A Multi-Bed Chinese Medicine Clinic Model Based on Clinical Excellence

This article describes a unique Chinese medical clinic that has developed a clinical model and infrastructure that could point the way forward for the next stage of development of multi-bed practices in the West. The prevailing clinical models used in modern Western acupuncture practices - whether the ‘one-on-one’ single room model or the more economical multi-bed approach – tend to be based primarily on considerations of cost, habit and logistical ease (for both practitioner and patient), rather than best-practice and clinical excellence. In this article the philosophy and structure of the Centre for Chinese Medicine in the Community (CCMITC) clinic in Haifa (Israel) are examined in depth and several important questions are raised as to why we practice the way we do in typical Western clinics.