The Key to a Thriving Clinic Workplace

Help your organization flourish by building a strong foundation for success in the workplace. The first step? Conflict management. 

Differing perspectives, ideals, and aspirations are potential triggers for conflict in any workplace. It's important to be aware of this inevitability and to know how to tackle the problem. Conflict resolution is one of the keys to running a successful business organization.

Unresolved conflicts can directly impact your business by destroying the collaborative environment and creating hostility among employees. It might even lead to resignations in extreme cases.

But conflict resolution isn't always easy and must be approached carefully. There are several stages in a conflict and timing is crucial in achieving a resolution.

Cooperation is more likely to be achieved in the intial stages of conflict, so an earlier-- but unforced-- intervention tends to be most effective.

If left unresolved, conflict will, of course, negatively impact the workplace. Additionally, if there is too much pressure for the conflict to be resolved immediately, problems may not be carefully addressed and similar disagreements will arise again. 

Here are some tips for managing conflicts in the workplace:

Be proactive

According to Forbes.com, defining an acceptable behavior is a positive step in avoiding conflict. Effective communication is achieved when job descriptions are clearly defined and everyone is informed about what is expected of them. It is important to relay the message of what can and can't be tolerated in the workplace.

Listen and be impartial

Understand the nature of conflict, listen to both sides, and then start troubleshooting solutions. It is important to be impartial and maintain an unbiased and unprejudiced view about the matter at hand. Help those around you achieve their objectives. Know the underlying reason for their behaviors and actions. What they say and how they act may be different from how they actually feel.

Do not postpone conflict resolution

If a conflict does flair up, you will likely minimize its severity by dealing with it quickly. Otherwise, the situation could escalate and then eventually affect employee performance. Timing, again, is crucial.

It is also important to ensure that the situation is not addressed hastily without careful consideration. Your decision will directly affect the demeanor and performance of your staff and the outcome of such conflict resolution. Time spent identifying and understanding natural tensions will help to avoid unnecessary conflict.

Conflicts are opportunities

A disagreement can be an opportunity for growth, development, and learning. Divergent positions addressed properly can stimulate innovation and learning in ways that like-minds can’t even imagine. Smart leaders look for the upside in all differing opinions.

Read more on: http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikemyatt/2012/02/22/5-keys-to-dealing-with-workplace-conflict/

Plastic Surgeries for Men... Again

Recent trends in cosmetic surgery reveal that more and more men are requesting for aesthetic surgery. This may be attributed to men wanting to feel good and not wanting their female counterparts to look better than they do after the latter has gone to some rejuvenation procedures.

Nowadays, more men are looking forward to having a more balanced nose, a rejuvenated face and a trimmer waistline. There are those working dads in their late 40s who thinks to themselves that he used to look so goon in college. In a Business Insider, it was mentioned that these "athletic dads" tend to avail of jawline recontouring, liposuction, and a small eyelift.

According to American Society of Plastic Surgeons member Dr. Jay Lucas, MD, some of the most common procedures are eyelid rejuvenation, neck lifts, rhinoplasty, chin augmentation, and male breast reduction.

Eyelid Rejuvenation

Signs of aging are often shown in the eyes. Fortunately, surgery to restore the upper eyelids to a fresh and vibrant appearance with correction of any eyelid droop can be a good remedy. The lower lids can be rejuvenated by removing excess fat and repositioning this tissue over the cheek to eliminate the tear trough. This can be important not only in social situations, but also in how a person is viewed in the workplace.

Neck Lifts

Neck lifts help men get rid of the hanging skin and excess fat around his neck which obscures his jaw line and shows his signs of aging. This procedure helps men restore their youthful look to create a strong jaw line and a crisp chin-neck junction. Neck lifts are done as an out-patient procedure with minimal pain and a recovery of around two weeks.

Rhinoplasty and Chin Augmentation

These procedures suggest proportionality in the face of the patient and requires a great understanding of the patient's facial appearance. If the nose seems big, maybe the lower face is out of place, such as a small lower jaw or chin. To create a harmonious facial appearance, rhinoplasty along with chin augmentation is performed.

