Cameron Hemphill hosts the “Medical Millionaire” podcast, aimed at helping Med Spas increase status, visibility, and profitability. In this episode, he interviews Ernest Williams, a nurse and attorney, who discusses the complexities of compliance in the medical esthetics industry. Williams emphasizes the importance of understanding state regulations, scope of practice, and the need for clear systems and policies. She highlights common compliance issues, such as poor communication with medical directors and lack of emergency protocols. Williams advises regular reviews of compliance documents and offers resources, including a free HIPAA compliance checklist on her website.

Transcript

This is medical millionaire the podcast, helping your Med Spa increase in status, visibility and profitability. Join your host as he dispels myths, shares trends and gives you actionable steps today that will take your medical practice to the next level. Here’s your host, expert marketer and founder of growth 99 Cameron Hemphill,
hey everybody. Cameron Hemphill, here your host for medical millionaire. Hey, first off, thank you so much for taking the time to tune into our podcast. Our goal is to give incredible value and insight into the medical spa market. So if you’re an injector, you’re in the medical esthetic space, dermatology space, plastic surgery space, even dental cosmetics. This podcast is designed for you, and so throughout this journey together, our goal is to help you take your practice to the next level. So wherever you’re at, wherever you’re at, within your journey, we want to help you within your business, your current financial standpoint, whatever tools you’re looking to invest in, and really just position you guys for success. And so I’m super excited today. We actually have a guest on today, and I love doing these interviews, and I actually had the opportunity to sit next to this amazing, talented, beautiful woman at the latest esthetic next conference that we’re at. We’re on a panel. Got to know each other and said, hey, you know, I would really like to have you on the medical Millionaire podcast. And so everybody, I want to introduce you to Ernest, um, who is, let’s see I totally just checked messed up there. I gotta start over. Sorry. Okay.
I can my screen froze.
Hey everybody. Cameron Hemphill, here your host for medical millionaire. Hey, first off, thank you so much for taking the time to tune into our podcast. Our goal is to give incredible value and insight into the medical spa market. So if you’re an injector, you’re in the medical esthetic space, cosmetic space, plastic sterm, anything to do with esthetics. This podcast is for you. We’ve consulted with 1000s of providers across shoot the world now, and we hear experiences. We hear practices that are doing very well. We hear practices that always need help in trying to position themselves to take their practice to the next level. And so today, I actually have a guest on the show, a individual that I actually had the opportunity to meet with at the latest esthetic next conference in Dallas, and we were on a panel together. And I was actually, I was, I was blown away by her level of intelligence, her very unique understanding of what it takes to be within compliance of the medical esthetics market. And, you know, I did some research before getting to know her and have the opportunity to meet with her, but it was, it’s interesting. So I have ernice Williams with us. Her Instagram is your nurse lawyer. So everybody make sure to go follow her. She is a a nurse. You’re a nurse practitioner, right?
No, just, no, just a nurse,
but, but, but you have a very unique, I would say, skill set, because you have a very extensive nursing background, yeah, and you’re an attorney, like, I don’t know how many of those are out there.
Not a lot there. There are a few nurse attorneys. I didn’t know of any when I first went to law school and met a few in DC, and then over the past few years, I’ve met a few online. So there are a few of us out there, but there are very few and far
between. Yeah, I mean, it’s, it’s, I guess it’s, it’s rare and like, what’s cool about it is you have an opportunity to give so much value to this specific, specialized vertical, right?
