COURTESY & RESPECT
Our clinic environment must remain positive, warm, friendly, and supportive. We expect all patients, guests, and staff at Compassion Medical Wellness Centre to be treated with kindness and respect. Disrespectful language and/or disruptive behavior of any kind will not be permitted at our facility.
PRIVACY & CONFIDENTIALITY
In our role as healthcare providers, we comply with the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) and Health Information Act (HIA). At Compassion Medical Wellness Centre, we aim to practice at an exceedingly high standard when it comes to maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of our patients.
BOOKING APPOINTMENTS
As part of booking an appointment, we will ask about the nature of your visit for us to allocate a reasonable amount of time to fully address your needs. If we are unable to take your call, please leave us a voicemail message and we will return your call within 24 hours.
ARRIVING FOR APPOINTMENTS
Please arrive at least 10 minutes early for your appointment and present your valid health card at every visit. You will be required to fill out a patient registration form if you are a new patient or if you are an existing patient but have not completed one in the past year. This ensures that your medical history is up to date on our electronic medical record (EMR) system. Please download and complete the New Patient Medical History Form on our website – www.compassionmedical.ca
LATE ARRIVAL
If you happen to be running late for your appointment, please inform us at your earliest convenience. Depending on the clinic schedule, we may recommend that you either come in anyway or reschedule your appointment. If your late arrival overlaps with another patient’s appointment slot, we cannot guarantee that you will be the next person to be seen by the doctor and you may be required to wait until the next available time slot.
REGULAR APPOINTMENTS
Regular appointments address one major concern or two minor concerns. To ensure that an appropriate amount of time is allocated to your visit, please let us know if you require an extended appointment and we may be able to accommodate this based on the time slots available on the schedule. If additional concerns come up during a regular appointment, you will be advised to book for a separate visit to properly address them.
PIGGYBACKING APPOINTMENTS
Attending appointments together with your family or partner is something we appreciate and encourage. In this case, we do ask accompanying individuals with separate medical concerns to make their own appointments with the doctor. Any issues brought up during another patient’s appointment cannot be addressed by the doctor. We value everyone’s time and want all patients, including those scheduled before and after you, to have their time treated with respect.
UNEXPECTED WAIT TIMES
We value and respect the time of all our patients and doctors and will collaborate with you to keep your visit within the time allocated. In the event of emergencies and other unforeseen circumstances, it may become necessary to extend or decrease the allotted time for your visit when required, and we ask for the cooperation of all patients if appointments are delayed as a result.
EMAIL COMMUNICATIONS
Our email facilitates communicating information or documentation to you on as needed bases. No medical advice will be given over email, even if requested, and such emails will not be responded to as a clinician does not routinely monitor these. It is your responsibility to communicate any information that you wish your doctor to be aware of regarding your health during your appointment. Should you need medical advice during office hours, please call our office at (780) 760 8309 to schedule an appointment or call Health Link at 8-1-1 after hours.
VIRTUAL/PHONE APPOINTMENTS
We have limited spots for Virtual or Phone Appointments. The CPSA recommends patients should be offered in-person appointments when possible. We therefore reserve Virtual/Phone appointments for our extremely sick and vulnerable patients who cannot make it to the clinic for in-person appointments. We encourage patients to schedule follow-up appointments to review test results after every visit. Prescription refills, especially narcotics/opioids/benzodiazepines will no longer be done by virtual appointments. We do understand that in some cases, attending in person may be difficult to accomplish. If so, please give our clinic a call and we will do our best to accommodate you within our capacity.
REFERRALS
Referrals to specialists are made after thorough assessment by a physician who deems it necessary for diagnosis or further management and cannot be simply initiated upon request of a patient. The physician must take a medical history and examine the patient to make an appropriate medical decision based on their findings. Your physician may recommend additional tests before referring you to a specialist. After your appointment, please allow up to 7 days for the doctor to process and complete a referral. Once a referral is sent, wait times to see the specialist can vary from a few weeks to several months depending on the nature of the medical issue and the specialist’s availability.
WCB
Please indicate to Staff when registering if your visit is Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) related. Visits pertaining to (WCB) assessment and progress reports must be limited only to relevant discussions involving WCB. Additional concerns outside of WCB require a separate appointment to properly address the issue(s).
FORMS & PAPERWORK
Please notify the clinic staff in advance if you require any form or paperwork to be filled out by the doctor. Forms may take 2-3 weeks to process and complete. If forms are provided to the clinic less than 1 week before their due date, our clinic cannot guarantee on-time completion. Please also note that form completion is an uninsured service. We ask that you call the clinic to confirm any costs associated with your form prior to submitting it to the clinic.
PAP TESTS
You may be required to schedule your pap test separately from your annual physical. If you are on your period or expect to be on your period at the time of your pap test, please inform our clinic so that we can reschedule the procedure.
ANNUAL CHECK-UP
It is recommended to have a general health check-up every year, regardless of age or health condition. You and your doctor will discuss your risk factors, past medical history, and other relevant aspects of your family history to help direct your physical exam and screening tests you may need at your age. It is a patient’s responsibility to schedule their annual check-up with their doctor. If you would like to receive annual reminders for your check-ups, please contact our clinic or indicate this to the front staff during your next visit.
MEDICAL CHAPPERONES
It is the policy of Compassion Medical Wellness Centre to provide and utilize patient chaperones when requested or necessary during sensitive examinations, procedures, and care.
LAB & IMAGING RESULTS
Depending on the nature of the testing, results can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks to arrive at our clinic. Although most results will be ready for review sooner, please allow up to 1 week for us to receive, process, and review your results. Please book a follow-up appointment 1 week after your tests to review your results.
AFTER HOURS COVERAGE
You may call Health Link at 8-1-1 to access health advice if you are unable to reach us after hours. Please do not leave urgent messages on our voicemail or email. If you have a medical emergency, please call 9-1-1 or go to your nearest hospital emergency room.
COVID-19 POLICY
Upon arrival at the clinic, you are required to go through COVID-19 screening. Please be honest when answering our COVID-19 questions for everyone’s safety.
**You must call to inform us ahead of your clinic appointment if you or your household/close contacts have COVID-19 symptoms, have a fever, cough, contact with a positive COVID-19 case or diagnosed with COVID-19, BEFORE entering our clinic**
Thank you for helping us maintain a safe and compassionate space!!