Survey Highlights Hospital Massage 
As further testimony to the growing presence of massage therapy in the nation's hospitals, the American Hospital Association (AHA) is asking questions about how, when and for whom massage is being offered in health-care settings.

The AHA's annual survey this year includes five questions about the specific uses of massage therapy among its 5,000 member hospitals. This is the first time since the survey began tracking the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in hospitals, in 1998, that massage has been singled out.

According to Sita Ananth, project director for the Health Forum, a division of the AHA, the decision came from indicators that massage, as well as biofeedback and acupuncture, were among the most popular CAM services offered in hospitals.

"In 2000, about 500 hospitals responded yes" to the question of whether they offer CAM services, Ananth said. In a follow-up survey of those 500, 162 hospitals indicated that massage was one of the top-five services offered.

Earlier this year, the AHA contacted the American Massage Therapy Association, which provided information and formulated five questions intended to gather information about the uses of massage therapy in hospitals; criteria for hiring massage therapists; pay procedures; which populations are receiving massage; and how many patients were massaged in 2002.

Results of the survey were expected to be released in September, past this publication's deadline.

"We are really trying to get a sense of how hospitals are using massage therapy," said AMTA spokesman Ron Precht. In particular, Precht said, the association is eager to learn about the criteria for hiring therapists, especially in states without regulation.

"We think this is very valuable information for massage therapists to have," he said.
 - Kelle Walsh

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