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Article
Practice management tips for aesthetic offices
Social media, an up-to-date web site, and a regular email newsletter highlighting what is new in your practice are ways to market yourself and your practice. Experts at the 2015 AAD also advise developing relationships with plastic surgery peers and carrying products for purchase at the office.
Using social media to reach out to patients and investing to make the office comfortable for patients, particularly if aesthetic medicine is offered, are some tips that leading clinicians offered here at a symposium on advanced practice management held during the 73rd annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology (San Francisco, 2015).
“Building a cosmetic practice is no easy task,” says David J. Goldberg, M.D., J.D., director Skin Laser & Surgery Specialists of N.Y. and N.J. “The first thing is that you need a lot of space.”
Dr. Goldberg encourages dermatologists to develop relationships with plastic surgeons. In this way, they can have patients referred to their practices, and in turn, they can refer their patients for plastic surgery if they are seeking such care.
With more dermatological services available, it is more cost-effective for dermatologists to operate in a group practice rather than operate as solo practitioners, Dr. Goldberg says.
In terms of staff, dermatologists can decide to terminate staff members if they are not performing well in the practice. It is illegal, however, to terminate patients on the basis of age, gender, or race.
Clinicians should attend meetings and seminars, to demonstrate to their patients that they are interested in professional development and acquiring new knowledge and skills, Dr. Goldberg says.
Being active on social media, having an up-to-date web site, and regularly emailing a newsletter to patients highlighting what is new in the practice are all methods of reaching out to patients, notes Dr. Goldberg.
Michael H. Gold, M.D., Dermatology, Dermatologic Surgery & Aesthetic/Cosmetic Surgery in Nashville, Tenn., says energy-based technologies that are designed for home-based use should be carried by dermatologists in their offices and be available for purchase by patients. Patients can then purchase these devices at the dermatologist’s office rather than retail outlets. “It is about one-stop shopping for the patient,” Dr. Gold says.