Yeah. So, you know, becoming a nurse was something I was always passionate about, but I understood once I got into practice that it’s so hard to actually help when people are already so sick, and so I decided to go back to law school because I wanted to have a bigger impact. And the Affordable Care Act was supposed to save the nation and change the world and make health care so much better. But now, of course, things aren’t as as good as we thought they would be, just due to all the regulations and the changes and the pandemic. And so it is being a nurse, in the years of experience that I’ve had working in hospice in a federally qualified health care center in a in New York, working in the operating room, you see the impact of what health care means to people. Right? I think when I went to law school, I just thought about healthcare in a silo, versus understanding that healthcare is dependent on the prison system, right, on the justice system, on the housing system, on the food industry, like, if any of those areas are impacted or an issue in your community, you can see how people’s health are their their health is impacted, and why healthcare disparities exist, which is, isn’t what I really thought about in the beginning. It was just like, if you’re sick, you need help. You come get help, you get better. Like, that’s how simple minded I was thinking, because that’s how nursing school teaches you, like you are here to help the person who’s in front of you, and this is how you help them, not understanding all of the other things that could potentially go go on around them. And in business, it’s the same thing. You think, I’m a clinician, I’m opening up an esthetic practice, and I’m just going to serve the people in front of me, but you don’t think about the marketing, you don’t think about the regulations, you don’t think about all of the other things that goes into actually running the business. And you have to become more of a systems thinker. So being a nurse and a lawyer has kind of allowed me to marry all of the expertise and the experiences with the systems thinking. Wow,
yeah, that’s, that’s interesting. I mean, I’ve had those experiences as well, like, obviously, in different verticals, but, you know, you get, you get into something because it’s, it like, has a core belief value, yeah, you know, within society, and then come to find out, you’re like, Oh, wow. Like, this isn’t anything that that I
thought it was right.
Okay, so when did you position to, like, Okay, first off, how long were you a nurse. Are you still doing that?
Yeah, so I’ve been a nurse for 14 years. I just retired last year. Three years into my career, I know, like, what is that? I’m 35 what’s going on? Or am I 36 maybe I’m 36 and so three years into my career, I decided to go back to school to become a lawyer. When I graduated, there weren’t many jobs, right? I think the recession hit and never really recovered in the legal industry and maybe many other industries as well, where they just weren’t hiring as many people, but yet more people were going to law school, and there are just less jobs that were available. So I wasn’t able to find a job, and I’m like, Okay, I’ve been broke for the last three years. While I was in law school. I don’t want to be broke anymore, and I had this nursing license. Let me just go back to nursing for a little while longer, figure it out, and then I will eventually become a full time lawyer. That was seven years ago, and it took me that long to figure it out. I realized like nobody was going to hire me, right? One of the issues when you’re looking for a job and you have a you’re coming from a second you know, this is your second career. They don’t want to pay you more because of your expertise, right? And then you’re going to come in with a different set of expectations, versus someone who’s super green, who’s ever worked anywhere, who’s just excited to be there. Also, I have a lot of student loans, and if you have a lot of student loans, you can’t work for certain agencies in the federal government if you don’t know that, they will look at your student loan balance and think that you’re going to sell information from the government to pay off your student loans. It’s interesting, I didn’t know that, but that’s that’s why I don’t have a federal government job. And so I started my own practice back in 2017 I was doing personal injury and medical malpractice. I did not want to do that. I That, to me, is the same issue that I was having as a nurse, right? People already have problems and issues. You’re now just helping them kind of be compensated for the problems and issues that they have, versus a prevention. And then the pandemic happened. I lived in New York, it hit us pretty hard. I worked in hospitals, and realized, like, this is worse than I could have ever imagined, and I need to get out, and I want to really help, but I don’t want to necessarily leave healthcare. So I decided to start working with nurses and nurse practitioners who were opening up businesses. And I really thought people were opening up more traditional businesses. I really didn’t even have any idea about the esthetic world, but most of the people who are coming to understand like their practice, or their scope of practice or regulations were coming from esthetics, and so that kind of became my niche and specialty, just simply based on me positioning myself on social media as this healthcare expert, but now more med spas and medical esthetics. So it has definitely been a journey since I relaunched my practice in 2020 we’ve taken off. We’ve grown. And it’s really great to see that more people are interested in protecting their practice by understanding what compliance is and the regulations, but I think that we’re not talking about it enough, because as more people enter into the industry, we’re at greater risk of being heavily regulated, because we’re not regulated as much as people think that we are because of the potential harm that could happen to people who are caring for patients and they’re not well trained.