Liposuction

This is not a weight loss technique, rather it is a contouring tool which reshapes the abdominal area to create a sleeker frame. Male patients are however encouraged to go on a healthy diet and exercise before availing of this procedure as an adjunct to improve appearance.

In our culture, looking good and youthful is prized, men included. The advent of the advent of latest technology and availability of several plastic surgery procedures drive men to look and feel good themselves. Med Spa owners may capitalize on this trend to open their clinics not only to the women, but the men clientèle as well.

Read more on: http://www.plasticsurgery.org/news/plastic-surgery-blog/most-commonly-requested-plastic-surgery-for-men.html

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Plastic Surgery & Body Enhancement Infographic

The business of plastic surgery and body enhancement.

How much are people really spending on body enhancing procedures? The infographic below answers these questions in interesting detail.

Refuting Negative Online Reviews

Protecting your medical spa, personal, and professional reputation online can be damn near impossible.

With internet marketing opportunities on the rise, today's aesthetic clinicians are faced with a "double edge sword". One side, if you don't advertise yourself on the internet you have less of a chance to gain presence and new business over your competitors. The other side of the blade is that you are opening yourself and your practice up to negative comments and reviews.

While patients do have a right to exercise The First Amendment, what we really find in our industry is that positive reviews don't come freely. Seldom does a "customer" of a business post how wonderful a place is or what a great experience they had. Typically, rave reviews are solicited by the business encouraging their customers to post reviews if they are "happy". Whereas, someone who is disgruntled in some sort of way has no apprehension whatsoever in posting their views on the internet.

With many sites not requiring the identity of the poster to be verified, this opens up the "Wild West", so-to-speak, for anyone to post anything he or she desires. This also includes your competitors who can acquire an email address with any vendor, then post anonymous false reviews of you and your practice.

How can you combat this? First, you have to be diligent in canvassing your reputation on the web. You have a choice to let the comments go, or research them to see if you can determine who they are so you can have the opportunity to correct the review (if it is a legitimate complaint). You can also report the review to the posting internet site with a clear description of why you believe the post should be removed. However, there is no guarantee you will even receive a response.

Many social media marketing gurus state that all positive reviews on a business tends to make the consumer think something is a little fishy with the business, so one bad review can add to the business's authenticity. Take book reviews on Amazon for example. I know I read through them all, good and bad, then make my decision. After reading a few, you get a general idea of what reviews are just "out there" (i.e., insults, poor language, obscenities, etc.) and which ones are more reliable and genuine.

David Goldberg, M.D., J.D. has written an excellent article for Dermatology Times entitled "Physicians have limited recourse against online defamation". This is a must read article for any clinician!

From the post:

There are known instances of dentists being accused online by their competitors of being child molesters. Similarly, laudatory online comments can be written by the physician himself.

One way to try to work around such frivolous online statements is to have patients sign a waiver that has them promise, in case they are not happy with their care, that they will not post online comments to that effect. The way such contracts are enforceable is as follows.

In general, websites acting as platforms for outside commentary are not liable for defamation suits. They are, according to North Carolina neurosurgeon/attorney Jeffrey Segal, M.D., J.D., subject to copyright laws. Waivers can be written to assign copyright to the treating physician. If the treating physician asks the patient to sign such a "copyright" waiver, the physician can claim ownership of any anonymous review of the practice and demand that such an online review then be removed. There are now examples of website posts removing such deleterious copyrighted comments.

Needless to say, not all patients will agree to sign such a waiver. Some may feel such waivers are simply "gag orders." The reality is that disgruntled patients are free to speak with family, friends, other physicians, lawyers, hospital peer review committees or credentialing committees. There are many appropriate places where patients can express their views.

This guest post is written by Paula D. Young RN, author of Advanced IPL & Laser Training For Non-Physicians and co-owner of Young Medical Spa in Center Valley PA.

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The New Medical Spa MD Podcast

Medical Spa MD now has its own podcast for physicians and medical spas and the first couple of episodes are now live.

