Why Is Dermatology Becoming More and More Like This

Hello.

I am Taeo Park, CEO of Reliv Clinic, and I am deeply committed to finding ways to reduce pain in treatment.

For those who have visited several dermatology clinics,

there is probably a feeling that has lingered somewhere in your mind at least once.

"Something… feels like it moves too fast."

"It doesn’t feel like they’re seeing a person, but rather ‘processing’ one."

"Explanation, decision, treatment… everything was separate, and I just felt like the next number in line."

This is not just in your head.

When did dermatology become a ‘division-of-labor process’?

These days, many clinics operate like this.

• Coordinators handle online inquiries, visit guidance, and check-in

• The manager handles pricing and package consultations

• The doctor briefly looks at the face and only performs the procedure

• Aftercare is moved elsewhere and done quickly

I’m not saying this structure itself is bad.

If a clinic runs efficiently, this kind of division of labor is necessary.

But the problem is,

this structure may improve ‘efficiency,’ but it blurs the essence.

The patient becomes not a ‘person’

but a step in the process.

Was that too harsh?

It’s because I don’t like treating people like a factory line.

A few years ago, so-called ‘factory-style dermatology clinics’ emerged, dumping prices to keep them low.

If you think about it, it is honestly impressive that someone came up with such a highly systematized division of labor.

Thanks to that, the early factory-style clinics made a lot of profit.

But profit should not be the focus of running a clinic.

What should matter is that patients receive proper consultations from a doctor and undergo the treatment as intended.

Every industry seeks efficiency, but hospitals should not.

In factory-style dermatology clinics, the person who consults (the manager) and the person who performs the procedure (the director) are separate.

What happens when the person who explains, the person who decides, and the person who performs the treatment are all different?

When the judgment of "how to look at this face" is cut off,

an extremely important gap appears.

• The person who explains may recommend a procedure, but lacks predictive insight into the result. Because they are not the one performing it.

• The person who performs the treatment comes in without knowing the context behind why that choice was made. You bought Rejuran? Then they do Rejuran and you leave.

As a result,

a single, consistent judgment about that face disappears.

It is like

having a separate architectural designer, structural engineer, and construction team,

with almost no communication among them.

On the surface, it may be a perfectly fine building,

but no one knows the philosophy behind "why it was built that way."

What kind of experience does the patient have?

• Pressure to decide quickly

• An atmosphere where it feels awkward to ask enough questions

• A lingering feeling of "Is this really right for me?"

• Even the uneasy feeling of "Was I overcharged??"

If the result after the procedure is good, that is fortunate, but sometimes it also creates a memory that makes you not want to return.

I also started working in a factory-style clinic at first.

Around the time I had been there for exactly three months, I felt a sense of self-disgust.

A doctor gradually becomes

not a person who makes judgments,

but

a person who simply carries out what has already been decided.

And then the consultation disappears,

becoming closer to just ‘getting patients through.’

So Reliv rejected this structure

At Reliv, we deliberately chose a difficult path.

• The director handles the consultation personally

• The face is examined directly and judged in person

• The director who made that judgment also takes responsibility and performs the treatment personally

Of course, this lowers efficiency.

The number of patients we can see in a day inevitably decreases.

(That is why one director cannot properly see more than 10 patients a day...)

But instead,

we created a structure where one person is responsible from beginning to end for that face.

A hospital is not a factory

A person’s face is not a product.

Everyone is different, variables arise, and each person has a different life.

Reliv is a clinic that started with the goal of creating a hospital opposite to the factory style.

I will continue to stay true to my philosophy until the end.

Thank you.

In the next post,

"Why I no longer believe that you have to suffer to be beautiful"

I will talk about the deeper roots of Reliv’s philosophy.