MedSpa

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EctopicFetus

Keeping it funky enough
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I have a buddy who is thinking of starting a medspa / vein clinic. browsing the internet I see others have done this including some EPs. I am wondering what insights others have. I have been offered to be an equal partner and am trying to educate myself and seems like you guys would be a great place to get some info.

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Very interested myself...
Too bad my area is saturated:(

Really considering this sort if thing though.


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You know those people who come in requesting plastics for the partial thickness 1 cm linear laceration on their 3 year old girl? How would you like an entire clinic filled with them?
 
You know those people who come in requesting plastics for the partial thickness 1 cm linear laceration on their 3 year old girl? How would you like an entire clinic filled with them?

My former boss does aesthetics 1 day a week; she sublets from a derm. It's ALL CASH. The people about whom you speak are not those that go to these spas.
 
my fiance (also EM trained) is wants to open a spa one day. within the next year she's going to be working at an aesthetics clinic a couple hours per week doing botox and laser hair removal. all cash. problem we haven't figured out is liability coverage.
 
You know those people who come in requesting plastics for the partial thickness 1 cm linear laceration on their 3 year old girl? How would you like an entire clinic filled with them?

When they pay cash and I can get them through I am fine with it. I get how you feel, thats how I feel about the pain mgmt guys.

This however would be a challenge and is quick. A derm guy I rotated with got $425 for sclerotherapy. He was in the room less than 10 mins.. I couldnt believe it.
 
Anyone know someone doing this and how profitable it is, hours etc? Did they join a bigger franchise deal like artemis (seems like a money waster to me)
 
I'd be interested in this too... but I bet there's a lot of red tape.
 
ectopic hit the nail on the head... there are some things i couldn't be paid enough to do. pain is one of them. aesthetics, i dunno. given that i do well w/ patient satisfaction, i'm sure i'd do fine but - i like taking care of sick people in a bizarre way that i can't seem to get over.
 
ectopic hit the nail on the head... there are some things i couldn't be paid enough to do. pain is one of them. aesthetics, i dunno. given that i do well w/ patient satisfaction, i'm sure i'd do fine but - i like taking care of sick people in a bizarre way that i can't seem to get over.

You mean you like being a doctor instead of a beautician? I applaud the entrepreneurship, but I couldn't do it, even at $425 a pop.
 
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To be clear I wouldnt give up the practice of EM. I would simply cut my hours and transition them to the other job.

Injecting some veins, botox, juvederm etc seems easy.. the money seems great and me and my partner have some good connections we could leverage.

This is a field that interests me (though I would never do this to myself). Pain is of no interest. I get enough of that tomfoolery in the ED. Though some of the hospitals I work in are in "rich" neighborhoods. The patients are nice and outside of a few rare exceptions (once every 6 months), I only call plastics when I want to. The research is still ongoing. We havent yet committed to it but hope to mitigate our financial risk and grow as appropriate.
 
To be clear I wouldnt give up the practice of EM. I would simply cut my hours and transition them to the other job.

Injecting some veins, botox, juvederm etc seems easy.. the money seems great and me and my partner have some good connections we could leverage.

This is a field that interests me (though I would never do this to myself). Pain is of no interest. I get enough of that tomfoolery in the ED. Though some of the hospitals I work in are in "rich" neighborhoods. The patients are nice and outside of a few rare exceptions (once every 6 months), I only call plastics when I want to. The research is still ongoing. We havent yet committed to it but hope to mitigate our financial risk and grow as appropriate.

Exactly. People in this thread seem to have missed the point a bit - to supplement, not replace, your income. It's all cash. You can't argue with that. The laser - $150 large, or more. If you do one day a week, all you make may go to paying for the laser.

But it's good. You go where the people are - retirees, tourists, the idle rich - and take their money.
 
So how do you go about starting one? What are the basic steps that you have to take and hoops that you must jump through to start a med spa?
 
So how do you go about starting one? What are the basic steps that you have to take and hoops that you must jump through to start a med spa?

You know the way you have to get credentialed to work in a hospital or to admit? If you're in the office, you don't have any credentialing. Also, if you do all cash, no insurance panels. For malpractice, call your carrier and ask them what the rates are for what you will be doing. Laser, Juvi-derm, botox, Restalayne, all those you can ask.

Then, what do you need? A location, and to let people know - e.g., advertising, business cards, website. Set up an LLC or C or S corp (as I know next to nothing about any of those), and you should be ready to roll.

I don't know about any books, but you could pay a consulting fee to someone outside your physical area (i.e., a non-competitor) to help you out.
 
You know the way you have to get credentialed to work in a hospital or to admit? If you're in the office, you don't have any credentialing. Also, if you do all cash, no insurance panels. For malpractice, call your carrier and ask them what the rates are for what you will be doing. Laser, Juvi-derm, botox, Restalayne, all those you can ask.

Then, what do you need? A location, and to let people know - e.g., advertising, business cards, website. Set up an LLC or C or S corp (as I know next to nothing about any of those), and you should be ready to roll.

I don't know about any books, but you could pay a consulting fee to someone outside your physical area (i.e., a non-competitor) to help you out.

Holy cow....

And where do we generally get the products?

I guess we should hire an aesthetician to help out?

My parents have their own small business so they know how to set up an S corp and an LLC. From what they've told me, it's pretty straightforward.

I guess the next thing to figure out is where to learn how to use these products (a workshop or something). I'm sure it's very easy.
 
Holy cow....

And where do we generally get the products?

I guess we should hire an aesthetician to help out?

My parents have their own small business so they know how to set up an S corp and an LLC. From what they've told me, it's pretty straightforward.

I guess the next thing to figure out is where to learn how to use these products (a workshop or something). I'm sure it's very easy.

