phone: 905-639-0884
fax: 905-639-0824
Dr. Laura Foster
Family Physician
103-2200 Fairview St
Burlington, On L7R 4H9
May 2023
COVID IS STILL HERE
In the office we will continue to mask . No one should try to get COVID. Long Covid remains an unsolved dilemma with concerns about long term cognitive(brain) dysfunction. There continues to be a low level of Covid in the community and Public Health has recommended another booster for those at higher risk(anyone over 65 or immunosuppressed) if you have not had a booster in the past 6 months. Fully vaccinated is your primary series of 2 or 3 doses plus at least one booster. Covid levels would decrease further in the province if vaccination rates increased !!!
PLEASE GET VACCINATED IF YOU HAVE NOT HAD A BOOSTER IN 6 MONTHS
RE-ROSTERING AND THE BLOCK FEE
Most patients have re-rostered(resigned officially with the practice) but surprisingly not all active patients have re-rostered to maintain their spot in the practice.
Only rostered patients will be eligible to partake in FHO annual block fee for fax prescription renewals/notes/etc (please see our website for further information regarding block fees). For those rostered patients who do not choose to sign up for the block fee, our historical (from old Dr. Foster times) 30$ pharmacy fax prescription renewal fee has been in effect for the past 6 months
All non-rostered patients must be seen in office for their prescription renewals. Please bring all your bottles of medication for us to check as sometimes we are surprised to find out what meds you are taking or not
taking!
Only Rostered patients
will be able to use email correspondence for medical issues when deemed clinically appropriate by the physician (i.e. Sending in physician requested information such as pictures/blood pressure readings/sugar
readings).
All non rostered patients will need to come into the office to have their issues dealt with.
Rostering forms and transfer of medical record forms are available for pick up from our office.
DR. Maurana BRUSH
I know many of you have had the pleasure of meeting Dr.Brush when she covered my practice during my maternity leave and then continued to work as a locum replacement doctor for me.
She has officially started her own practice in our office and will no longer be providing regular care to any patients on my roster. Unfortunately she is unable to accept any of my patients into her practice.
I
VERY IMPORTANT REMINDERS IN OFFICE APPOINTMENT PROTOCOLS
ONE PROBLEM ONLY AT EVERY APPOINTMENT
Unfortunately in these days, while we understand every patient's desire to discuss all of their problems which they have accumulated and been concerned with for the past 3 Covid years, please do not come with a laundry list of 10 problems to discuss! Only the single most important issue will be covered. Unlike the old precovid days of my father, we have to priorize your problem list and deal with THE MOST IMPORTANT PROBLEM ONLY. If there are other problems you wish to discuss another appointment will have to be booked. Surprisingly a substantial number of patients in the practice have not been seen in person since March 2020!!!!!
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RETURN TO IN Office IN PERSON Appointments
Telephone appointments never really worked well for the physician.
We recognize that there was some convenience for phone calls from the patient's point of view. There may be an occasional time and place for a disciplined phone call but all physicians rejoiced at getting back to the office and seeing patients face to face.
Phone medicine has proven to be generally unsatisfactory for everyone and especially for quality of medical care and was only a stop gap measure til Covid has run its peak.
The office is evolving back to
ALMOST ONLY IN PERSON APPOINTMENTS!!!!
Do not call and request a call back from the doctor.
JUST MAKE AN APPOINTMENT !!!
Missed Appointments
Much as many patients find it hard to believe, in these times of stressful demand for medical services, some patients are missing appointments. Please call to let us know as literally dozens of other patients could take your appointment time. Repeat offenders will be charged or asked to reconsider their position on our roster
ALL PRESCRIPTION REFILLS STILL MUST GO THROUGH YOUR PHARMACY.DO NOT CALL THE OFFICE FIRST.
Please review our prescription renewal protocols.
You must initially contact your pharmacy directly, NOT our office. Your pharmacy will then fax your request to our office for a legal paper trail. DO NOT WAIT until your last pill is gone or go to the pharmacy and expect a 30 minute turnaround. It is your responsibility to oversee your supply of medications. Go to your pharmacy at least one week prior to running out of your meds in order to give us time to process all your requests. Remember faxes are problematic as they get lost in the pharmacy or do not transmit and have to be resent.
Technical Changes
LAB facilities in our building are still closed.
Xray is OPEN in our building for only ultrasounds.
More specialized Ultrasounds like MSK(musculo skeletal) are performed on Brant St. All Xrays are done at Brant st.
The closest open Lab Facilities are Lifelabs at the Harvester Professional Building at 3155 Harvester between Guelph Line and Walkers Line, however you can utilize any lab facilities.
For your blood and urine testing, we fax the requisition to Lifelabs.
In Burlington you can JUST WALK IN
Their Central Booking phone number at 1-877-849-3637 .
Pharmacy in our building is still open on restricted hours closing at 5pm. For those of you picking things up from our office the building gets locked at 6 pm.
Parking gates are up for free parking in our building.
END OF EMAILS
We have removed our office email address from the website.
Dr Laura may have some use for limited email in the future. At present time select patients will be asked to email pictures of skin lesions ONLY. Please do not use the new office email for ANY other reason.
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