I've been looking to start a podcast for Medical Spa MD for a while now, and we've finally launched.

With each new episode, we'll talk about cosmetic medicine, plastic surgery, cosmetic lasers, clinic operations, management, marketing, sales, treaments, cost controls and everything else you'll want to know. We'll be asking (and hopefully answering) the tough questions. How do different cosmetic lasers compare? Which IPL company provides the best service? How should you compensate and motivate your staff? How to market your clinic? Where to spend your advertising budget? How to get started. How to grow. How to compete. Finally, what does that mean for your business and lifestyle?

To start, we're interviewing physicians who discuss their own concept of personal brand and how they've managed their careers outside of clinical medicine. 

In the first episode we talk to Dr. Greg Bledsoe about the Medical Fusion Conference and his desire to help physicians control more of their career. Greg's speaking from experience here. He's a leader in expedition medicine and organizes his other businesses to facilitate the lifestyle and income that he wants.

In episode 2 we're talking with Dr. Elliot Justin of Swift MD about telemedicine and the efficient delivery of medical services remotely. Elliot talks candidly about Swift MD and how company got started and functions operationally. He's also got some views on the state of US healthcare that resonate with almost every other physician I know.

We've already got another few episodes being edited and a long list of physicians and others who are scheduled to appear. My goal is to get out at least one every other week for the foreseeable future.

This new podcast will focus on providing relevant information for physicians, with a special emphasis on cosmetic practices, techniques, marketing, operations and just about everything you'll want to be aware of the field of nonsurgical cosmetic medicine. While we'll have plenty of physician interviews, we'll also be talking to technology companies, marketing gurus, and others about what it takes to run a successful medical practice, and exactly how to use these tactics and operations inside your own clinic. We'll be providing broad overviews as well as delving down into specific treatments and 'how tos'.

The Medical Spa MD Podcast is a permenant addition. You can find it by clicking on the link in the main navigation at the top the page. You'll also be able to subscribe to the RSS feed directly or subscribe via iTunes as soon as they index the feed.

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think. What topics would you like us to cover in the future? What guests would you like us to interview?

The "Donda West Law" is in Effect

On January 1st the State of California put into effect the “Donda West Law”.

For those of you who are not aware of the details behind this law, Donda West was the mother of the much controversial rapper, Kanye West (the one who went up on stage and made an a** of himself when Taylor Swift was receiving her award).

Cosmetic Surgery Times reports that in 2007, Donda West died a day after she underwent an 8 hour procedure for breast reduction, liposuction and a tummy tuck. The L.A. County Coroner stated that Donda died of "coronary artery disease and multiple post-operative factors due to or as a consequence of liposuction and mammoplasty." Apparently, the autopsy results showed Donda died of pre-existing coronary artery disease and “multiple post-operative factors” a day after the procedures. The surgeon who operated on Donda surrendered his medical license in April.

The Donda West Law prohibits doctors from performing elective cosmetic surgery without a physical examination and clearance from a medical professional. The law requires an “appropriate” physical exam within 30 days before a procedure and “written clearance” from a doctor, nurse practitioner or physician’s assistant before cosmetic surgery is performed.

"Clearance of a medical professional" is the confusing part of the equation. Apparently, the plastic surgeon who performed her procedure wasn't declared a "medical professional" in the eyes of the lawmakers. For those practitioners who are currently performing invasive and minimally invasive procedures (such as laser liposuction) in other States, if you are not doing so already, you may want to re-evaluate your pre-operative procedure to include a physical examination, blood work and possibly a sign off from the patient's PCP or cardiologist.

In the infamous words of the sergeant on the 1981 episodes of "Hill Street Blues", "be careful, it's a jungle out there"!

Author: Paula D. Young RN runs internal operations and training at Young Medical Spa and is the author of the Medical Spa Aesthetics Course, Study Guide, and Advanced IPL & Laser Training course for medical estheticians and laser technicians.

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Medical Spas are still growing.

Spa trends as reported by the International Spa Associations Members show that Medical Spas are still growing.

