Lasers!

[PMR_doc]

Greetings good derm folk. Have a question for all of you cosmetically inclined people. I recently acquired a wellness type clinic, at a great price with great staff and that makes a good profit. Unknown to me though, the clinic also does laser hair removal. I was not aware of this prior to my purchase. Not a bad thing, just unexpected. With that said - I know very little about lasers and have no real interest in learning about to operate them. Are physicians supposed to know how the lasers work or is that mostly something that's done by the techs? There are laser techs that are all certified, but I guess I don't know the liability that goes in this so not sure whether I should ax this portion of the clinic if I'm supposed to be an expert on lasers. Do you good dermies out there have extensive knowledge of lasers and how to operate them or is this something you mostly have your techs do?

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[asmallchild]

Greetings good derm folk. Have a question for all of you cosmetically inclined people. I recently acquired a wellness type clinic, at a great price with great staff and that makes a good profit. Unknown to me though, the clinic also does laser hair removal. I was not aware of this prior to my purchase. Not a bad thing, just unexpected. With that said - I know very little about lasers and have no real interest in learning about to operate them. Are physicians supposed to know how the lasers work or is that mostly something that's done by the techs? There are laser techs that are all certified, but I guess I don't know the liability that goes in this so not sure whether I should ax this portion of the clinic if I'm supposed to be an expert on lasers. Do you good dermies out there have extensive knowledge of lasers and how to operate them or is this something you mostly have your techs do?

You'll find your question will have different answers depending on the state/location you are based in. If you are asking a dermatologist, then yes, I absolutely do believe a physician should know how the laser works before offering it as part of their clinic. While techs may predominantly handle the laser (at least in my state), I would be hesitant to offer any technology where I personally didn't know how it functioned, why/if it offered benefit to the patient, and how to fix any issues that may result from inappropriate/overly aggressive use of the laser by my tech.

More specifically, in my area, laser hair removal has become so unprofitable that very few doctors I know will personally operate that particular laser. At least for my area, I would be better served (financially and mentally) by running a busy general derm clinic instead of running a laser hair removal clinic

 

[PMR_doc]

I do agree with you that laser hair removal, like many technologies out there that are no longer new, has become significantly cheaper. Having gotten extensive laser hair removal myself too, I agree that the price is significantly lower now than a few years ago. With that said, in reviewing finances recently of this place, the laser portion seems to generate a pretty decent profit - and again, this is all laser tech driven, no physician involvement at this time. But thank you for your answer, it's helpful to know others' thoughts on this and I will check with my state on this.

You'll find your question will have different answers depending on the state/location you are based in. If you are asking a dermatologist, then yes, I absolutely do believe a physician should know how the laser works before offering it as part of their clinic. While techs may predominantly handle the laser (at least in my state), I would be hesitant to offer any technology where I personally didn't know how it functioned, why/if it offered benefit to the patient, and how to fix any issues that may result from inappropriate/overly aggressive use of the laser by my tech.

More specifically, in my area, laser hair removal has become so unprofitable that very few doctors I know will personally operate that particular laser. At least for my area, I would be better served (financially and mentally) by running a busy general derm clinic instead of running a laser hair removal clinic

 

[Dral]

I would definitely check out your responsibility before moving forward.

If a tech messes something up, you could be liable.

I know in the state I trained, a doctor was supposed to be on site whenever a laser was being operated.

If your state is like this...and an event happens while you're off in another clinic seeing pts and signing notes, you could be toast.