia Karnowsky, who also graduated from Pacific College in New York, started doing house calls to attract patients. "I graduated [from Pacific College] in 2000, and I had no money," Karnowsky said, "so [doing house calls] was a good way to get started [as an acupuncturist] without having to rent an office."
After graduating, Karnowski put out a newsletter about both acupuncture and herself, offering her services to people in their own homes. It didn't take long to build an eclectic patient base of homebound people in wheelchairs, mothers with small children, businessmen, mechanics, and more. "It was all through word of mouth," Karnowski said. "When someone gets better, it's really impressive, and they tell their friends."
Karnowski was also referred several patients by the Hospice of Westchester, where she began volunteering her services soon after she graduated. Because Karnowski's sister died of breast cancer at age 35, hospice service is something she feels passionately about. "I wish I had known Oriental medicine when my sister was sick," Karnowski said. "It's really rewarding and it feels really good, and I like to be available to people who can't leave their homes."
Karnowski added that giving acupuncture treatments in someone's home is a completely different experience than treating patients in a clinical setting. "Because you're in someone's home, it's really casual," Karnowski said. "You have to keep your boundaries really tight. I've gone to people's homes to treat them and they would offer me dinner or something. I always said, 'No, thank you,' because you have to keep things professional." Karnowksi also found that treatments often took longer when she was at someone else's home."The down side of [giving housecalls] is that it does take more time," she said. "An office is easier to control, and you don't have to worry about traffic [getting to and from people's homes]."
Once she established a client base, Karnowski was able to make home visits three days a week while treating other patients in her own office two days a week. On average, Karnowksi performed 15 house call treatments per week, 25 treatments in her own office and 20 treatments in the offices of other doctors when she lived in New York.
Since moving to California in August of 2003, Karnowski is reviving her house calls practice to rebuild her clientele. In October, she was treating four patients at their homes and seven in her own office. Karnowski said that she also hopes to find another hospice where she can volunteer.
Whether giving treatments to patients at work or at home, Oriental medicine practitioners are proving that effective healthcare can still have a personal touch.
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