Medical spas: Is there a doctor in the spa? The number of medical spas continues to grow at the fastest rate of all the spa types, according to ISPA. The figure is 85 percent growth since July 2007.

While most people aren't going for a pedicure, people are using them for Botox, filler treatments and even a prescription for the new eyelash-lengthening drug, Ellis said.

Eyelash lengthing drug?

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Botax: Taxes on Botox and plastic surgery?

The medical spa and plastic surgery community is in an uproar over some proposed legislation that could make a trip to the plastic surgeon or a Botox injection at the medical spa more expensive.

People are calling it the Botax. It's a 5 percent tax on elective procedures such as Botox, Juvederm, Restylane, laser hair removal, facelifts, breast augmentation and other nips and tucks that lawmakers are hoping will help fund the nearly $1 trillion health care plan.

The bill says the tax would not apply to surgeries to fix a deformity either from birth, accident, or disease. It would apply to procedures like face lifts, liposuction, cosmetic implants and teeth whitening.

But as Dr. Paula Hicks points out sometimes cosmetic surgeries have very medical purposes.

"Certainly breast reduction surgery is a very good surgery for a lot of women and a lot of them will get denied by the insurance company as cosmetic surgery," said Dr. Hicks of the Ave Medical Laser Spa and Laser Clinic.

Under the proposal, Dr. Hicks says an eyelid tuck, which can help with vision, would cost an extra $100 in taxes on top of the $2,000 price tag for the procedure.

She says that could be a big hit to her business since most of her clients are not wealthy.

"Most of these procedures are not done on people that are rich and have endless amounts of money, it's middle class working women that would be targeted with this tax and it's really not fair."

According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons 86 percent of cosmetic surgery patients are women. Sixty percent of them have annual incomes between $30,000 and $90,000.

The tax, if approved, would raise $6 billion over 10 years.

Allergan, which sells Botox, took a civil rights angle: The tax “discriminates against women,” the company said in a statement. Some 86% of cosmetic surgery patients are working women ages 35-50, with an average annual income of $55,000 per year, according to Allergan.

“What’s next? Are we going to tax people who color their hair?” the CEO of Medicis, a drug company that sells fillers, told Dow Jones Newswires.

The American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery, which is fighting the provision, says “a large portion of those being taxed would be the baby-boomer generation. And as this age group continues to age, the more interest will be generated in cosmetic procedures.”

A spokesman for the 2,500-member group said they were surprised to see the provision in the Senate bill this week, because it had already surfaced and sank in July. The tax is not in the House bill.

The tax is on elective procedures, and would not apply to any procedure to correct birth defects or issues arising from disease, accidents or trauma. The CBO says it would raise about $5 billion over the next decade.

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The Medical Spa Aesthics Training Course & Study Guide for medspas & laser clinics.

The Medical Spa Aesthetics Training Course & Study Guide for Medspas, Laser Clinics & Cosmetic Medical Practices.

NOW AVAILABLE!

Written by Paula D. Young, RN, the Advanced Medical Spa Esthetics Training Course & Study Guide is a two part learning cirriculum for non-physicians. The course is delivered in two parts that include a text book and a study guide.

This is an invaluable tool for any Laser Center, Med Spa, Plastic Surgery or Cosmetic Dermatology practice to train every new medical spa staff member on what cosmetic proceedures you offer, how they work, and what alternatives there are.

This study course is being used in medical esthetic schools and leading medical spas and laser clinics to provide every new esthetician and laser tech with a study course, and test their knowledge before they're hired.

For the first time, your laser clinic or medspa staff has the latest information on the newest nonsurgical medical treatments, from Botox, Restylane, and the newest filler injections, to fractional CO2 laser resurfacing and IPL treatments.

Your medical spa staffs knowledge and expertise is a critical componant to your success. Now you can be confident that your front desk, estheticians and laser technicians have the information that they need, and can answer patient questions with confidence.

Memberswill only be available to existing Medical Spa MD Members so be sure that you've signed up for your free membership.

