Why Did I Choose to Open a Community Acupuncture Clinic?

I want to do a little blog about why I chose community acupuncture. What led me to this path? I was in private practice for 2+ years and it was going well. I charged $110 for the first visit and $85 for follow ups. I was making a living albeit not a huge one but I was able to support myself. And I was only working 3 days a week or less. Sounds pretty good right?

Then Living Social offered a "deal" on me and everything changed. 242 people bought that deal and it was for a 90 minute treatment each. You do the math. Even if I worked my full 8 hour days for those 3 days a week I could not treat all those people in 6 months. And they were demanding! Not all of them, most of them have been lovely but it's always the 20% that ruins it for the rest of the people, 'eh?

So after 4 months of working my butt off for $17 per 90 minute treatment, that's right, $17 - I decided I wanted no more of this. But it didn't end there. So many people tried to book the last 2 weeks of the deal (50 more people) that I extended the deal for 3 months - even though legally I was under no obligation to do so. This, of course, made me a tad resentful even though it was my choice. And I made it easy for people, I paid for an online booking service and had booking ONLY for Living Social patients. But still they called and I had to call them back and some couldn't work the online booking and so it went. In the end I ended up making .85 cents an hour and going out of business.

I know the idea of Living Social is to get people to come back but no one could afford my $85 per treatment. I gave 20% discounts and some returned once or twice. Out of the 242 patients only 1 still comes in. That's a 1% return rate for .85 cents an hour for about 500 hours of work. I don't have to tell you that it's not worth it!

So yes 4 months into the LS deal I decided that I wanted to follow my dream and open up a community clinic instead. And here are my reasons why....
1. Most people can't afford $85 an hour once a week for an acupuncture treatment.
2. I couldn't have the patients remain more than 20 minutes with the needles in because I had to get them out of the room for the next person.
3. Listening to people go over their "tape loop" of problems was not helping them or me.

Instead with community:
1. It's $20 - $40 a treatment, pay whatever you want, no proof of income required. == it's affordable!
2. Patients can remain up to 90 minutes with the needles in if they want.
3. And since the magic is in the needles, not in the talking - they get the real magic.

Does everyone want to be treated in a community setting? Nope. But I've found those people can't afford private acupuncture either so I'm not losing a patient either way. Those people just don't get acupuncture on a regular basis.

I'll write another blog on exactly what community acupuncture is. You can also read about it on my website. www.TaoCommunityAcupuncture.com

Welcome to Tao

We are a new Community Acupuncture Clinic in San Rafael, California. The mission of this clinic is to provide quality healthcare at affordable prices. Our rates are a sliding scale of $20 to $40 per treatment. Pay what you want, no proof of income is required. This clinic is being started by Kimberly Anne Hoffman and Michiel Coyote both of whom are California state licensed acupuncturists and herbalists.

The front of our clinic is a retail herbal store where customers can purchase Chinese Herbs, Aromatherapy and Flower Essences among other health related items. The back of our clinic is a community style acupuncture space. We have massage tables separated by shoji screens and soft music.

We welcome our community and we are happy to be able to offer this type of healthcare which is based on a model founded by CAN (Community Acupuncture Network) and continued by POCA (People's Organization of Community Acupuncture).

On this blog we will try to post health related advice and issues. We also have a twitter feed and a website which contains even more information. 

Come visit us!