Doctors need to find a way to use their skills to expand their practice. The growing demand for personal attention and service in medicine can provide an opportunity for physicians who see the benefits of meeting these needs.
Do not try to reinvent the wheel, learn from our experience, here are 6 tips that will help you successfully add medical aesthetics to your practice.
1. Do it because you want to do it.
Adding medical aesthetic treatments will add another dimension to your practice. Adding a cash-based pay center to your practice should give a big return. However, if you do not do what you really like, it will be shown on the bottom line. Since you are likely to spend more time and money than previously planned, you need to make sure that adding aesthetic medical procedures is what you really want to do.
Why are more and more doctors turning to these methods of cash-based aesthetic medicine? One reason is that fees are much higher than for reimbursable procedures.
2. Start with a roadmap.
You should have a clear strategy for what services, procedures and products you will offer. Do not try to be everything for everyone. Adding medical aesthetics usually combines medical and aesthetic treatments along with complementary skin care products.
One thing I strongly advocate is a plan. You must have a business plan that describes what you want to achieve (goals), and a roadmap on how you are going to get there. You must have a marketing plan to clearly outline what you are going to do in order to get the most out of your investment (time).
A very important part of your business plan is to clearly understand what minimally invasive procedures are and who makes them.
3. Product, equipment, service
Before you purchase any equipment, you should know what procedures you will perform in your practice. Hair removal, although popular, is very commoditized. You can focus on vascular and pigmented lesions, skin tightening, wrinkles and acne scars and skin rejuvenation. It is also important that your equipment is easily updated as new technologies become available and does not need to be replaced.
Do not forget that in each room there is enough space to emphasize the line of skin care that you will also wear. When choosing skin care products, choose the ones that you really believe. Otherwise, you do not have a huge opportunity for profit.
4. Making your dream
Since you do not want to become attached to the daily activities of the medical aesthetic part of the practice, you might consider hiring a director of medical aesthetics. This person must have exceptional customer service values and be talented enough to select and develop the right team to perform your medical aesthetic procedures.
The best part to offer medical aesthetic procedures is that in most states you do not need to perform actual procedures, you can hire an experienced aesthetics, RN, PA or NP to do this. This allows this part of your practice to earn income whether you are there or not.
5. Marketing and promotion
First of all, you should inform all your patients about your new aesthetic medicine procedures, but do not think that this is enough! Before your grand opening, you will need a comprehensive marketing plan. You can offer free information sessions on popular topics (for example, wellness) or a special advertising package.
6. Do not forget about the problems of regulation and insurance
Since you will include medical procedures in your practice, you need to make sure that you have adequate coverage of the responsibility for the procedures that you will perform. Although you may already have negligence insurance, it cannot go over to your medical aesthetic practice. Many insurers now require offices that add or extend cosmetic aesthetic procedures to their practice to document clinical and / or accredited training in all non-ablative methods before coverage policy is expanded. Consult your insurance provider and your legal advisor to make sure that you are covered.
Underwater theme here - Get ready! The key to the success of any business, including expanding your practice, is having clinical experience and constant cross-marketing of your accessible medical aesthetic procedures for your regular patient base.
As your aesthetic practice develops and develops, you will encounter the same growing pains that are inherent in any new business, the key is their identification and reaction to them.
This information was taken from part of the curriculum, which will be taught at the 2-day aesthetic medicine symposium of the International Association of Doctors in Aesthetic Medicine. Doctors can download the full version of the book “6 tips for adding aesthetic medical procedures to your practice” for free from http://www.theiapam.com/ebook