Shoot, I mean, that’s it’s got to be, I mean, I guess it’s got to be, on one hand, it’s exciting, you know, and on the other hand, I’m sure it’s super complex, because, yeah, shoot, you got different. States, you get different regulations. Like, I mean, how do you, how do you handle how do you handle that? And obviously, like, this is a world that I think I read an article recently that there was 7400 medical spots last year. This year already, there’s 8700 I’m talking United States, yeah, like, massive growth. Everybody wants to get into esthetics. Or, like, shoot, you have people that you know have a hair salon. They want to start doing Botox. Dentists want to start doing it. I mean, you know, classic surgeons that they both on the the esthetics practice, nurse practitioners, like a lot of people leaving a hospital, you know, like, I talk to people all day long that are like, anesthesiologist, yeah, they just want to go.
Everybody wants to do something fun and easy. And not to say that esthetics is easy, but easy, as in, like, mentally, right? You are not necessarily pressured and stressed when you’re doing esthetics. This is a more energized. People are coming to you happy. You’re making people happy, and so people are just looking for an outlet to still have that patient connection and that patient provider connection, without necessarily the stress of trying to fix every single problem. Because you’re not just fixing one problem, and it’s that, it’s you’re fixing one problem, right, or a couple of small problems, but in healthcare and in a traditional healthcare setting, you’re fixing the social issues. You’re fixing, you know, the physical issue, the mental issue, all of these things are kind of coming together with very few resources, so it’s difficult to actually get done. And so the growth in the industry is very exciting, right? It makes it, for me, as a lawyer, a new territory, because things are not as well defined as they are in other areas. So it is exciting, things being discussed and different solutions that we are creating, but then that also leaves a lot of room for error, and there’s a lot of states that are now realizing, Wait, we left the door open way too much, and a lot of different people, not just clinicians, not people who are trained, but non clinicians, were opening up practices and setting up businesses and had no cares about the regulations which could potentially either have caused harm or could potentially cause harm. So yes, this industry is growing at a, I mean, a rate that I don’t think anybody would have thought about maybe 510, years ago. And it’s not going to stop growing just because we add more regulations, but it may make it more difficult or more expensive for those who are actually practicing and doing things the right way. Yeah,
yeah. No, I agree. I mean, at the end of the day, shoot there, there is risk right, and you have to know how to mitigate that risk and have the right resources. Shoot that know how to help you mitigate that risk. So, yeah. So question for you, right? Um, we have a lot of people on in that tune into our audience, I guess, certainly come into like, three categories. They come into, hey, I want to get into this industry, or, Hey, I am in this industry and I’m looking to grow, or I’m, I’m in this industry on an enterprise level, and I’m going to go to 10 locations from from five or whatever it is. That’s kind that’s kind of the audience that tunes in. So when someone’s getting like, I got an idea, I’m gonna open up a medical spa. It’s gonna be my new thing. Like, What risks do they have? And, like, how do you how do you help them mitigate those? Like, what would you suggest? Yeah, so
for new practices, I always say before you go get the training and the coaching and all the other 1000s of dollars of investments that people make into business, you need to understand the scope of practice in your state, right? And so you are asking, like, how do I do that? I have a couple of clients that are in a lot of different states. So when you’re looking at regulations, the regulations are online. They’re available to anyone. Anyone can look up the regulations, but you have to kind of understand what they’re talking about, what they’re asking for, and what’s required versus what’s mandated, right? Sometimes it’s suggested, and then sometimes it’s absolutely a mandate that must be done. And so for my clients that are, you know, the medical direction client, who is national, we’re looking at every single state, all of the rules, staying abreast on what’s changing and where it really starts at scope of practice. So who can do what? How? Who can delegate to who? Right? Can the physician? Does a physician have to be on site, or does the nurse practitioner have to be on site? Who has access to the medications? If you’re in Nevada, they have some very, very, very specific rules about who has access to the medication. A nurse can’t have access to every medication, right? And so they can’t essentially own their own practice. They can’t work independently. They have to work under a provider who’s actually in the building. So understanding the scope of practice, of what you can, can and can’t do, gives you understanding about what you invest in next. Because if you have, if you have to have a provider on site, that’s different, versus you being independent and you’re