Appointments
Appointments can be booked at our office, over the phone or online. We offer both in-person and virtual visits depending on the visit purpose. To provide the best possible care for our patients, we reserve virtual visits for chronic, stable conditions or questions about medicines, minor health issues, or re-referrals.
Please inform the receptionist of the reason for your visit so you can be scheduled appropriately. In particular if you are requesting a complete physical, children’s immunizations, a surgical procedure or yearly gynecological examination, please tell the receptionist as these services require a longer appointment time.
If you are unable to make your appointment, please inform the staff 24 hours in advance. There will be a charge for all missed appointments. Charges for non-cancelled appointments must be paid before subsequent appointments will be scheduled.
Results
For patient safety, all patients should follow-up on their testing with their provider to insure that we have received and reviewed your results. This can be completed through an office visit, virtual visit or telephone call. If you have not been contacted within 2 weeks of completing a test, please contact our office to arrange a follow-up through your preferred modality.
Phone and fax prescriptions and refills
We can refill prescriptions in person or through virtual visits. Please schedule your visits so that you do not run out of your medications. We are unable to refill routine prescriptions after hours. Please report any medication changes or adverse effects to your doctor during your visit.
Referrals
If a referral to a specialist is made for you by our physicians, either our office or the specialist’s office will contact you with an appointment time. Our goal is to request an appointment for you within two business days of your visit to our clinic. Due to varying specialist wait lists, you may not be contacted right away. We will make every attempt to let you know prior to leaving the clinic how long the wait list is for the referring specialist.
Forms
MSP does not provide coverage for completion of all patient forms. For non-covered forms, it is the patient’s responsibility to pay in advance based on the Doctors of BC fee guide. Please inform the receptionist of any forms that need to be filled out prior to seeing the doctor.
Contact Information
For safety concerns, it is prudent that our office have your current contact information. Please ensure that your file is kept up to date with the best phone number, email address, home address and emergency contact information. Please inform the receptionist of any changes to your personal information.
Controlled Medications
Due to rising opioid-related deaths, our office has implemented a policy regarding opioid prescriptions. Before your doctor decides to prescribe or continue opioid pain medications for you, we will obtain medical records, a urine drug screen, and a report from PharmaNet. If the decision is made to prescribe medications, we require that you sign a controlled substance agreement once a year. Please read this agreement carefully, as it has useful and detailed information that is not discussed in this policy.
To provide you with the best possible care, we will need to monitor your prescriptions. This will be done during scheduled office visits. Most patients will need to be seen at least every one to three months. Please note that opioid prescription refills cannot be given over the phone unless you have arranged this ahead of time with your doctor. Any medications that are lost or stolen cannot be replaced.
Additionally, as a multidisciplinary approach you will be asked to use other medical treatments to improve your pain (including therapy, heat, etc). It may not be possible to completely remove all of your pain. However, our goal in many cases is to return you to a functional level.
Harassment-Free Work Environment
We understand that there are many reasons why you may need to visit our office and we make every effort to make your visit as pleasant and comfortable as possible. In return, we ask that your behaviour is respectful of our staff. Our practice has adopted a zero-tolerance policy for aggressive behaviour. If you have any problems associated with your visit, please contact our clinic in writing. Incidents will be reviewed and termination from the practice may occur.
Patient-Doctor Relationship
In order to provide you with the best possible care, a complimentary doctor-patient relationship is necessary. If for any reason this relationship becomes compromised, then it may be best for both parties to end the relationship. If this occurs, you will be notified and our office will provide emergency medical care for one month after the termination has occurred.
