NEWS RELEASE

New Clinic Launched by Local Acupuncture College

San Francisco, CA - Residents of San Francisco now have another option when seeking out holistic health care. The teaching clinic of the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Potrero Hill has announced that it will be officially launching a new Faculty Practice Clinic in January 2008.

The new clinic comes in response to the community’s growing need for access to well-trained and highly seasoned Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) professionals. The college’s Faculty Practice Clinic offers patients the option to be seen by any of a handful of highly experienced licensed acupuncturists and herbalists.

Practitioners of the Faculty Practice Clinic are esteemed members of the Chinese medicine community in San Francisco. All members are licensed academic or clinical faculty members of the college and offer patients years of extensive training and experience.

The Faculty Practice Clinic was the brainchild of ACTCM Dean of Clinical Education and licensed acupuncturist John Kolenda. “We decided to launch a Faculty Practice Clinic in response to patients‚ requests to have access to practitioners with extensive training and success in treating patients. The group of individuals we’ve put together are not only excellent practitioners, but are also held to very high standards. Clinicians in our Faculty Clinic must meet specific requirements in order to be considered, and then are subject to internal and peer review on a quarterly basis. We also require our practitioners to attend regular professional development and continuing education. Lastly, we encourage our practitioners to tap into the supportive environment found within a group practice and engage in dialogue about their treatment strategies with their fellow colleagues. These standards are greater than those found in a typical private practice, and we think our patients will benefit greatly from this.”

According to Kolenda, patients seen in the new Faculty Clinic will notice some differences from the college’s long established Student Clinic. “While patients will continue to receive the same type and level of quality care, the experience itself will be somewhat different. For example, instead of multiple individuals observing, discussing and treating a patient, only one practitioner will be present. Patients will also have direct access to clinicians who offer specialties, such as Pain Management, Pediatrics, Orthopedics and Women’s Health,” Kolenda said.

Faculty Clinic appointments will be more focused and shorter in duration; most averaging 1 hour, rather than the 90-120 minutes often seen in the Student Clinic. Rates for the new clinic are also higher at $88 per treatment, which contrasts to the Student Clinic’s sliding fee scale based on income.

The faculty practice clinic, which is open six days a week, offers appointments in the afternoons, evenings and on weekends. Due to the popularity of the clinic’s pilot program, launched in the summer of 2007, new patient appointments in January have already begun to fill quickly. “We are very excited to be offering this new clinic. The response is already extremely positive. In addition to better serving the community of San Francisco, and offering our patients more treatment options, we hope that the Faculty Clinic will serve to raise the awareness of the efficacy of Traditional Chinese Medicine both locally and nationally,” commented ACTCM President, Lixin Huang.

American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine (ACTCM) has provided affordable, quality health care to the public and trained professionals in acupuncture, massage and Chinese medicine since 1980. In addition to its graduate curriculum, ACTCM offers continuing education, public education, community outreach and clinical services in acupuncture and herbal medicine. ACTCM has been the recipient of many awards for its curriculum, faculty and clinic, and has been voted "Best of the Bay" by both the San Francisco Weekly and the San Francisco Bay Guardian. ACTCM is accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (ACAOM) and is a private, nonprofit, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization.

The college’s Faculty Clinic is located at 450 Connecticut Street (at 20th) in Potrero Hill. Parking is available on-site. For more information, or to make an appointment, please call (415) 282-9603.