By Michael Meyer, Writer/Editor, American Med Spa Association

In states that are not governed by the corporate practice of medicine, anyone from a physician to a layperson can legally own a medical spa, provided they employ a qualified medical professional—often a physician—to oversee their medical operations. This person is generally known as a medical director, and they are responsible for creating and maintaining a safe, compliant medical environment. They provide supervision and oversight to the caregivers who perform medical aesthetic procedures, and they craft the protocols under which the practice operates. The buck stops with them—if a treatment is medical in nature, it's ultimately their responsibility.

But for non-physicians who are trying to open a medical spa, hiring a medical director can prove to be surprisingly difficult. After all, if you're not in contact with physicians on a regular basis, how would you even know where to start? But there are solutions. Here's a quick look at how people in medical aesthetics can connect with prospective medical directors.

Networking

As is the case with most situations in the working world, creating a network of professionals is extremely beneficial. When we asked AmSpa Members how they met their medical directors, many of them said that they'd known their medical directors from previous jobs. Others mentioned that their medical directors had been referred by people with whom they'd previously worked.

Of course, if you haven't worked extensively at other practices, or you're coming into medical aesthetics from another industry, it can be very difficult to establish the sort of network you'll need to find a medical director this way. However, there's no time like the present to get started. Events such as The Medical Spa Show and Medical Spa & Aesthetic Boot Camps are great places to meet other professionals who could perhaps help you find the perfect medical director for your medical spa. In fact, you could very well meet a suitable medical director at one of these events. It's one of the many ways in which becoming part of the larger medical aesthetics community can be beneficial to you.

Job Websites

You can also try to hire a medical director using traditional job websites, such as Indeed or CareerBuilder. On one hand, this is a convenient way to find candidates from near and far, and it could yield a deep, talented pool of applicants; on the other, it's a shot in the dark, and it'll be up to you to conduct a thorough interview process and review their references to find someone who's the right fit for your practice. Also, if you don't live in an area with a relatively large population, you might have some trouble finding qualified candidates.

Still, plenty of practices find qualified, reliable medical directors via job websites—it's a perfectly viable way to conduct your search.

Medical Director Groups

Some companies have been formed specifically to create connections between medical aesthetics practices and medical directors. These groups vet both the practice and the prospective medical director and attempt to make a match between the two. Of course, this costs money, usually in the form of a membership, and at the end of the day, your practice is still being paired with someone with whom you'e had no prior relationship. You're putting your faith in that company to make the match for you, and as anyone who's ever been set up on a blind date before can tell you, it's not a guarantee of success.

However, this approach has worked for plenty of medical spas, and these groups wouldn't continue to exist if their clients weren't happy with their work, so they are worth looking into if you feel this approach is suitable for you and your practice.

Conclusion

Finding a medical director can be tricky for a medical spa owner who isn't already familiar with this industry, but there are still options. In the long term, it's unquestionably best to begin networking as soon as possible, for reasons that are not limited to your search for a medical director, but if you need a medical director sooner than you can establish your network, there are some other avenues to explore.