COVID-19 NOTICE

Bridgwater Medical Centre – Clinic Policies

Accepting New Patient into our practice

To become a new patient, all patients must book an appointment for a Meet and Greet to come in and discuss their medical history with the doctor. Please keep in mind that not all patients will be accepted. Being accepted as a new patient is up to the doctor’s discretion.

Note: If you currently have a family doctor IN OUR CLINIC, you cannot have 2 family doctors. To keep our clinic work environment healthy and fair, we do not transfer our patients over to different physicians. Only ONE Meet and Greet is allowed.

Appointments

Appointments can be booked online (please note: this is not available at this time due to Covid-19), in person, or over the phone. If you are NOT a family patient of our clinic, you can utilize our walk-in system available during clinic hours.

Same Day Appointments

Please keep in mind if you have a family doctor in our clinic, we will do our best to try and get you an appointment same day if any emergencies arise. If we are unable to book you an appointment, you are always welcome to use our walk-in and request to see your family doctor, or it is recommended you go to your nearest emergency hospital.

No-Show or Late Cancellations

We do understand that emergencies do happen. If you need to cancel your appointment for any reason, please give us as much notice as possible. For more information on how much notice you should be providing us per physician, please visit our Non-Insured Fee’s tab.

If you do not show up for your appointment and do not contact our office, it is within the clinic’s right to charge for your missed appointment.

Walk-In’s

We accept walk-in’s 7-days a week during our open clinic hours. Please keep in mind patients with booked appointments will be seen first. Due to high traffic volumes we may stop taking walk-ins 1 hour prior to closing time if we reached capacity. Check medimap.ca for our daily current wait-times.

Wait-Times

Please keep in mind wait times are an estimation and we never know exactly how long the wait may be. We will do our best to get patients in to see the doctor in a timely manner. Please be understanding and respectful of our clinic staff.

If you have an appointment, we will do our best to get you in as close to your appointment time as we can. But due to unforeseen circumstances or emergencies that may not always be possible.

When will I get my result back?

Most lab results take approximately 7 to 10 business days to be received. Some results can be received sooner but it is dependent upon what the doctor is testing for.

Some blood work has to be processed through the provincial laboratories or hospitals, those results take approximately 2 weeks to be received.

Cytology Reports (pap) and Biopsies normally take approximately 4 to 6 weeks to be received.

You can always call our office to confirm whether the results have been received but we cannot discuss lab results over the phone. If you would like to go over the results please book an appointment to do so with your physician.

Please note: Our clinic DOES NOT HAVE A LAB. We cannot take specimens from out-of-clinic patients. You will need to bring your specimen directly to Dynacare Lab located at 515 Sterling Lyon Parkway.

Note: These are only estimated wait-times. It is unfortunately out of our control if we do not receive your results within these approximate time-frames.

Cell Phones & Electronic Devices

We do ask that patients coming into our clinic turn all electronic devices on silent or vibrate out of respect to our clinic staff and other patients. Absolutely no video taping is allowed in our clinic. Please take any phone calls outside.

Behavior in the Office

This clinic has a ZERO TOLERANCE policy for inappropriate behavior. If you do not act respectfully you will be asked to leave and could result in being discharged from the clinic.

Personal Health Information

Please be assured all patient information is being kept private by our office. Your privacy is very important to us. If you have any concerns about your privacy or have any questions, please email us directly at info@bridgwatermedical.ca

For more information about PHIA, visit http://www.gov.mb.ca/health/phia/docs/phia_guide.pdf

Patient Demographics

Please ensure that your file is kept up to date with current address and phone number. Please inform reception if there are any changes to your personal information.

If you have moved, please notify us as well as Manitoba Health so you can be mailed a new health card with the updated information. If you do not contact Manitoba Health when you move, they may cancel your health coverage.

Manitoba Health contact information: 204-786-7101.

Narcotic Prescriptions

Our doctors will not prescribe narcotic prescription to anyone who is NOT a patient of our clinic.

Prescription Renewals

Please notify your pharmacy when you are starting to run low on your medication to request that they send us a Prescription Refill Request. We will send the request to the physician where they will approve the refill. If the refill is not approved, one of our Medical Office Assistants will be in contact with you.

Antibiotic prescriptions must be reassessed and will not be renewed unless followed up by a doctor.

Please give up to 1 business day for your refill to reach back to your pharmacy.

Referrals

If a referral to a specialist if being made by our office, we will do our best to ensure the referral is being sent in a timely manner. Please ensure your information is current as either our office or the specialists office will contact you by phone or mail with your appointment.

Please keep in mind that it can take anywhere between 2 months to a year or more to see some specialists. If you have a particular specialist you would like to see, please inform our doctor and our staff prior to the referral being sent.

Note: It is recommended that you have a family doctor in our clinic that is following your medical history to be referred to a specialist.

Forms

Please inform the front-end staff of any forms you have prior to seeing the doctor. Most forms are not covered under Manitoba Health and it is the patients responsibility to pay up front for any forms. We accept all payment methods except AMEX. Please ask our front desk or visit our Non-insured fee’s tab for more information on cost.