able to work with the collaborating provider who’s, you know, a few 100 miles away. It’s very different. And so the first thing you need to understand is your scope of practice. The first thing you need to understand is your scope of practice. And then you want to also. Understand your state laws and then build your business around that. Once you set that up, then I talk about the five key elements of compliance, where you have job descriptions and onboarding process. You make sure your contracts are in order, you make sure you have the appropriate training, your website has the appropriate disclaimers, and you have following all the federal regulations on that and and then if the data privacy, I think a lot of people get into the esthetics industry and forget that you are still governed by HIPAA. There are still requirements that you have to follow. As a licensed provider, you have access to a ton of information that needs to be protected. And so there’s some standards and regulations. But for those early business owners, you just want to understand what you can and can’t do what you should and shouldn’t be doing, which will save you a ton of money, and building a practice that is specific to the things that you can do makes it easier and you’re less stressed because you’re not risking your license because you’re doing something that you’re not supposed to be doing. And then for those who are already in practice, in practice and growing, you want to make sure that your systems align with your policies and procedures, which also aligns with the scope of practice and state law. So you want to make sure that if you’re bringing in someone new, and they’ve never been an injector before, that you have some type of training process that you’re sending them out for training, that you’re doing all of the things that need to be done to ensure that they’re competent. Because the issue is, if you hire them, you allow them to inject someone, and then they make a mistake and a patient has a bad outcome, you then can be responsible, because you’re the person that hired them, right? That is your employee or and people love to say, Oh, they’re independent contractor. Everybody can’t be considered an independent contractor. You’re now grown. You now have to be responsible for people’s taxes and all of the different things that comes with being a business owner. So building and growing comes with just a different level of responsibility and a different level of expectation. And then for those who are now enterprise of y’all are huge. You are in multiple locations. You have tons of employees. You want to make sure that everybody understands the standard, so that the person who deviates from the standard is easily identifiable and they can easily be escorted out the business, because you don’t want someone to ruin your business, and all of your locations have to shut down because someone has given someone access to your your system, and now they’ve stolen people’s protected health information. So when you have very clear standards that can be used across every single location, you are now in a position to say, this person isn’t following the rules. Excuse me, we’ve documented that multiple times. Now we need to terminate them, because now you have an even greater responsibility, because you have even more money that people can come after. So not only are you going to be really risking, risking it on the legal, medical compliance side, it’s also employment law. You have to think about an injector coming in, stealing your intellectual property, starting a business just like yours. Those are the things that you’re kind of thinking about on that enterprise level. And so it’s when you’re new. You may not need a full, full time lawyer. You don’t need to retain a lawyer. You may need to consult with a lawyer, have them help you set things up, get you the foundational tools that mid level, you may have a compliance officer or a lawyer that you can call and touch base with as you’re growing, but when you’re on that enterprise level, you need to have a lawyer who’s helping you deal with all of those issues, because they’re going to come up and you’re going to be overwhelmed with the financials, with the hiring, with the firing, with the systems, with the you know, all the things that you have to do as a business owner, plus now all of these employment issues that could potentially come
up. Thank you for listening to medical millionaire. I wanted to take just a few short moments and tell you all about growth 99 University. Naturally, if you’re listening to medical millionaire, the success of your Med Spa is extremely important to you, and as it should be. And if you’re listening to medical millionaire, you are obviously looking for the best, most effective ways to take your Med Spa to the next level in both profit and customer success. Enter growth 99 University ranging from online education courses all the way to the full suite of marketing and web services. Growth, 99 has your Med Spa covered. No matter the challenges that you’re facing, we are ready and able to help you achieve your next level in business profit and freedom to inquire about all of our support services and products. Please visit growth 90 nine.com and while you’re there, click the university link and check out the companion course to this very podcast. Back to the show.
