Frequently Asked Questions
In an Emergency call 911 or go immediately to your nearest Hospital Emergency Room!
Poison Control
24 h Hotline 1-800-567-8911
http://www.dpic.org
BC211 Help Lines
211
http://www.bc211.ca/help-lines/
Alcohol and Drug Information Services (Access Central) – 24h
1-800-663-1441
Crisis Line Association of BC – 24h
1-800-SUICIDE (1-800-784-2433)
Shelter and Street Help
211
Kids Help Phone
1-800-668-6868
http://kidshelpphone.ca
***CURRENTLY WE ARE NOT ACCEPTING NEW PATIENTS, PLEASE CHECK BACK WITH US***
We have physicians in our clinic who are accepting new patients. Please call and ask which physicians are accepting and see about booking your first appointment in with them. We will need your Medical Services Plan (MSP) number and date of birth before you see a physician. If you are not covered by MSP or another provinces health insurance plan, you will be charged a fee to see the physician that is dependent on the reason for your visit.
The standard family doctor’s visit for BC (and most of the developed world) is 10 minutes long. That may not seem like much time for medical care, but if it is used wisely a lot can be accomplished. The reason your physician is often not on time for your appointment is usually NOT because they have had too many people to see that day, but because they have gone overtime on the visits wit the patients ahead of you. Please try to book a separate appointment for each major concern. Other issues may be discussed, but focusing on one main issue will ensure best care and allow us to see you and your fellow patients in a timely manner. If there are more than 1 or 2 problems to deal with, it is humanly impossible for your physician to deal with them adequately in one sitting of any length, let alone ten minutes.
Let the receptionist know to book time for any family or friends who need to be seen around the same time as your visit.
If you do have a number of concerns, don’t be afraid to bring a list. You and your physician can go over it, decide together which items should take priority, and proceed from there. If there are a number of items, it may take an entire visit just to prioritize everything. But do not despair, you and your physician will get through the ‘list’, and your physician can do a better job for you by seeing you a few times over a short period rather than trying to struggle through everything in one sitting.
Some people, recognizing that the physician is busy, ‘save up’ their problems and bring a list to the visit. While your physician will appreciate your consideration, this frequently backfires, leading to either an overtime visit, and/or only partially dealt-with problems. You will get better medical care if you come in as problems arise, and at the same time you will really help the physician’s scheduling.
Prescriptions for long term medication for conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes, our physicians’ usual practice is to give enough refills to last until the time that your condition is due to be reassessed by the physician. These types of conditions need periodic evaluation (often including lab work, etc.) to ensure that the condition is properly controlled, and that there are no complications. The seemingly simple task of writing a prescription refill is only a small part of what your physician needs to do to determine whether your condition is being well-controlled, what tests may be due, and whether a change of treatment is needed. This always takes up a whole visit, and cannot be done at the tail end of a visit that you have booked of other reasons. Also, this obviously cannot be done over the phone which is the reason why our clinic does not do phone refills. Also, waiting untill the last minute and refilling these prescriptions at our WIC or ER takes away your physician’s chance to re-evaluate your condition.
If you may run out of your medication before your appointment with your doctor please check with your pharmacist and see if they can “Adapt” your prescription and give you enough medication until you can see your doctor. As mentioned earlier, we recommend you see your doctor for all prescriptions refills. If however, you choose to request a prescription as a fax from your pharmacist, and your doctor agrees to provide you with this prescription, there will be a $15 charge for this service which will need to be paid for when you pick up this prescription from out office to take it back to your pharmacy.
Our medical office assistants do not have any medical training and therefore are not qualified to give you any of your results. Many results need some sort of medical training to interpret, and your physician is best trained to give you your results. There is now a service available called “my ehealth” that allows persons to access some of their test results online. This service is overseen by medical professionals who have determined that the tests results available to persons on this site are safe to provide without a physician’s direct interpretation. Other results which are not available on this site are believed to be best presented to persons with the guidance of a medical professional. If the results you see on my ehealth don’t make sense to you, please make an appointment and discuss the results with your doctor.
All patients are expected to come back to follow-up on test results. We do however, work on the premise that if your results are normal you will not hear back from your physician. If your results are abnormal, concerning, or need review, you should be receiving a call from our office to make an appointment to follow up on these results. If you results are normal, but your condition or concern persists, please make an appointment for follow-up with your physician. If you would like to discuss your results with your physician please book an appointment to do so. When booking please inquire with the office assistants to make sure the rests results in question are on file.
Please insure that your personal information, such as phone numbers, are kept up to date with our office at all times so we can contact you if we need!
X-rays and Ultrasounds are available by appointment at the Squamish General Hospital once you have received a requisition signed by a physician.
For more information see https://squamishmedicalclinic.com/services/
There are no CT or MRI facilities in Squamish, however, our physicians can arrange these tests elsewhere if needed.
We are capable of certain kinds of testing within our clinic such as pregnancy, glucose, Group A Strep, Mono-testing, urine drug screen, etc.
Our only lab in Squamish is located at the Squamish General Hospital. You can have laboratory testing done there with a physician signed requisition. For more information please see https://squamishmedicalclinic.com/services/
The Medical Services Plan (MSP) covers many services, but not all.
In particular, MSP does NOT cover and a fee may be billed for:
*Filling out forms
*Writing letters
*Insurance reports
*Drivers’s medical examinations and forms
*Employment examination and forms
*Forms for school or camp
*Sick notes
*Transfer of patient medical records
