Hospitals are beginning to offer alternative health care.

You may not be able to choose untested herbal treatments but alternative therapies with a history of positive results are beginning to show up in hospital services.

What hospitals choose to offer runs the gamut, from well-known therapies such as acupuncture to less familiar treatments like reiki, in which practitioners channel a patient’s energy by placing their hands on or just above specific locations on the body.

Patient demand is the top reason hospitals offer complementary and alternative therapies, cited by 85 percent. Clinical effectiveness? That comes in second, at 70 percent.