Programs that offer health care and treatment procedures that fall outside the mainstream of conventional medical practice. Most alternative approaches provide preventive care in addition to treatment of established conditions, define health as more than just the absence of disease, focus on natural healing as the treatment of choice, avoid invasive procedures to the extent possible, and approach individuals holistically dealing with their mental, emotional and spiritual needs in addition to the physical body. Many have their origins in the medical systems of non-Western cultures or in ancient healing traditions. Some alternative therapies are used instead of traditional Western "biomedical" procedures; others are complementary, used in addition to conventional care.

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Programs that provide comprehensive medical and/or surgical services on an inpatient or outpatient basis for people who have a targeted disease, condition or disorder.

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Programs that provide a full range of supportive services for terminally ill individuals who are in the final stages of their illnesses and for their families. Services may include medical care, pain and symptom management, home nurse visitation, case management, emotional and spiritual support, and bereavement services for the patient and members of the family. Hospice care may be provided at home, in a freestanding hospice facility, a hospice unit of a hospital or in long-term care facilities such as nursing homes.

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Health care facilities that are equipped with airtight tanks in which individuals who are suffering from decompression illness can be treated. After entry into the chamber, the barometric pressure is increased to the level which relieves the patient's symptoms, and then is very slowly decreased until the pressure in the tank is equal to outside pressure. Hyperbaric chambers are also used to treat gas gangrene, burns, lesions that have failed to heal, radiation-induced tissue damage, air embolism, smoke inhalation, carbon monoxide poisoning and chronic osteomyelitis, a bone infection.

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Programs that utilize one or a variety of techniques including nutrition education, exercise, special diets, protein sparing fasting, behaviour modification, hypnosis, medication or surgery to help individuals who have a weight control problem gain or lose weight to achieve a more healthful body weight and develop a lifestyle that allows them to maintain that weight.

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