Dr G Mansell – Practice Updates

Patient update September  2022

To My Valued Patients,

As we head into fall I wanted to give you some updates and reminders regarding my practice:

  1. I have recently learned that I am unable to provide virtual care (phone or video) appointments when patients are out of province. You will need to see a physician in the province you are located in for care while you are out of Alberta.  Please ensure that you book an appointment in advance, prior to your trip, to ensure that you have enough refills.
  2. Telephone (15 min) and video (30 or 60 min) appointments are available on Mondays and Fridays. This is subject to change.  For virtual video appointments: if there are any audio or visual problems, please disconnect and then reconnect.  This usually resolves the issues and it will reduce the need for me to do video charades!
  3. As many of you are aware, due to the nature of my practice I often encounter patients in crisis who require some additional support. As a result, I may be behind schedule.  Your patience is appreciated.  For phone or video appointments, please wait 45 minutes past your booked appointment time before contacting the office.  If I am 45 minutes late or more, you are welcome to reschedule without any charge.
  4. There is a $40.00 fee for prescription refills without an appointment. This includes requests for refills from your pharmacy.  It is your responsibility to make sure that you do not run out of medication between appointments.  If you are unable to get an appointment before you run out, you could see if your pharmacy will give you a small amount of your medication or go to a Medicentre.   If you believe that there has been an error with a recent prescription, please contact the office; an appointment is not necessary under such circumstances.
  5. Please remember that we require 24hrs notice to cancel an appointment. Failure to attend an appointment  or failure to cancel with enough notice will be billed based on the length of the appointment:
    • 15 minutes: $40.00
    • 30 minutes: $75.00
    • 60 minutes: $150.00

Exceptions will be made for a verifiable emergency or illness.

  1. Occasionally, patients have booked an appointment but are then able to be seen earlier. It is your responsibility to cancel the original appointment or you will be billed.
  2. Please remember that each weekday there are usually two Same Day appointments that are given away first thing in the morning. Please call at 8:45 am if you are seeking one of those appointments.  These are not “emergency appointments” and can be booked for routine reasons.
  3. Steps are being taken to improve my wait times. I have stopped accepting new patients until the current backlog is resolved. Also, we will changing to another computer system in October.  This should resolve some of the frustrations we are having.  We appreciate your patience during the transition.
  4. Finally, a reminder that any abusive behaviour to staff will not be tolerated. I have instructed my staff to terminate calls if they are being spoken to in an unacceptable manner.  If you have concerns, please book an appointment to discuss the issue with me personally.

Thank you,

Dr. Mansell

P.S.  If any of you have a SAD light to improve your mood during the winter months, please start using it now.