Med Spa & Laser Clinic News

Outlook gets ugly for plastic surgery firm
guardian.co.uk -

Detecting Skin Cancer
CBS News

More than 5000 Dermatologists gather in Dubai to Attend the Ninth Edition of Dubai Derma
Zawya

Plastic surgery for that competitive edge
Globe and Mail

Medical Spa Marketplace: Classified ads for medspas and physicians.

Medical Spa MD now has an area for classified ads where you can buy and sell individual items.

Since our previous classified ad provider closed down, I haven't been able to find a suitable replacement so I bit the bullet and created one to go along with the Select Partner program.

This new area is for INDIVIDUALS to list items they have for sale. (If you're looking to fill a position you could use it for that too.) It is NOT for businesses to list their products or services. Businesses that want to sell are invited to join the Select Partners program.

If you have something you want to sell, list it. It's free.

Update on 2008-12-12 01:57 by Medical Spa MD

Within the first 24 hours of adding the classifieds area for IPL's, lasers, and medical spa equipment and products we listed a Palomar 1064 and Fraxel 1500sr. Excellent.

If you have something you're looking to sell... list it. It's free, which is an incredible price.

Medspa Staff: Supporting customer decisions.

For your Medical Spa staff, Return Customer has some excelling thoughts on the decision making process and the way that support affects client happiness.

On why you need to reaffirm customer decisions:

There is always a bit of uncertainty when a customer decides to make a purchase. By immediately giving positive feedback to the customer that they made the right decision, you can remove that doubt.

I went to lunch last week at la Madeleine, a French bakery and restaurant. I wasn’t quite sure what to order since everything was new to me. I selected a sandwich and when I placed my order I was hoping that I had made a good decision.

And on ending all your medspa client encounters on a happy note:

The one thing your customers will remember is that last few moments of your interaction with them.

Our recent family vacation took us through Las Vegas’ airport to catch a connecting flight. As we landed, one of the Southwest Airlines flight attendants started singing an Elvis song to us over the intercom. She had a beautiful voice and even customized the words to us, her beloved Southwest passengers. Her song was followed by a large round of applause from those aboard the plane.

That act of song, put a smile on many passengers faces and wrapped up that flight on a positive note.

When you end with something good, people start to forget problems or issues they may have had earlier. A happy ending can completely turn things around in your favor.

Why is that? People have short term memories. If, during your interaction with a customer, something goes really bad, that is all they think about. Until something comes along to replace their seething anger, it will linger.

You can counter a bad experience by ending with an uplifting, positive conclusion. That newer, pleasant memory will then replace the negative thoughts of earlier troubles.

People love happy endings. Shouldn’t you try to create more of them for your customers?

The employee taking my order said with excitement: “that’s a great choice, it’s what I eat.”

Instantly I was pacified and confident I had made a good decision. My lunch turned out to be a good one.

Why is it so important to reassure the customer at the point of sale?

Your customers have mental distractions and concerns weighing them down and preventing them from fully enjoying their purchase. If these thoughts and fears are not neutralized, they are foreshadowing what will really happen.

At the point of sale, you can reassure, comfort, and instill confidence in the customer that their decision was the right one.

Armed with this confidence, your customers are more likely to be happy with their purchase. They’ll be less likely to have buyer’s remorse and return your product the next day.

Medical Spa Classified Ads: IPLs, lasers & spa stuff.

New classified section for cosmetic medical & spa equipment.

 
Here's the new classified section for Medical Spa MD: Medical Spa Equipment

Here's where you can add a new listing.

If you've got something you're trying to move, now you've got the place to do it. There are currently four listing areas: IPLs, Lasers, Medical Equipment, and Spa Equipment. I'll add others if needed.

If  you've got something listed elsewhere or on consignment, I'd encourage you to list it here as well. Medical Spa MD has more than 18,000 unique monthly visitors and a large contingent of physicians. Better yet, the listings are free and there's no 'percentage of sale' so you've got no complaints there. The site is up and fully functional although there will be improvements as we go along.

I'm anxious to find out if this is a need that many have. Another middle-man gone.

Note: The classifieds will also be monitored and spam or solicitations will be removed. Equipment only for now.