Pines and Needles: Experience of an Acupuncture Practice at an Academic Medical Center in Rural New England

To report on our experience treating patients in an academic medical acupuncture practice in a rural setting and set the stage for future research.

Our healthcare systems electronic medical record was queried for all patients seen in the general internal medicine clinic for acupuncture since the service was first offered. Data on demographics, medical diagnoses were extracted and anonymized. Diagnoses were grouped by their ICD-10 codes. Zip code was collected to help ask the question whether distance or socioeconomic and education status had an impact on use of this service. Data was analyzed using standard descriptive and analytics methods.

A total of 200 patients over a 7 year period for a total of 1534 visits. Average number of visits was 7.75, age 66 yrs old and were 63.8 % female. The majority of patients terminal degree was High School, had a median income of $82 K and the and a median distance travel of 34 miles. The lower the terminal degree the greater distance travelled. The top three diagnostic categories were musculoskeletal, mental health and neurologic. Pain was the secondary complaint in 27.4% of cases.

Acupuncture appears to be an acceptable therapeutic option for rural patients. This is evidenced by the willingness-to-travel, the broad range of problems being addressed and the wide socioeconomic profile taking advantage of the service.