Large-Scale Alternative | Westminster practice brings holistic healers together
Photo/Christina H. Davis
HOLISTIC HEALTH: Dr. Linda Smith's medical practice evolved into offering alternative medicine after she found acupuncture to be a more superior treatment for her back pain than traditional medication.
The Westborough office of Dr. Smith and Associates looks like what you might expect from a 10-practitioner group. In a comfortable reception area, fish swim around an aquarium and patients can flip through issues of Golf, Prevention and Reader’s Digest.
But alongside a copy of Gray’s Anatomy, there are reference books on acupuncture, and visitors can browse flyers for the Massachusetts Local Food Cooperative and scratch the ears of Michael, the practice’s resident dog.
In fact, despite being run by a primary care physician, the practice is not exactly a doctor’s office. Instead of antibiotics and flu shots, the practitioners offer acupuncture, massage and a variety of other non-traditional health treatments.
Linda Smith opened a family practice in Ashburnham in 1997. A Boston University-trained physician, she had been interested in alternative medical techniques for years. But it was personal experience with acupuncture that convinced her to pursue it as a full-fledged specialty.
Personal Experience
After injuring her back in 2000, Smith found that acupuncture took care of the pain in a way that medication hadn’t managed to do. In 2002 she began studying acupuncture at Harvard Medical School, and in 2004, she switched her practice to acupuncture and osteopathy, a field that focuses on the body’s musculoskeletal system.
After moving the practice to Westminster in 2007, the office grew from three practitioners to 10, a size that’s unusual in the alternative care world.
“Working together as a team is a big thing we have over other practitioners,” Smith said. “We can actually grab somebody and say, ‘What would you do with this kind of problem?’”
Smith said the medical establishment has been slow to accept techniques like acupuncture, in part because of a dearth of studies showing a clear benefit. She said that’s a result of two problems. First, she said, some western studies of acupuncture treated a control group with “fake acupuncture” where needles were placed close enough to the body’s pressure points to show a benefit, leading to the conclusion that real acupuncture worked no better than a placebo. Second, some studies done in other countries didn’t measure up to the U.S. medical community’s standards for accuracy.
But Smith said alternative medicine is gaining traction with patients. In some cases, she said, acupuncture can cure conditions like chronic pain that western medicine can only mask with medications.
In other cases, though, Smith said traditional western medicine is clearly superior.
“We never view ourselves as a complete alternative,” she said. “If my appendix ruptures, take me to the hospital.”
Smith said that despite her medical training, she doesn’t try to take over patients’ treatment entirely, instead striving to coordinate their care with their primary care physicians. She recalls one case where she was evaluating the needs of a new patient and discovered symptoms that worried her. She referred the patient to a doctor who discovered a brain tumor.
Getting Organized
Debra Fournier, an acupuncture practitioner from Leominster, said she’s impressed with the work Smith has done in Westminster.
“It’s tough to get a western-trained physician like Dr. Smith to really put forth a commitment to put some alternative practitioners into one practice,” Fournier said.
Fournier, who works by herself, said she’s impressed with the multi-practitioner model both for the ease of comparing notes with other professionals and for the administrative benefits it provides.
Indeed, Smith said her practice is able to employ two administrative employees to keep things running smoothly. Smith herself is also an employee of the company, while the other nine practitioners are all subcontractors.
One administrative hassle the practice avoids is dealing with insurance companies. Smith said health insurers generally don’t cover alternative procedures. She said some list acupuncturists as being covered, but in reality the insurers simply ask the practitioners to give their members a discount in exchange for the privilege of being listed with them.
Smith and Associates doesn’t bother with that, she said.
The practice is happy to give statements to patients who can get reimbursed through their insurance plans, she said, but less than 10 percent ask for them.
Still, Smith said many patients are willing to pay out of pocket, even with the economy. In some cases, she said, alternative techniques may provide a cure, allowing patients to save money on co-payments for ongoing traditional treatments.
“I think people end up seeing the value in it,” she said.
Ultimately, Smith said, alternative medicine could offer a tool for keeping the medical system’s costs down generally. Noting that one of her practitioners is a nutritionist, she said one major key to lower medical costs is avoiding the health problems that come from the typical American diet.
While many people don’t want to upend their whole way of eating, Smith said, some are coming around to the notion of considering their meals from the perspective of health. As part of an effort to increase the practice’s visibility in the area, Dr. Smith and Associates has been holding movie nights showcasing films about food issues, and Smith said they’ve been a big success.
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