Clinic Policies

By becoming a registered patient at Fort Family Practice, you agree to the clinic policies detailed here. If you have any inquiries about the policies below, please contact our office.

Patient Registration

Registered patients are those who have been accepted by one of our family physicians into their regular practice.

If you are new to the practice, your initial visit is typically a "meet and greet" appointment to ensure a good fit between the doctor and yourself. Once one of our doctors has agreed to take you on, and you have had 2 or more visits with us, you will be considered a registered patient.

Our registered patients benefit: they can request prescription refills by fax or phone, book appointments online, and be seen by other physicians in the practice if their regular family physician is not in office. Some of our doctors also practice hospital medicine, and if you are a registered patient you may be seen by one of our own doctors while if you need to stay at Langley Memorial Hospital.

Patients can be deregistered by the government if you visit walk in clinics often, or have not visited your Fort Family Practice doctor for some time.

 

Walk-In Clinic Visits

Our clinic is uniquely compensated by the government to provide ALL your primary care throughout the year, rather than paying us for each visit you make to our office as is the case with the majority of family physicians in the province. As a consequence, whenever our registered patients seek care elsewhere, like walk-in clinics, our clinic ends up paying for your visit there. Furthermore, multiple visits to other clinics will indicate to the government that you are no longer a regular patient at our practice, causing you to be deregistered. Deregistered patients are not able to take advantage of some of the added services we provide, like prescription refills without needing an appointment.

Urgent Appointments

We reserve urgent same-day spots for our registered patients - please call our office if you think your medical issue is urgent. If we are unable to accommodate you with an urgent visit, we will make a note of it on your chart, and you could then seek a walk-in clinic for care.

We understand at times it is unavoidable to visit a walk in clinic - for example, on the weekends when we are not open. If this has occurred please let our office know, and we can make note of it in your chart. In addition, if you do visit a different clinic please ask them to send notes and investigations from your visit to our office.

 

Cancellation Policy

If you need to cancel an appointment, we require 24 hours notice to avoid a cancellation fee of **$40** for a standard 15-minute appointment, or **$80** if the appointment was booked for 30 minutes or longer.

Three (3) "No Show" appointments will result in termination of care for the particular patient.

Breaking appointments prevent us from taking care of other patients in a timely manner. Thank you for your consideration.

 

Prescription Refills

If you are a registered patient, you may request refills for your usual medications by contacting your pharmacy, or by requesting it via our Online Portal.

It takes up to 5 business days for your refill to be available at the pharmacy. Please take this into account when planning for your refills - it is best that you do not wait until you are completely out of your medication.

You may be asked to book an appointment to discuss a prescription refill. Your physician may want to clarify the medication, or have noticed something unresolved or outdated in your chart that they want to discuss.

Pharmanet Access

Pharmanet is a BC-wide secure central data system that tracks every prescription filled at any community pharmacy in the province. It is accessible by pharmacists, physicians, and other selected health care providers.

It can be a particularly important tool in your care, as it allows us to review your current prescriptions, some of which may have been prescribed by other physicians. This helps us avoid drug interactions or duplicating prescriptions.

Becoming a patient at Fort Family Practice implies consent for our physicians to check your Pharmanet at any time. If you have any concerns, please discuss with your physician.

Referrals

In general, new referral requests need to be discussed with your doctor. If you are looking to be referred to a specialist you have seen before, we may be able to do this for you without an appointment, if you are a registered patient.

We ask that you allow at least 2-4 weeks for communication between our office and the specialist’s office about your referral, before calling to inquire on its status.

You may be contacted directly by the specialist’s office about your appointment, or sometimes our office will contact you with the appointment information. If you have opted in to email communications with our office, we are able to send you the appointment information via email.

Follow-Up for Investigations

Our office receives hundreds of test results daily. It is not practical for us to phone each patient with their results. In general, we do contact patients about abnormal results that the doctors are concerned about.

If you have gone for bloodwork or other lab tests, you may be able to check your results online via the my e-health website. If you have questions about your results, call our office to inquire and/or book an appointment with your doctor.

If you have gone for an imaging test (x-ray, ultrasound, CT, MRI), these results are not accessible to you at this time. You will have to book an appointment with your doctor to discuss the results.

 

Mutual Respect Policy

We endeavour to create a respectful, safe place for our patients and families, who may be going through a stressful time. If you feel that your interactions with our office have not reflected this, please reach out to us so we can make things right.

We ask for equally respectful treatment towards our staff and physicians. Our office does not tolerate violence - physical or verbal. This includes foul or abusive language. Any incident of violence is grounds for your deregistration from the practice, and you will not be allowed to return in the future.