Policies

Squamish Medical Clinic – Policies

(June 2017)

Demographics

Please ensure that your file is kept up to date with the best phone numbers, home addresses, and emergency contact information.  Please inform the receptionist of any changes to your personal information upon arrival at the clinic, or call after any of the above have changed.

Appointments

Appointments can be booked in person or over the phone, and even online (but online option only for a select number of patients until the system is working smoothly).

If you can, please let the receptionist know the reason that you wish to see the doctor as this will help us prepare for your visit and provide adequate time for you.  In particular, if you are requesting a complete physical, Pap test, IUD insertion, or lesion biopsy/removal, then please tell the receptionist as these services often require a longer booking period.

If you are unable to make your appointment, please give the staff 24 hours cancellation notice.  There may be a charge for missed appointments, and if requested, this fee must be paid prior to seeing another doctor at our clinic.

Results

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 concerns persist, 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 results in question are on file.

Please ensure 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!

Behaviour

Our front staff are specially chosen and trained to help patients.  We understand that there are many reasons why you may need to visit our office and we make every effort to insure your visit as pleasant and comfortable as possible.  In turn, we ask that your behavior is respectful of our staff.  There is a zero tolerance for abuse of any kind and may lead to dismissal from the practice.

If you have any problems associated with your visit, please contact our manager in writing.

In order to provide you with the best possible care, a satisfactory 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, we will provide emergency medical care for one month or until the patient finds a new family doctor, whichever comes first.

Referrals

If a referral to a specialist is being made for you by our office, either our office or the specialist’s office will contact you with an appointment time.  However, due to wait lists at the specialist office, you may not be contacted right away.

Controlled Medication

Some medications, such as opioids (“narcotics”) require special prescribing rules.  This is for your safety as they help you to minimize the risks of overuse and side effects, and insure proper use.

We only prescribe controlled substances to patients who are known to our clinic.  We do not provide refills at times earlier than those decided at the last visit.  As per provincial rules, we ask that all patients receiving these medications receive prescriptions from one doctor and fill those prescriptions at one pharmacy.  Any irregularities may lead to the end of the prescription.

Phone and Fax Prescriptions and Refills

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.

Non-Insured Services

Medical Services Plan (MSP) covers many services, but not all.

In particular, MSP does NOT cover and a fee may be billed for the following:

It is the patient’s responsibility to pay in advance for any non-insured services prior to seeing the doctor.  Please inform the receptionist if you are requiring any non-insured services such as forms needing to be filled out prior to seeing the doctor.

Please check our notice posted at the reception desk for most recent costs for the above noted services.