GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) - Emma Gutierrez looks like a human voodoo doll, but she doesn't mind - it seems to be keeping her diabetes from getting worse.

Gutierrez, 61, goes to the Wege Institute for Mind, Body and Spirit at St. Mary's Mercy Medical Center for weekly acupuncture treatments and she drinks an herbal tea remedy while continuing to take her medicines. Her energy is restored, and so far she has managed to avoid kidney dialysis.

"I was looking for something better,'' she said as a doctor pierced her skin with 21 hair-thin needles. ``When you are headed for (kidney) transplant and fighting dialysis you are pretty open, but you don't want to wind up at some dirty clinic. You want to go somewhere you can trust.''

Hospitals around the country are opening integrative care centers similar to the one at St. Mary's, which accommodates patients who have reached the limits of traditional care and those seeking a more holistic approach to health. These units blend conventional practices with therapies such as acupuncture, biofeedback, homeopathy, yoga and massage.

The American Hospital Association said 11 percent of its members offered so-called "complementary'' services in 1999, up from 8.6 percent in 1998.

"Some of these remedies have been around for thousands of years. It is absolutely ridiculous to ignore them,'' said Dr. Matthew Fink, president and chief executive of Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, which last year opened a center.

According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, visits to alternative medical care providers numbered 629 million in 1997, up 47 percent from 1990.

In 1997, Americans spent $21.2 billion on alternative medical services, $12.2 billion of it out of their own pockets. Such patients are an attractive market because they are spending money on therapies not covered by insurance.

"People are out there spending money. Why shouldn't they spend it in the hospital?'' said Philip McCorkle, St. Mary's president and chief executive.

Government and privately funded studies on complementary therapies are expected to eventually lead to insurance coverage, further widening the patient pool. But hospital executives say such centers can be profitable with a relatively small number of patients.

The rationale behind such centers isn't only financial. Administrators say such outlets are a throwback to when family doctors had a complete picture of a patient's life so they could treat a person and not just a disease.

When Barbara Wilson was diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer, she immediately sought out treatment at New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. She also visited the hospital's 18-month old Integrative Medicine Service, where she got massages and practiced yoga and meditation. The 61-year old said the services helped her cope with the grueling chemotherapy.

"I wanted to make sure I was treating my whole self, not just my disease,'' she said.

Two years later she is cancer-free. ``Did the center help that? It is hard to say, but my doctors says my performance has been excellent,'' said Wilson.

Doctors say there have always been intangible elements that helps patients heal, and these centers are designed in part to embrace that component. A small stone fountain sits in the homey, earth-tone waiting room at Sloan Kettering's Center. The waiting room of Beth Israel's Center for Health and Healing could double as a lobby for a five-star Asian hotel.

Beth Israel was fortunate to have a board of directors who raised $6 million to create its center, though starting a complementary care center doesn't have to be expensive. Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Ill., spent only $34,000 to outfit its center. Operating costs are slim because all the practitioners work on a contractual basis.

"This doesn't have to be a $2 million proposition,'' said Scott Powder, vice president for strategic planning at Advocate Healthcare, Lutheran's parent company. ``You can make money without spending a lot.''

Beth Israel wanted to create a model that would stand out in New York's competitive hospital environment. The center treats patients with specific ailments, while also housing a group practice of doctors who incorporate nontraditional therapies into their medical approach.

``Any hospital can buy expensive technology and do difficult surgery,'' said Fink. ``We wanted to create a showcase that was unique.''

Indeed, it is probably the only place in New York where patients can have their arthritis treated by a Native American doctor using porcupine quills.

That is not likely to happen at St. Mary's any time soon. Doctors there were spooked by the idea of complementary therapy when the idea was raised five years ago. They feared patients would regard such practices as quackery and find new doctors. Later it became obvious that the opposite was true - patients were more likely to accept complementary therapies in a hospital setting.

"This is a pretty conservative community, so we really had to start slow,'' said Dr. David Baumgartner, St. Mary's vice president for medical affairs and medical education.

"This was a radical concept five years ago, and this is not the kind of thing that can be imposed on people quickly.''

The first hire was a massage therapist, followed by a music therapist. The center now has a staff of 21. Monthly revenues for the nine months ending in February more than tripled to $26,000, and in the next two years the center is expected to break even.

"Sure we provide complementary care services,'' said McCorkle. "But it is more than that. We want an integrative attitude reflected in the way we run our hospital."

　　From Healthy.net