E-Book Excerpt: Referring Your Patient to a Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioner

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a complex system and cannot be effectively used piecemeal, particularly in complex patient cases. Instead, I encourage you to find experienced and trustworthy TCM practitioners with whom you can form referral relationships.

With this resource, your better understanding of TCM will allow you to more effectively dialogue with these colleagues. When referring to a TCM practitioner, consider these steps:

1. Find out if your region has licensing or registration requirements for TCM practitioners.
2. Learn the titles of the TCM practitioner types. In the United States, licensed acupuncturist (L.Ac.) is common, but there is also diplomate in acupuncture (Dipl. Ac.), diplomate in Chinese herbology (Dipl. C.H.), diplomate in oriental medicine (Dipl. O.M.), doctor of oriental medicine (DOM), and more. In British Columbia, Canada, where I live, we have registered acupuncturists (R.Ac.), registered TCM herbalists (R.TCM.H.), registered TCM practitioners (R.TCM.P.), and registered doctors of TCM (Dr.TCM).
3. Make sure the person you plan on building a referral relationship with is currently licensed and in good standing.
4. Ask about their area of expertise. Do they have special training or knowledge in any specific health area or condition? While their regulatory board may not allow them to call themselves specialists, many have areas of focus for treating.
5. Ask about their training and length of time in practice. Being a new practitioner isn’t always a negative, as newer therapists may be fresher with their knowledge and more open to learning. However, experience is often an asset.
6. Ask about the kinds of treatments they offer patients. For example, just because TCM food cures is a part of TCM practice doesn’t mean they use it often, so this may not be something you can refer to them for. Conversely, they may offer an injection therapy or other practice not discussed here that could be valuable to your patients.
7. If you are sharing a patient, discuss how you will communicate treatment plans and coordinate therapies.
8. Consider getting a treatment yourself so you can see how they operate in practice.

Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from the e-book, An Introductory Guide to Traditional Chinese Medicine. To access the full text, click here.