What you can expect to experience as a patient at the Emperor’s College clinic
Your intern is your primary point of contact for your treatment. They will interview and examine you, confer with the supervisor about your case, discuss treatment options with you, and perform the treatment. The main supervisor typically joins the intern in the room with you to help create a treatment plan and an assistant supervisor, a “technical supervisor,” may also be present, helping to teach the student and assuring that you receive the highest level of care.
- After checking in at the front desk, your intern will be paged.
- As soon as your intern is available, they will greet you in the waiting room and escort you to your treatment room.
- In the treatment room, your intern will interview you, asking you questions about why you are seeking treatment and a number of questions about specific symptoms and general health.
- Your vital signs will be checked, your tongue checked and pulses taken.
- If an assistant (“technical”) supervisor is working with your intern they may also ask you questions and check your tongue and pulses to better help teach the intern and assure you are receiving the highest level of care.
- The intern will then leave the room to confer with the main supervisor about your case. This usually takes 5 to 10 minutes, and never more than 15 minutes.
- The intern and main supervisor will rejoin you. The main supervisor will take your pulses, check your tongue, palpate the injured area if applicable and ask any additional questions, and share with you treatment options.
- Note: main supervisors may not come into the room if the intern is advanced and shown while conferring with the supervisor, excellent understanding of the issues and treatment plan.
- The intern and supervisor will leave the room for you to put on a gown, if applicable, and get comfortable on the treatment table.
- The intern will rejoin you in a couple of minutes and begin your treatment.
- After inserting the needles per the treatment plan, the intern will leave the room to let you rest; 20-30 minutes is typical. Before leaving, the intern will make sure you are comfortably warm and leave you a bell to ring in the event you need to get the interns attention while they are out of the room.
- Note: in almost all cases, you are the only patient the intern is working with at that time. In rare cases, the patients of more advanced interns may overlap slightly.
- After sufficient time has passed, the intern will rejoin you to remove the needles, perform any additional treatments and discuss whether or not an herbal prescription is warranted.
- The intern will leave the room for you to get dressed and, if an herbal prescription is agreed upon, order the prescription for you.
- When you are ready, you leave the treatment room, check in at the front desk to pay and schedule your next appointment. If you ordered herbs, you may need to wait for the pharmacy to complete your order. You may return to pick up your herbs if it is more convenient than waiting.