Current Patient Information
Clinic Policies
New Patients: Please make an appointment to meet a physician. During your first visit, your medical history will be briefly reviewed with any supporting documentation. During this visit you will likely be registered to our clinic and/or rostered to the FHO (Family Health Organization). Your physician will ask you to make another appointment to address any current medical issues.
We do not see patients who are not registered with our clinic.
Confidentiality: It is important to us that our patients and staff understand the importance of confidentiality of our medical records. As physicians, we are obligated to safeguard your medical information except under very specific or urgent circumstances. Therefore, if a family member or place of employment calls to inquire regarding a patient’s medical condition or test results, we are unable to discuss it with them without previous authorization. Our staff is also obligated to respect your privacy in the same manner.
Childhood Immunization: Parents are responsible to provide their child’s immunization records to our clinic. Without current immunization records we are unable to administer any new immunizations.
Prescription Renewals: Appointments are required for prescription refills. Please call to book an appointment when you pick up your last refill. Physicians provide up to 1 year of medication depending on your condition and medications need reassessment to continue. Any prescription renewal requests without an appointment will be charged a $25 fee to have a short bridging refill sent to your pharmacy, which can take up to 5 business days. In general, pharmacies are able to extend stable prescriptions.
Virtual Visits: All visits are in-person unless specified in advance by the physician.
Booking Appointments: Appointments can be booked by phone, or register for Pomelo for direct online booking options and messaging. All visits are in-person. Appointments that require nursing support must be booked via reception (well children, physicals, prenatals and diabetic reviews).
Same Day Access/After Hours Clinic vs Walk-In Clinic: For appropriate same day appointments, we ask that you contact our clinic first. We will do our best to accommodate your health care needs. When you use other walk-in clinics or virtual clinics, your family physician doesn’t always receive the clinic note and receives a bill for the value of the visit. This can result in a breakdown in patient care. Your family physician gets penalized for the cost of your other walk-in clinic visit. This is called Outside Use.
Outside Use Policy:
1st Outside Use – A reminder call or letter of our policy
2nd Outside Use – Warning Letter
3rd Outside Use – At the discretion of your physician, you may be terminated as a patient of Greenwood Medical Centre.
No Show Policy: We do not provide reminder phone calls for our patients. We request that you provide us with as much notice as possible when you are unable to make an appointment. Doctor and nursing appointments cancelled with less than 1 business days’ notice will count towards your no-show count and will be dealt with in the following way:
1. After the first no-show/late cancellation you will be mailed a copy of our policy as a reminder.
2. After the second, a charge equivalent to the value of the missed appointment will be billed to you. For example, the average 15 minute appointment is valued at $40.00 and the average half hour appointment is $80.00. No further appointments will be scheduled until outstanding no-show/cancellation fees are paid.
3. After the third no show/cancellation the physician may decide to terminate the doctor-patient relationship at her or his discretion.
Please note, new patients who miss their initial intake visits will not be rebooked or accepted.
Other Fees: There are other situations where a patient may be billed directly for a service that is not covered by OHIP. For example, patients who do not have valid provincial healthcare will be billed directly for services at the time they are provided. Most forms or notes for work are also not covered. For a complete list of these uncovered services and their fees, please see our posted “Fee List”. Payments will be accepted in the form of either cash, cheque or credit card. Outstanding bills will make it impossible for us to provide you with a scheduled appointment until your account is cleared or there is an emergency situation.
Respect for Staff: We ask that at all times you conduct yourself in a respectful manner with our staff and physicians, whether in person or by phone. The same courtesy will be directed towards you. Disrespectful or threatening behaviour towards staff, physicians or other patients will be grounds for immediate termination of the doctor-patient relationship.
Request for Copies of Medical Information: Please provide at least 14 business days’ notice for any copy of information you may require. There are fees associated with transferring medical records to a USB memory stick, via fax, or paper copy. Please ask a receptionist for fee details.
Uninsured Services Fee Guide - Effective November 1, 2023
While OHIP covers the costs for most of your medical needs, there are many services we provide which are not covered. Examples of these include, but are not limited to:
· prescription renewals without an appointment
· sick notes
· referrals for physiotherapy, massage therapy, chiropractic, etc.
· forms (we aim to complete these within 60 days but please be aware that this can be upwards of 120 days due to extreme volume)
***Visits that are not medically necessary to complete forms that are not medically necessary are also uninsured and come with a fee separately or are included in the fee for the form.***
