A New Standard of Beauty: Build Trust Through Robust Quality and Safety Management Systems in Aesthetic Medicine

Introduction

The aesthetic medicine industry, encompassing a wide range of procedures that focus on addressing the patient’s appearance, is undergoing rapid growth. This surge in popularity is matched by increasing concerns over safety and regulation, especially highlighted by recent investigative reports. The RTÉ Investigates documentary “Botox & Beauty at any cost”, exposed severe regulatory gaps within Ireland, showcasing illegal practices such as the administration of Botox-type products by unqualified individuals and the unregulated import and use of aesthetic products.

This revelation underscores a pressing need for aesthetic medicine clinics to adopt robust Quality and Safety Management Systems (QSMS). Such systems not only safeguard patient health and safety but also ensure clinics operate within legal bounds, maintaining professional standards. By implementing a comprehensive QSMS, aesthetic clinics can address these critical challenges, enhancing patient trust and care quality, whilst also protecting their own reputation.

In this blog, we’ll explore the importance of a QSMS and provide guidance on the key components of building a robust QSMS for your aesthetic medicine clinic.

The Importance of a Quality and Safety Management System

• Enhancing Patient Safety: A comprehensive Quality and Safety Management System ensures that all procedures and treatments are performed under strict safety standards, reducing the risk of adverse effects, and promoting patient well-being.
• Ensuring Consistent Quality of Care: A QSMS provides a structured framework that ensures consistency in the delivery of care. From standardised procedures to ongoing staff training, every element of the system is designed to maintain a high level of quality across all facets of the clinic’s operations.
• Mitigating Risks and Adverse Events: Cosmetic procedures inherently carry certain risks, and a well-implemented QSMS is instrumental in identifying, assessing, and mitigating these risks. By proactively addressing potential issues, the clinic can significantly reduce the occurrence of adverse events, thereby safeguarding both the reputation of the clinic and the well-being of its patients.
• Professional Credibility and Trust: Implementing a robust QSMS enhances a clinic’s reputation by demonstrating a commitment to the highest standards of care. This builds trust with clients and differentiates the clinic from competitors, especially those implicated in unsafe or unregulated practices.
• Legal and Regulatory Compliance: With aesthetic medicine being an area fraught with regulatory ambiguities, a QSMS helps clinics navigate these complexities, ensuring that they remain compliant with local laws and international standards. This is particularly important in Ireland, where the legal framework around aesthetic procedures is still evolving.
• Operational Efficiency and Improvement: A QSMS facilitates better management of clinic’s resources, streamlines operational processes, and identifies areas for improvement. Continuous evaluation and feedback mechanisms enable clinics to adapt to new challenges and technologies, maintaining their edge in a competitive market.

Implementing a Robust Quality and Safety Management System

• Plan for the QSMS: Begin the implementation process by defining a clear vision for quality improvement within the service. This involves looking at the governance system, the aims and objectives of the QSMS, the structures in place and the communication pathways. Identify the appropriate set of standards to provide a framework for the QSMS. Then, perform a comprehensive Gap Analysis of your organisation’s current quality practices, processes, and systems against the relevant regulations and/or standards. From the gap analysis being completed, you can identify the quality improvement plans (QIPs) that need to be put in place, along with a timeframe and responsibility. Initiate a project team to start looking at evidence-based practice to provide assurances to the governance team and patients.
• Implementation of the QSMS: When implementing the QSMS framework it is important to take the approach of developing structures, processes, and outcomes.
  • Structures: It is crucial to have clear governance arrangements and structures in place for the clinic and these should be explained clearly to staff. The structures set out who has authority and accountability, and for which area. There should be clear Terms of Reference for the Management Team, standardised agenda and minutes that are used to ensure that the key areas are discussed at each meeting, and job descriptions for all staff to ensure it is clear who is responsible for what.
  • Processes: Policies and Procedures are essential to the delivery of safe, standardise care. Policies and procedures should be developed for critical areas across the service such as care and service delivery, risk management, incident management, compliant management, internal quality auditing, amongst many others. When developing policies and procedures it is important to adhere to regulations, standards and best practice guidance to ensure there are evidence-based policies and procedures in place. Effective implementation of the policies and procedures requires the active involvement of staff members. Educate and engage staff at all levels about the agreed policies and procedures and their individual roles and responsibilities.
  • Outcome: Review the relevant standards for guidance on what outcomes your clinic must have in place to meet best practice requirements. This will help you understand at a minimum, what is required to achieve the delivery of a safe, effective service.
• Continuous Review of the QSMS: Once the QSMS has been implemented, the clinic must establish a robust system for monitoring and oversight of the QSMS. Regular audits must be conducted to assess, evaluate, and improve the services in a systematic way, and to ensure the best outcomes for patients. Once an audit is completed, the clinic must look at the findings and identify what action plans need to be implemented to correct any non-conformances and drive quality improvement. Another important mechanism for monitoring the effectiveness of the QSMS, is through Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).  A KPI is a specific and measurable element of service that can be used to assess quality and safety of care (HIQA, 2012). The Governance Team must identify and agree what the appropriate KPI’s should be for the aesthetic medicine clinic and put in place a structure for the monitoring and reporting of the data to the Governance Team on a monthly basis. Any gaps or changes in the data needs to be interrogated to identify the causes.
• Continuous Improvement within the QSMS: It is important to remember that developing a QSMS is not a one-time project; it requires a commitment to continuous improvement. Establish oversight mechanisms for ongoing evaluation and review of the QSMS effectiveness. Review data from the QSMS on a regular basis from audits, risks registers, incidents, complaints, patient feedback, training compliance and KPIs to identify areas for improvement. Implement the appropriate QIPs, with a timeframe and responsible person. Follow up on these to ensure that they are implemented and closed off in a timely manner.

Conclusion

The revelations brought forth by RTÉ Investigates highlight an urgent need for stringent stronger regulation within the aesthetic medicine industry. Whilst this is evolving, Aesthetic Medicine Clinics should look to implementing a comprehensive Quality and Safety Management Systems. A robust QSMS is an essential tool that helps to safeguard patient health, uphold ethical standards, and ensure regulatory compliance.

As the aesthetic medicine field continues to grow and evolve, it is imperative that clinics take proactive steps to implement and adhere to these systems. By doing so, they not only protect their clients but also elevate the industry standard, paving the way for a safer, more reliable future in cosmetic care. The commitment to continuous improvement, ethical practice, and patient safety should be the cornerstone of every aesthetic medicine clinic. This approach will not only mitigate the risks highlighted in the documentary but also foster a culture of trust and excellence that patients deserve.

At HCI we help providers of health and social care make intelligence driven decisions to attain, manage and improve quality, safety, and regulatory compliance. We have almost two decades of experience helping health and social care providers to implement robust Quality and Safety Management Systems.  We support and guide you through the entire process and can provide ongoing, independent quality assurance of the QSMS through our independent Quality of Care Audit Programme.

If you would like further information on our QSMS support, contact HCI at +353 (0)1 629 2559 or email info@hci.care.