I mean, what? Well said. It’s, um, it’s, it’s interesting, like, as we hear, you know, on our end, because when we’re talking to, you know, to everybody that’s either in this space or getting into the space at some point, so I feel like they kind of go through like, Okay, I’m compliant checkbox, you know, because it’s like, hey, it’s not. It’s like, not a fun topic for these guys to, yeah, right. Like, it’s not, but it when they start to grow, right? It’s a different they need to, and I’m sure this is the advice that you, you definitely give is they need to go back and review where they’re at now that they’ve grown, right? So how often? I mean, I guess that’s a hard question, because someone could grow faster than others, but maybe than others, but maybe there’s a good rule of thumb, or, like, a revenue point, I don’t know, like or employee head count. What do you have any
thought behind that? So I tell people you know, as a business owner, at minimum, you want to be reviewing all of your system documents, contracts at least annually, because that’s where people usually mess up. They sign a document, they sign a contract, someone signs an agreement, and then they never touch it again. But if you signed a business associate agreement with a vendor that you’re working with, and now things have changed. The rules have changed. You need to make sure that that’s updated, that they’re very clear on what their expectations are and what your expectations are. The same with your employees, your employment agreements, even if you’re hiring independent contractors for some of the work that’s being done, all of that needs to be updated at least annually to make sure the standards are clear. People get comfortable because you are in relation. You know, with these people, y’all are now have built this relationship. Y’all are family. Y’all are always together. So you’re not really thinking about protecting your business and making sure that they understand what your expectations are. But it’s when that one person decides to do something that could harm the practice where all of a sudden you’re going through the paperwork trying to figure out, did you Did they sign an NDA? Did they sign a non compete? Did they you know all of these different things, because now you’re in a situation where now it’s an emergency, compliance is the process of just following up, making sure that you’re following the rules to the best of your ability, that the rules that are there, that you’re following those and the ones that you people love to say that they’re gray or that you’re just not clear about, that you’re at least trying to mitigate those risks, so that if any issues do come up from the board, Department of Health, or whoever governs you, your your business in your state, that you’re prepared for the questions that they’re going to ask, because they’re going to ask you, where did you find this person? Did you verify their license? How do you How are you going to deal with someone actually using your MPI number? Right there? I know there was an issue one time, people were sharing passwords. People were sharing, you know, login information, and someone used that MPI number to write a legal prescription. How can you track that? How do you know who did it? That has to be reported now, the person who’s MPI number, da number was used, they are now responsible, and have to report that themselves as well as now answer like, how did this happen? Right, right? And so you never want to put yourself in a position where you are are so relaxed, where you’re just expecting everybody to go with the flow. They they know. Oh, they know. They’ve been working with me for five years. Of course, they know. But something may happen that makes people, you know, unhappy, and now they’re just trying to get back at you, and they could potentially harm your business. So you want to have things in place to avoid that from happening.
Yeah, that’s so true. Like, you could take the quick route, like, hey, oh, just login credentials, right? Like, yes, it’s probably so easy again, just text, in the login details. And you don’t, you don’t really, you know, you should take a moment pause, you know, sit back, realize, hey, you know what? This is actually opening up exposure. Yeah, that can, that can easily just, you know, be resolved if they have conversation with somebody you know, like you, that came through that process. So question for you, yeah, what? What are like the top like, I don’t know. I guess three things that you see that are like, regular, you know, there’s gonna be like, oh, yeah, like, like, the most common things that you see that people could easily avoid.
So the first thing I think that I see all the time is people who are working with the medical provider or medical director, and they’re not really communicating. So if you’re a medical director, doesn’t know your business, they don’t know what you’re doing, they don’t know how you’re doing it. They don’t know what type of training you receive. Y’all may have signed an agreement, but you don’t know when the last time it’s been updated. They’re not, you know, reviewing 10% of your charts or whatever is required in your state, that is usually what catches people up. So someone may file a complaint to the board, and then they’re going to reach out to both you and your medical director, and they’re going to say, we want all of this information. If your medical director isn’t involved in your business enough to at least know where those documents are, y’all are now both scrambling, and this medical director is like, my license is at risk, right? And now I’m trying to figure out, how do I protect myself? Their goal isn’t going to be to protect you when there’s an open level of communication and. Y’all are having the appropriate meetings, and y’all are have reviewed the appropriate documentation in that issue comes up, y’all, you all know where to go to find that information. You send out the information, and usually it’s not as big of a deal. When the board reaches out, they are sending a letter, most times, maybe an email with a letter attached asking for some very specific things. If you provide those things in a timely manner, usually they’re not going to keep digging. It’s the people who don’t have the job descriptions who have employees and they don’t have employee files, they don’t know their background, they don’t have their certifications, they don’t have their training in any in any file, they’re just like, oh, this is the person who I hired to do the job, and they’re doing the job, that is when they start to dig and dig deeper, and then they find other issues that that are potential violations or deficiencies, and then they can potentially either shut you down or say that, you know, you can no longer operate, or they’re going to try to penalize your license, or things like that. So those are some of the most common things I see. I think one of the things that we’re starting to see more often are new practition. I don’t say new, just practitioners who don’t have as appropriate systems for emergencies, because what gets you in trouble is you have now provided a service to someone. They’re having an emergency. They’re unable to reach you. They reach out to another provider, or they reach out and go to the ER, now they’re going to be like, well, who did this to you? And they’re going to come investigate, right? And so systems is something that I preach to all of my clients. They have to be in place if you’re if you’re going to be closed and you don’t have an after hours line, then they have to have your personal number. Unfortunately, if you’re not going to have some unanswering service, they can’t call a number and nobody’s picking up. They have to have access to that information, so making sure your systems are in order. I think for the bigger companies, what I see is just hiring people and not appropriately training them, and people are just doing everything the way they want to do it. There are no standards how the medications are kept, I mean, I know they’re, they’re multi use vials, and people set a standard. If you say this is how it’s going to be used, that’s how it has to be used every single, every single time. So if there’s ever an issue or deviation, you can identify it very quickly.
