Bayview Family Practice - Clinic Policies
Healthcards
You will be asked to present your health card at each visit. You may be charged for your office visit if you do not present a valid health card.
Appointments
To ensure continuity of care, routine visits should be scheduled with your own family physician or the physician who is covering their practice.
For urgent (same day) appointments, if your primary care physician is not available you may see one of the other physicians in the clinic.
We request 24 or more hours’ notice should you need to cancel or reschedule your appointment. Charges will apply for appointments missed without notice.
Telephones & Messages
Please do not leave voicemail messages. Please call and speak directly with our staff during office hours. Due to high call volume, it is difficult for our staff to return messages immediately.
Checking test results
All test results that return to the office are reviewed by your physician. If additional follow-up or review is warranted, you will receive a call from the office to schedule a follow-up appointment.
We do not routinely call patients regarding normal test results.
If you are calling for you results please try to call between 10:00am – noon and 2:30pm – 4:00pm as this is a slightly less busy time for our phone lines.
Referrals
If you need to see a specialist or undergo certain specialized testing, your doctor will send a referral request to the consultant directly from our office. You will then be contacted by our staff
(by phone or email) to confirm an appointment time. We ask that you inform us if you are contacted directly by the specialist’s clinic to arrange an appointment time so that we may record this confirmation in your file.
If you have not received an appointment within 1 month of the consult request, please contact our clinic so that we may follow-up regarding the status of your referral.
Please call the office back ASAP when we call to give you the information of the referral appointment.
Prescription Renewal
Your doctor will renew your prescriptions at each visit to meet your ongoing needs. Please anticipate your needs well in advance to reduce the need for telephone renewals.
If you require a telephone prescription renewal, contact your pharmacy and they will fax us the information. Please allow up to 5 business days for your physician to respond to a prescription request from your pharmacy. Not all prescriptions should be renewed without an office visit; this is at the discretion of your physician.
There is a $30.00 fee for each phone/fax renewal (without an office visit). Renewals are included for those who have subscribed to the Annual Fee Plan. For more information, please refer to the Uninsured services page.
E-mail communication
Currently, we only use email communication for non-urgent correspondence. Such as the annual letter, to up-date you or perhaps to inform you of an upcoming referral appointment, confirming appointments and sending requisitions.
You must sign a consent form in order for us to communicate to you through email and be aware of the risks of confidentiality. We do not use this as a regular means of communication as it is not a secure means of communication and is not checked on a daily basis. If you have not as yet completed an email consent please download copy here and email to our office.