Tele-medicine

Tele-medicine is the usage of a telephone or video-conferencing computer program / phone app for the purpose of providing medical care remotely. Tele-medicine allows patients to securely video or telephone conference with a doctor about their health concerns from the comfort of home. 

Tele-medicine is ideal for health concerns that do not require any type of physical manipulation of the patient by the doctor, visits that can be completed by simple discussion or visual inspection. Some Examples:

-Most prescription refills

-Most skin conditions

-Review of results

-Referrals to specialists about previously documented conditions

-Discussions about mental health

Tele-Medicine is not appropriate for emergency situations, newly occurring physical complaints, or refills of controlled medications such as narcotics.

When scheduling your tele-medicine appointment, staff will determine if tele-medicine is appropriate for what you are requesting to be seen for. On some occasions the doctor may request a follow-up in office so they can investigate or provide treatment.

Step 1. Call reception at the Esquimalt Medical Clinic to determine when the next available appointment is with your doctor. 

Step 2. Describe in detail with reception what you wish to be seen for, staff will then determine if tele-medicine is appropriate for your case and if any thing will need to be prepared for your visit.

Step 3. Once you are provided with an appointment, ensure the staff have your current phone number. Staff will then alert you what modality of tele-medicine the doctor will be using for your appointment. Currently there are two types we are using: Regular phone call, and Doxy.me teleconferencing program. 

Step 4. At your estimated appointment time, regardless of the type of tele-medicine you are using, please do not screen calls if you do not recognize the caller or if the caller is listed as private as this may be the doctor calling you for your appointment. 

If your phone has a setting to auto-block private or unknown callers please ensure this is turned off.

We also recommend that you set a reminder for yourself to have your phone on hand at the time of the appointment, to ensure you are in an area that has good reception, and that your phone is not on silent.

If you have been directed to use Doxy.me please follow the link below for further instructions.