Interesting.
No, I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s cool to to hear all of this, you know, like, because, when we’re talking to people, I would say, maybe the only compliance thing that comes up, like, you know, I would say, like, because, because, you know, growth 99 is a company that that I have, and we have team members, and they’re talking to practice owners all the time, and, yeah, it’s more about like technology and process and like patient acquisition and CRM and EMR and all that stuff. And every if I would say, very rarely, is there like, a conversation around HIPAA compliance or not, like a privacy policy, maybe on the website or something like that, right terms and conditions. It’s, it’s, you know, if it’s a practice that has been around for a while, you know, typically, they finally get that stuff in place. Maybe they did before they talked to us. But I wouldn’t, I would encourage people to do that the medical esthetic space, although growing at a rapid pace, it’s not just, you know, getting your license, getting a place, and flip it on Instagram and all of a sudden, yeah, this is running a business, right, and so you’re exactly Right, like you’re not going to go open up a business with having the correct procedures, policies, documentation, compliance place.
And I think that’s what’s maybe it’s being sold over the last few years to me, I think that before the pandemic and before social media was so heavy that people really did stop and do the work and ask questions and find experts and, you know, try to find and work with other seasoned practitioners and business owners to make sure that their things were in order. But I feel like in a we’re in a point where some people feel like I’m just going to take one class open tomorrow, and I’ll figure the rest out later. And I just want to precaution people like, I’m not one to be like a fear monger. I don’t think that. You know the industry is bad and you know the board is coming after every single person. It’s impossible, right? When I did my presentation as that next I tell people, the board is literally in a strip mall, in a very dark, dim, poorly lit office with probably outdated equipment and 1000 issues coming in every single day. Their goal is not to come after every single business in town. They don’t even have the capacity, the volume, the money to do so. So that is not my that is not my concern, right? I don’t think that people’s fear of the board to me, sometimes can. Be a little bit overwhelming, and I don’t say it’s irrational, because it happens. You may have hear it, hear about it happening, but it’s about patient safety. It’s like we want to do things that are essentially going to protect our patients. Yes, you want to protect your license, you want to protect your business, but it also needs to be in the best interest of the patient. And so when you start to create these standards and making sure that you have all of your ducks in a row, it also is that transparency also for your your patients to say, Oh no, I’ve met with a lawyer. I’ve done all these things. I’ve made sure that my entire business is up to date. Because if you close tomorrow and they have a treatment plan for the rest of the year that is not helpful for them, that is not beneficial to them, then they have to start all over, and they’ve wasted their money. So it’s not just about the board or the Department of Health or fearing that someone is lurking around the corner waiting to shut you down. It’s also about just making sure that you’re able to build a sustainable business that your patients can continue to support because you’re able to afford to stay open.
