Paul

Wise choice on bypassing the "quackademic" options like Reiki.
It's sad when people think just because a hospital offers them they are valid. While marketing executives put a happy face on it, the truth is that are considered "efficacious" if the patient likes them. As the AMA noted the discrepancy in what they say and what's really the reason: People like it and some will even pay full price for these even if no insurance company will ever.
[quote]Though 70% of executives at hospitals providing unconventional therapies said they are doing so because they are clinically effective, only 42% said they use patients' health outcomes to gauge the success of the alternative medicine programs. Instead, they are principally using patient satisfaction and volume as evaluation metrics, the report said. The programs were most often started by hospital administrators, with physicians championing the idea 20% of the time.

The alternative therapies are intended to supplement conventional medical interventions, Ananth said.

"Many of these services are low-risk," she said. "Patients are looking for the best of what both conventional and complementary therapies can offer, and hospitals are responding by offering these choices."

Patients usually pay for these services out of pocket, although hospitals offer them free 44% of the time, the report said. They usually are not covered by third-party payers[/quote]
[quote]One in five alternative-friendly hospitals provides Reiki, which the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine describes as a Japanese therapy in which "practitioners place their hands lightly on or just above the person receiving treatment, with the goal of facilitating the person's own healing response." A systematic review of nine randomized controlled trials, which was published in the June 2008 International Journal of Clinical Practice, said, "The evidence is insufficient to suggest that Reiki is an effective treatment for any condition" [/quote]
Demand drives more hospitals to offer alternative therapies
Of course Quackwatch tells it candidly
Reiki Is Nonsense
As an old hippie, I have many old friends who became Reiki masters (just like Dr. Oz's wife) - it's all woo woo.
Charm