Westgrove Medical Clinic Policies
Health Cards
A valid health card must be presented at every visit. If you do not have a valid health card, you will be billed for your appointment at the rates recommended for uninsured services by the Ontario Medical Association (OMA). It is your responsibility to ensure that your health card is valid prior to coming to your appointment.
Your Appointment:
Our phones are answered Monday through Thursday, 8:30am to 12:00pm and 1:00pm to 4:00pm, and Fridays from 8:30am to 12:00pm. These times may change in the future; the updated times will be listed on our website and phone message.
Early mornings are the busiest times for the phones, so if you have a non-urgent issue, you may have a shorter wait time if you phone later in the day.
We are pleased to offer online booking on our website at: www.westgrovemedical.ca
All regular visits will be be scheduled with your primary family doctor.
When booking an appointment, please identify the reason for your visit as accurately as possible. This allows the length of the appointment and the need for urgent availability to be triaged appropriately.
Please advise at the time of booking if you require a form or note to be completed, as this can affect the length of the visit, and will be associated with a fee. Please allow adequate time before your form is due to have it completed. Not all forms can be easily completed same-day in the course of a visit. Depending on the nature of the form, your physician may complete it outside of office hours and ask you to return to pick it up. Due to the large volume of paperwork, this may take up to 30 days, though we will endeavour to complete the form more quickly where possible.
If your child or family member requires an appointment as well, please advise our receptionist when booking. Each patient requires their own appointment to allow adequate time to address individual issues.
Day of your Appointment:
Please arrive at least 10 minutes prior to your scheduled appointment time. This allows for you to be checked-in, have any necessary exams (such as blood pressure check, height, weight, urine sample).
If you are more than 5 minutes late for your appointment start time, you can reschedule for another day, and a missed appointment fee will apply. This policy ensures that we have adequate time to be thorough in your visit, as well as respect the time of our waiting patients. Late arrivals compromise your care, as well as the care of other patients in the practice. As such, recurrent late arrivals may result in dismissal from the practice.
We endeavour to be as on-time as possible, as we know your time is valuable. Due to the unpredictable nature of patient visits, we may occasionally be running behind and appreciate your patience in these instances.
If you have multiple health concerns, please identify all of them to the physician at the start of the visit, so that we can prioritize what needs to be addressed most urgently. It is generally most effective to thoroughly address and investigate one main issue per consultation rather than address several issues superficially. We can arrange further appointments to deal comprehensively with each of your concerns in turn.
If you are requesting prescription renewals, please bring ALL prescription medications with you, as we will try to align your prescription refills as best as possible.
Zero-tolerance Harassment Policy
Westgrove Medical comprises physicians and administrative staff. It is expected that all members of the team will be treated with respect and courtesy. Aggressive, threatening or offensive behaviour towards any member of staff will not be tolerated and may result in termination of the patient-physician relationship.
Walk-in Clinic Policy
Westgrove Medical is a Family Health Organization (FHO) and physicians work hard to provide excellent access to medical care. As part of being rostered to our FHO, please ensure you book visits with your family doctor. For urgent visits, we offer same day appointments with your own family doctor as well as additional urgent care clinics. Use of walk-in clinics hinders continuity of your care and financially penalizes your family doctor. In the event of an emergency, please go to the Emergency Room or call 911.
Urgent Care Clinic
For the best continuity of care, we ask that you first try to book in with your own physician during the same day appointments available, before accessing the urgent care clinic.
If same day appointments with your physician are not available, we offer urgent care clinics Monday to Thursday evenings from 5pm-8pm and Saturday 9am-12pm. These hours may change in the future.
To schedule an urgent appointment, please visit our website or call our clinic.
In order to access these urgent care clinics, you are required to have signed a Patient Enrolment form to be “rostered” to your family physician formally by the Ministry of Health.
Preventative Care Visits / Periodic Health Exams
Your family physician would like to see you periodically to review your chart and ensure your care is complete. Your doctor can discuss how often you need to be seen for these check-ins.
This periodic health visit is designed for the physician to renew and align your prescriptions and ensure your blood work and preventative health (pap tests, cancer screening tests, etc.) is up-to-date. Please do not expect any new issues to be addressed at this check-in. It is intended to ensure your existing medical care is up-to-date and streamlined. If you do have new concerns, your physician can prioritize them to be addressed at future visits.
Prescription Renewals
You are asked to follow-up in person for medication renewals. Your physician will prescribe enough medication until your next appointment. Medications periodically require review and monitoring to ensure they remain safe and appropriate for you. Physicians will not respond to faxed renewal requests from your pharmacy.
Please bring ALL prescriptions with you, not only the one you need renewed, as we will try to refill and align all of your prescriptions as best as possible.
Opioid, Benzodiazepine, Sleep Aid and Stimulant Medications
Medical evidence shows that medications that used to be prescribed routinely are more harmful than we once recognized. Prescribing these medications, in particular opioids / narcotics, benzodiazepines (eg. Ativan) and other prescription sleep aids, must be done carefully and thoughtfully. In keeping with current guidelines, your physician may wish to discuss decreasing the dose, discontinuing, or switching to a safer alternative if you are on one of these medications.
Other medications have always been known to have associated risks, including stimulant medications (eg. Ritalin). Prior to starting to prescribe a high risk medication like a stimulant or an opioid, your physician may require you to sign a contract outlining rules for safe usage and grounds for discontinuing the prescription.
If these prescribing patterns do not seem like a good fit for your needs, please identify this to your physician for discussion.
Cancellation Policy
Please provide at least 24 business hours notice to cancel an appointment. If you need to cancel an appointment for Monday at 9am, you must contact the office before 9am on Friday. Failure to do so will result in a charge based on OMA recommended rates.
If you have granted permission for communication via email, you may receive a reminder email ahead of your appointment. The office does not give reminder calls for appointments.
Uninsured Services
Some medical procedures, and most forms and notes, are not insured by OHIP and therefore are subject to a fee. The current costs for these uninsured services are posted in the office as well as on the clinic website; fees are determined at the suggestion of the OMA. Payments can be made in the office (debit, credit, and e-transfer are accepted).
Locum Physicians
On occasion, you may see a ‘locum’ physician (a physician substituting for your own family doctor) to ensure access to care.
Medical Learners
On occasion, you may see a medical learner during your appointment, such as a medical student, who is a university student training to become a physician, or a resident physician, who is a licensed doctor training specifically in family medicine.
Any issues discussed with the learner are reviewed and overseen by your family physician. We appreciate that you want to see your physician, but also appreciate your participation in training the next generation of physicians. We endeavour to find a balance between including learners and seeing your own physician for continuity of care.