Blue Water Medical Policies and Services

Your Health is Your Responsibility

Please book an appointment after any important tests to review your results, unless
instructed otherwise. We do our absolute best to ensure that all tests are appropriately
reviewed, but electronic and human error can occur. Please allow adequate time for your
results to arrive to our office from the lab or hospital.

 

First Appointment

New Patients who book their first appointment must complete the health questionnaire, e-
communications agreement and any other information requested, otherwise we cannot
complete the booking of your first appointment.

 

Meet and Greet

New patients must have completed their first “meet and greet” appointment with their
providers before they are considered an existing patient. If you are not able to make it to your
first “meet and greet” appointment, we urge you to call or reschedule online through our
booking system.

 

Rescheduling

Patients who do not complete their meet and greet will have their request to becoming a
patient removed 30 days after their original scheduled meeting. The new Patient must schedule the appointment again.

Please phone the office if you wish to cancel an appointment.

Blue Water Medical Cancellation Policies

We require 24 hours’ notice for cancellation of an appointment and do NOT accept any
cancellations by email. Please phone the office if you wish to cancel an appointment.

All missed regular appointments will be charged $60 for a no-show fee; missed paps will be
charged $70, and missed complete physicals will be charged $80.

Some general information on Blue Water Medical policies and services

Questions and Answers

Are the Providers able to just call me instead of having an in-office visit?

Currently the option to phone or see your provider virtually exists. Please select that option when booking.

Preparing for your Visit

The most challenging part of family practice from our end is thoroughly addressing all of your problems in one visit. While we do not believe in enforcing the “one problem per visit” model, we believe your time is just as valuable as ours, a regular office visit is 10 minutes (as we are only reimbursed by MSP for 1 problem per visit) and we like to stay on schedule as much as possible. Average wait times can be 15 to 30 minutes and we try our best to avoid longer wait times.

It is most helpful to us if you can present all of your concerns at the beginning of the visit so that we can determine which one is the most important that needs to be addressed urgently. If there is time available, we will try to address other issues, but we may need to ask you to return for a follow-up visit. Good medicine takes time.

What makes family medicine unique is that what comes through our doors is unpredictable. So please understand that if your wait time is longer than usual, this is because we needed to spend more time with a sick or complex individual that either needed an urgent fit-in or an extended visit.

Do you provide prenatal care?

I’m newly pregnant – what do I do next?

We perform prenatal exams up to the third trimester and then transfer your care to a health practitioner of your choice: obstetrician, family physician or mid-wife. If you are newly pregnant, please call our office to arrange a visit within 1-2 weeks as there are early screening tests that are available and need to be booked early (including dating ultrasound and bloodwork).

Prescriptions, Referrals, & Lab Results

Prescription refills require the provider to review the chart and or the patient and make a medical decision as to the need to continue or change any medication. As such, a visit is necessary. This can be done over phone/telemedicine/in person per the determination of the provider. It’s suggested that you also allow a bit of time before you completely run out of your medication. Please try and book an appointment for a prescription refill 1 week ahead of time.

All referrals including for massage and physiotherapy as well as specialists require an office visit. Front staff are not able to share results with you over the phone. By registering for My E-health at the lab, you can now access your results on-line as quickly as we can (the exception is sensitive test results processed by the BC Centre for Disease Control such as HIV).

http://www.myehealth.ca/

Urgent Fit-ins

We are happy to announce that since expanding the number of providers at the clinic, we are now usually able to fit-in urgent cases on the same day so please call us first thing in the morning to reserve a space. Please understand that you will need to book a separate visit for other less urgent issues. This is to allow providers to stay on time and avoid extended wait times for patients with pre-booked appointments.

Do you provide routine baby care?

I’ve just arrived home with a newborn baby – what do I do next?

We provide routine baby care at the recommended intervals (1 wk, 1 month, 2, 4, 6, 12, and 18 months).

We do not perform all of the early childhood immunizations and can direct you to the vaccination clinic at your closest community health care centre. Please discuss with your provider if any of the vaccinations can be done in house.

We also do routine pediatric exams (recommended yearly at ages 2, 3, and 4 prior to entering kindergarten).

You can now enroll your baby in the Medical Services Plan through the online birth registration service by the BC Vital Statistics Agency at the following link. You must do this as soon as possible after birth to ensure your baby has medical coverage:

https://ebr.vs.gov.bc.ca

Services Not Covered by MSP

Many services are not covered by the Medical Services Plan, including: cryotherapy with liquid nitrogen for hand warts (plantar and genital warts are covered) and other benign skin lesions, excision of benign moles, cortisone injections for keloid scars, and most medical forms including sick notes and forms for camp, work, school and immigration.

Blue Water Medical
Policies and Services

Please understand that these policies are not in place to inconvenience you as a patient, but providers do spend a large amount of time daily for non face to face management of patients’ health.

This includes the time to complete paperwork, and there is a tremendous amount of paperwork required on a daily basis for patients that are seen in the office (generally 1-2 hours per day in addition to our clinic time) to complete referrals, review lab results, review imaging, review specialist consults, complete insurance forms and medical legal requests.

They also need time to coordinate care with allied health and discuss cases with peers/specialists.