Thinking about hiring a medical director for your aesthetic or wellness clinic? We’ve put together this comprehensive guide that breaks down the proven strategies top-performing clinics use to find, vet, and partner with qualified medical directors.
Learn the key factors they consider—from compliance and credentials to communication and cultural fit—and decide what’s best for you and your practice.
What Is a Medical Director?
A medical director is a licensed physician who oversees, supervises, and regulates the day-to-day operations of a medical facility or clinic with their skills, expertise, and professional experience.
Why Hire a Medical Director?
Hiring a medical director is not just a legal requirement needed to start your practice—it is also a strategic business or career move for your aesthetic or wellness clinic to get it up and running without complications.
A medical director’s main roles and responsibilities include:
- Ensuring legal compliance with state-specific regulations
- Providing clinical oversight and medical supervision
- Developing and implementing protocols and policies
- Ensuring patients’ safety, wellness, and satisfaction
- Securing and allocating resources for the clinic
- Collaborating and working closely with the owner
- Guiding and leading their fellow healthcare professionals
With the help of a medical director, meeting all these qualifications—and more—can turn your medical facility or wellness clinic into a reputable, go-to destination for your patients.
Factors to Consider in Hiring a Medical Director
Let’s review significant factors to consider when hiring a medical director, so you can ultimately make the right choice.
Compliance
Hiring a medical director guarantees that your aesthetic or medspa clinic meets state-specific regulations. In many states, hiring a medical director is already an act of legal compliance in itself.
A medical director can help you meet federal and state regulations, such as compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), as well as accreditation standards that meet the Board of Medicine’s requirements.
Credentials
When hiring a medical director and screening your possible candidates, the first thing you’ll be looking at is their credentials, such as the following:
- Board certification
- State licensure
- Medical degree
- Residency and training
- Clinical experience
While hard skills and technical requirements are a must for every medical director, their soft skills are just as important when building a team.
Consider the following qualities when looking for a medical director to potentially hire:
- Interpersonal skills
- Leadership
- Problem-solving
- Time management
- Organization and coordination
Communication
Effective communication with your collaborating physician is crucial in a world as demanding as medical aesthetics. Remember that you’re hiring not just an employee but a partner and collaborator—one who needs to have you and your clinic’s best interests at heart.
A good medical director must always be open and available to communicate, and not just for medical or administrative reasons. They must also actively listen to their fellow healthcare professionals and patients to ensure their concerns and needs are addressed.
Culture Fit
In every workplace setting, there’s going to be an existing workplace culture. Before hiring your medical director, see how they fit in with the rest of the team.
Ask yourself these questions:
- Are they going to be compatible with your other employees?
- How well will their personal career goals and aspirations align with your company’s mission and vision?
- Can you see them being well-adjusted to the current working environment?
- Will their values, beliefs, and behavior mesh well with their co-employees?
How to Hire a Medical Director
Let’s review the different ways you can hire a medical director for your clinic.
Ask your connections for referrals.
Asking your connections or mutual associates for referrals is always a helpful, strategic move when you’re searching for the best candidate for the role.
If your connections are fellow healthcare professionals with enough expertise and relevant experience in the medical field, they’ll suggest qualified medical directors whom they personally know and have seen in action.
Since vouching for someone requires their name, credibility, and reputation to be directly attached to the potential candidate, you can expect to receive high-quality employees.
Try networking during events.
Similar to asking for referrals from your connections, networking during events is always a viable option when looking to hire a medical director for your clinic. You never know whom you’ll meet at an important event, and they just might be the candidate you’re looking for.
Even if you don’t meet your medical director, attending events is still a strategic business move, as you can make other potential connections that may be useful in the long run.
Hire from medical associations.
Medical associations and their affiliate societies are exclusive, privately owned groups with members who fit into the “best of the best” criteria.
Choosing from a select group of professionals with impressive credentials and impeccable reputations can be your gateway to hiring a qualified medical director.
Post your job hiring online.
A surefire way to get multiple responses from people with different medical backgrounds and experiences is by posting the job online, giving you a number of options to choose from.
While screening these candidates will ultimately be left up to you, there’s a whole other world that’ll open when you take advantage of the Internet and the digital world for your search.
However, if you truly want to save your time and energy, then there’s one last option that top-performing aesthetic clinics use to successfully hire a medical director for their practice.
Use a third-party service.
A third-party service or placement business like Medical Director Co. can help you hire a medical director with all the convenience in the world. With their quick and reliable services, you’ll have an expert medical director or collaborative physician stationed at your clinic in no time.
Since time, money, and energy are your most valuable resources, the streamlined service of a third-party placement business is a cost-effective and hassle-free way of hiring a qualified medical director for your practice.
They simplify the process, giving you access to experienced professionals without the usual stress.
Final Thoughts
Whether you’re starting your own medical spa, running a telehealth clinic, or growing a family practice, hiring a qualified medical director for your practice is a crucial step to ensure legal compliance, patient safety, and overall regulation.
Top-rated clinics have been enlisting the aid of multiple tried-and-tested techniques in hiring a medical director—and now, you, too, can follow in their footsteps (and subsequent success) to find the most suitable collaborative physician for your clinic.