Yeah, no, that’s, that’s so well said. I mean, you said it right on the head, like patient safety, right? And that’s, is exactly what should come first, right? It’s because, I mean, I mean, shoot, there’s horror story after horror story I’ve heard and seen, you know, from, you know, just misuse or misconduct, or whatever you want to call it, yeah, and, and I think for the world of esthetics, I mean, it’s very important to hold that caliber of standard and realize, yeah, this is a a medical office. We are working with patients, and they need to be treated as so yeah. And that’s
yeah. And I think on the marketing side, for you all, that’s why it’s important that people are very clear and have like, if they’re providing you pictures or information that y’all are posting, you have permission. Do you have permission to post that person’s picture? Did they sign a release form, or are they allowing you to post their before and afters, you know, just those kind of things, which is that’s a patient issue. Yes, it’s also a HIPAA violation, but that, to me, is like respect for your patients to making sure that they’re comfortable with sharing their results when the way that you choose to share.
Yeah, how do people handle that? Like it there? I guess there could be a way, like a consent form after, let’s say they book online, or whatever consent form that’s like, hey, you know, do you give authorization to have a share your your information on social media or anywhere is
that? Yeah, so usually people sign a social media release form that kind of explains how they’re going to use either their testimonials or their photos or any other type of promotional content that they’re going to create based on the client’s experience. I know a lot of people are using videos now to share that entire process, but as long as people sign that consent, and then they’re also aware of how that information is going to be used, because the issue isn’t really just how you’re using it, it’s also how someone else can use it. Because if someone then takes that photo or that video and decides to critique it, and then the patient sees that, that may not be something that they’re comfortable with, right? I don’t want someone else critiquing my stuff, I was just showing potential clients, right that these are my results. That’s where we have to be a little bit more cautious nowadays, because the internet can just be very cool, and we just want to make sure that we’re putting our patients in position to make a decision that is best for them based on the information that is accurate that we’re providing. Like, yes, we’re going to use it, and this is how we’re going to use going to use it, and why we’re going to use it. And at any point, you can decide that you want this taken down, and
we’ll take it down. Yeah, yeah, absolutely no. That’s, I mean, you know, I know. I can just look at our Instagram. We follow so many practices in our social media team, you know? I mean, you get in there and it’s a lot of it is before Afters, yeah, or even, like, live treatment shoot while some plastic surgeons. And I’m like, wow, how is that online?
Yeah, I don’t sometimes I can’t follow everybody, because I’m okay with, like, some of the stuff, but the threading, I’m like, Oh, my God, lots overwhelming. And I think that it does take away the mystique of what is happening right in these offices, and it gives people some time, some type of reassurance that you can do this too, that this is not as taboo as you think. So I get why people are so open about it, but we just want to make sure that we’re giving people the autonomy, because that is still their body, even though it’s just a photo of it, and they should still have the option to say yes or no,
yes, I, I 100% agree. So okay, well, so let’s say, you know, for those who are tuning in, you know, and maybe you guys have have fallen in a category of like, shoot, maybe I’m not compliant, or maybe I should look under the hood a little bit. Maybe it has been a year. Maybe I have gone from, you know, X amount of revenue to why in your in your business is growing. You’ve hired a third, fourth, fifth, sixth, 10th, employee, multi locations. Like, if, where can these individuals that are tuning in? Like, how can they best find you?