You know those weekend "CME"s? Where they teach you to do this? There you are. Seek out dermies and offer to pay to learn some procedures, and/or ask if you can shadow in their offices for the cosmetic procedures.

As for supplies, I don't know, 'cause I don't do aesthetics. You could call one of the derm residents where you are and ask them, and there are a few dermies on SDN, along with a forum. A thread like "where does one get supplies such as Restalayne?" might work, although traffic is lower on the derm forum, and you might get flak. If you are relocating from Chicago, you could call a local place (to let them know you won't be competing). Again, if you have a consultant, they can also tell you where to buy. And, if you're not full time, I don't know that having an aesthetician is cost-effective.

And best business is word-of-mouth. You can start out where your new job is. The nurses and staff can come to you. Give them a discount, and - most important of all - OF ALL - OF ALL - is don't do a half-assed job, don't screw it up, don't over-promise, and don't **** it up. All you need is to screw up ONE person, by being a cowboy or trying too much or too hard, and you are out of business, like a fart in the wind.
 
I guess the next thing to figure out is where to learn how to use these products (a workshop or something). I'm sure it's very easy.
It's also really easy to **** that stuff up too.

The local medspas love to refer their patients over to us after they've burned/scarred them with lasers, dropped a brow/caused ptosis with Botox, or incorrectly (and even intravascularly) injected fillers.
 
It's also really easy to **** that stuff up too.

The local medspas love to refer their patients over to us after they've burned/scarred them with lasers, dropped a brow/caused ptosis with Botox, or incorrectly (and even intravascularly) injected fillers.

See my post just before yours.
 
Oh, and, just as an aside, in case any derms show up...one of the derms in their forum didn't want to "sink to EM's level" (<-- I did NOT make that up - it's there in black and white), which was posted in a thread that referred to concerted blatant cheating on dermatology board certification exams. They (derms) pass around saved questions that have been reproduced. Oh, and that comment is from the person that posted above!

We may be a lot of things as EM, but we're not cheaters. So, no matter what any of them bring - 500s on their boards, $500K/year, diamonds the size of Chiclets* - we're still cleaner.

(*credit Michelle Au for that.)
 
Way to dig up a 2 month old thread.


Your only contributions to that thread consisted of an almost shocking inability to understand basic written English (even after it had been explained to you by 3 different people), and a series of childish jabs directed at anyone who tried to correct you, as well as dermatologists in general. Yes, there really was no need to "sink to your level."


I know plenty of people in EM. You guys have recall questions too.

An "almost shocking inability to understand basic written English"? Hyperbole much? Maybe it's all those nights and weekends off - shouldn't you be in bed?

And your insults are tired and not borne out in truth. Regardless of that, you also seem easily insulted, and somewhat hypocritical to deride me for "a two month old thread", which you then, which seems your forte, recapitulate. You really are easily offended. However, in the real world, where the rest of the non-cream of the crop reside (just like us "lowly" and base EM docs), I would posit that they make their own decisions, versus the damning injury that seems to have left you rent like Lucifer in Paradise Lost:

"and in half cut sheere, nor staid,
But with swift wheele reverse, deep entring shar'd
All his right side; then SATAN first knew pain,
And writh'd him to and fro convolv'd; so sore
The griding sword with discontinuous wound
Pass'd through him, but th' Ethereal substance clos'd
Not long divisible, and from the gash
A stream of Nectarous humor issuing flow'd
Sanguin, such as Celestial Spirits may bleed,

And all his Armour staind ere while so bright."

Paradise Lost, Book VI

and I would think that, having seen the scholarly nature of my EM colleagues (many of which who choose to try to hide such things, but these such things are belied by what they say and in which manner it is said - they can't hide that they are smart), that they could keep their own counsel, and can peruse the aforementioned thread at their leisure and give leave to "the peanut gallery", the "hoi polloi", the "unwashed masses", the "proletariat", the plebeians, of the medical community - not the bourgeoisie, the patricians, the blue bloods - to make up their own minds.

As for your claim that we "have recall questions too", I can swear an affidavit, under penalty of perjury, that I have never seen, heard of, nor had any information that any recall questions for EM exist. Your statement reeks of "you do it, too!", without any actual bearing in fact, apart from your anecdote - against which mine abuts. The plural of anecdote is not data, but, at the same time, I would challenge any of my colleagues to 'fess up as to whether they are aware of such "recall questions".

And this is in the top 10 of epic posts I've written on SDN. I just hope that the derail has been rerailed. But what would I know, with my almost shocking inability to understand basic written English?
 
It's also really easy to **** that stuff up too.

The local medspas love to refer their patients over to us after they've burned/scarred them with lasers, dropped a brow/caused ptosis with Botox, or incorrectly (and even intravascularly) injected fillers.

Easy to *** it up? Why? I inject sharp objects in people all day. Regrding errors and patients being sent to you.. YOu do know this is the EM forum..

I agree about being good and not cutting corners. It simply wont work in a competitive cash business. I do think though if you train (and I have good friends in derm and plastics) it just cant be that hard.

FWIW I wouldnt buy a laser, the goal is trying to do this without a huge cash outlay up front.

Lastly, if you want to know where to get the stuff go right to the pharma folks. I googled " botox" got to their page.. Found contact us..

http://www.botoxcosmetic.com/Contact_Us.aspx

I bet if I called that number I could meet with a rep in 12 hours.. Oh and I didnt know it but they do Botox, Juvederm, Latisse too. Could find other options as well. Again for me this isnt a career changer. This would simply be a career extender and a way to make money on the side. e.g cut my EM hours

http://www.botoxcosmetic.com/botox_physician_info/Administration.aspx

Lots out there to learn. I do think it wouldnt take long to get pretty good at it.
 
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