Incorporating a multi-modal approach to patient care into your clinic
To deliver great energy-based medical treatments, you have to have the right tools for the job. Any true professional knows that without the right tools, there’s a limit to what you can do.
We don’t expect artists to paint a masterpiece with a single brush—why should medical aesthetics be different?
If you want to give your patients the beautiful, healthy skin they deserve, you can’t just rely on a single device to do the job. Instead, you need to offer a multi-modal approach, one that uses a variety of energy-based devices and other treatment modalities to produce the results your clients are looking for.
In this podcast, Dr. Jill Waibel—board-certified dermatologist and owner of the Miami Dermatology and Laser Institute in South Miami—discusses how she uses a multi-modal approach in her clinic.
Here, we’ll briefly cover a few of the highlights from the podcast, but you’ll want to make sure you listen to the full podcast to get Dr. Waibel’s specific tips and recommendations.
Pick the right tools for the job
At Dr. Waibel’s practice, she has over 50 devices that she uses to treat a wide variety of conditions. While this is a lot more devices than you’ll find at most MedSpas, it’s still important to have at least a few different energy-based devices on hand in any decent practice. As nice as it would be to have a one-size-treats-all laser. Different types of skin issues occur at different levels of the skin and require different types of lasers to treat.
More often than not, your patients don’t just want brown spots removed. They want healthy, beautiful skin. To give them that, you’re going to need to take care of several issues, which means you’ll need a multi-modal approach that incorporates multiple treatment strategies.
Streamline your process
The upside to a multi-modal approach is that your patients get the results they want. The downside is that using multiple approaches means treating patients with a variety of treatments during a single visit.
That can be a bit of a challenge, especially when you’re trying to run a busy MedSpa.
To overcome these hurdles, you need to carefully think through your process. At Dr. Waibel’s practice, she has spent a lot of time figuring out her flow—the order of her treatments, placement of devices and other tools, and how to give her patients what they need in the most effective, efficient, and patient-focused way possible.
Depending on your practice, what tools and techniques you use, the resources and staff you have available, and the expectations of your patients, your flow will be unique to you. The important thing is to take the time to think through everything, come up with a plan, and then adjust as needed.
Set the right expectations with your patients
In addition to figuring out your process, it’s also important to set proper expectations with your patients. The more treatments you are providing and tools you are using, the longer appointments will take.
On the whole, this is good for your patients, because they can get the results they want in far fewer visits. The problem is, most people aren’t used to spending one-to-two hours at a MedSpa.
People are busy and often have unrealistic expectations for how long a multi-modal office visit and subsequent recovery period will take. If you don’t take the time to explain things in advance, you can end up with a lot of frustrated clients.
Conclusion
While it might be tempting to buy a single device and call it good, the truth is that—like most things in medicine—you get the best results with a multi-modal approach. For that, you need a variety of energy-based treatment options and devices.
The good news is, you don’t need 50 different lasers to meet your patients’ needs. As Dr. Waibel points out in her podcast, she treats most of her patients with the same 5-10 devices (to hear some of her most-often used lasers and what she uses them for, you can listen to the full podcast here).
If you want to give your patients the results they deserve—the kind of results that bring them back for more—you need to take a multi-modal approach to patient care. It’s a bigger investment, to be sure, but it’s an investment that will produce returns for you and your patients for years to come.
Fortunately, you don’t have to figure all of this out on your own. Here at Candela, our team is dedicated to helping your practice grow. We have a wealth of experience with helping MedSpas meet their clients’ needs and can advise you on which energy-based devices to buy and when to buy them. To schedule a call with our team, reach out to us here.