Yeah, so. If you head to my Instagram or anywhere I’m your nurse, lawyer, on every platform, or to my website at Ernest williams.com you can book a either a consult if you’re a new business owner, less than 18 months just getting started, and have some questions. But usually I tell people, if you’re in business at least 18 months, to do a business audit, because we’ll break down all of those things, I’m going to ask all about your website and social media and see where you may have some holes, make some suggestions, send you a report, give you some resources and tools so that you feel comfortable, and especially for new business owners, right? I think if you’ve never spoken with a lawyer or someone with a legal lens that can actually provide very clear information about, yes, you could do these things. No, you can’t. And the things that are you are you are unsure of. This is how you mitigate those risks. It’s just a different level of comfort, right? People are afraid of compliance because they don’t want to know what they’re doing wrong, and they’re afraid of the cost. But once you know what you’re doing right, and you know the few things that you may not be doing, well you fix those things, and then that’s the process of compliance. It’s not essentially saying, you know, I’ve done all these things right, and there’s nothing left to do. It’s a process. And as long as you are actually making an effort, they’re more than likely to not look the other way, but to give you some grace, because they see that you’re actually trying, and they may make some adjustments, versus someone who’s saying, I don’t want to be in compliance. I don’t care about compliance. This is not something that’s important to me. They’re going to consider you rogue, and they’re going to want to shut you down. And so for those of you who are like, well, I don’t know what to do. I’m afraid. There’s nothing to be afraid of, right? Most people have done at least half of the things that I have on my list of things that you should be doing as a business owner, most have done over half because as a business owner, you’re kind of forced to, as you start to work with more people. You know some EMR systems or EHR systems have those things in the system to make sure that you’re compliant. People who are developing your website, they may throw on a Terms of Use policy or a privacy policy. So you may have some of the things, it’s just making sure you have it all, so that you feel comfortable doing the things that you do every single day, and it’s not something that you may have to stop and do because you have an emergency. And that’s what I tell people, like, when you do it on a preventative set, like in a preventative setting versus when you have an emergency, it’s always going to cost you more, and it’s going to be a harder issue to resolve when you’re in the middle of an emergency, when people do it on the preventative side, if there’s ever an issue, they’re able to pull up all their documents, submit them, and be a little bit feel a little bit better about how they’re moving as a business owner, versus someone who from the board, and they’re missing half of the things that the board’s asking for, and now they’re panicking because they don’t know what to do, and then they’re calling me on a Friday night, like, do you have an appointment? And I’m just like, No, I don’t take appointments on Fridays, right? And so I think that’s where people get worked up, because their fear is that I’m going to treat them like the board. Why do I need to treat you like I’m not the board, I’m here to help you, versus the Board, who’s just there to protect patients. So don’t be so afraid to do the work, because it may not be as much work as you think.
Yeah, no, that’s, that’s a, that’s a great point. And I mean, so and I spent some time on your website, right? So you guys inherited Ernest williams.com you have a down, like a download your free checklist today. What I mean that’s that’s really cool. What is that? Yeah, so,
because a lot of healthcare business owners don’t really understand how HIPAA applies in the small business setting, I created a checklist and a tool, and it has, like, some information on that site that talks about what HIPAA is and why it’s important to you. How do you essentially implement it as a small business owner, and what could potentially happen if you don’t as well as like data privacy? Because I think HIPAA is something that most people are familiar with and they kind of understand, but data privacy is like, what is that? Right? That’s something that may be new to them, and it’s really the process of protecting people’s protected health information, and so putting all those pieces together and then giving you a foundational tool and a checklist. I’m a checklist type of person that says, okay, making sure that you have done all of these things at least gives you the foundation to say that you tried to protect people’s protected health information, because that’s what they’re looking for. Yes,
totally. All right, guys. So you heard it from her. I mean, this is, you know, this is great content for you. But more importantly, you know, you now have homework, right? So let’s get, let’s make sure we get some action out of, out of everything that we’ve, we’ve had, or Nissan for go to her website, like, get to download the checklist, you know, reach out, see, see if you’re in compliance. I mean, there’s no harm, no foul. It’s, it’s obviously kind of, what she said is the effort, right? Yeah, and that’s every way, like throughout, you know, not just with compliance, but like everything. Like, it takes effort to make sure you’re constantly moving the needle and doing the right things. Okay, guys, so make sure to also follow her, right? So you heard her say. At all platforms, your nurse, lawyer, reach out to her. Ernest, thank you so much for taking the time. I know how busy you are, and I really appreciate it. Thank you so much
for having me. Our panel is amazing. I can’t wait for us to be in the same room again. I’m so inspired by all the work that you and your team does and how we can kind of work together in the future to make the esthetics industry the best
that it can be, absolutely, absolutely. So kind of you. Thank you so much. And so everybody. Thank you so much for tuning in to medical millionaire. Again. This is Cameron Hemphill. If you found this content valuable, please share it. Keep the conversation going. We’d love reviews online. And please go. Go visit our niece’s website. Go follow her on Instagram. Go follow her on all the channels. She’s an expert in this space. We’ve been on a panel together, and we’re going to continue to do more panels throughout events across the country. So thank you so much, guys. Until next time, happy injecting you.