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Department of Family Medicine

Stonechurch Family Health Centre

Patients

Your health care is our number one priority! When you call the clinic, the receptionist will give you an appointment with one of the people on your health care team.

When you arrive for your appointment:

  • You will be asked to update your health card and personal information. It is important that you bring a valid health card to every visit.
  • A team assistant will bring you to the exam room and may take your blood pressure or additional measurements, depending on the reason for your visit.
  • You will meet with your provider and will discuss your health concerns.
  • If a follow-up appointment is needed, you will be given information on how to book a new appointment with that provider.

While we aim to see all patients in a timely manner, emergencies do happen and you may be seen later than your scheduled appointment time.

Secure Patient-Clinician Messaging

Stonechurch Family Health Centre is now offering secure online messaging between patients and their healthcare provider using OCEAN software. All information communicated using OCEAN will be saved to your Electronic Medical Record (EMR).

Patients can now send secure electronic messages directly to Stonechurch Family Health Centre.

Please note that your healthcare provider will not routinely see your answers on medical forms until the time of your next appointment.

If you have an urgent medical problem, please contact Stonechurch Family Health Centre or proceed to the nearest emergency department.

Secure Messaging

**NOTE** This upload portal is not a method of booking or requesting appointments. The portal is meant to ensure the confidentiality of patient information during digital transfer.  It is the patient’s responsibility to call and book an appointment (if required) to address the content of any uploaded document. Please be aware that forms may take up to 1 month to be completed.

Expandable List

As a Stonechurch patient, you have access to a doctor after the clinic closes at 5 p.m. We provide after hours care by telephone between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. seven days a week.

Follow these steps if you need help when the clinic is closed:

  • If you have a medical emergency, call 911 immediately.
  • If it isn’t an emergency, call us.
  • Select to speak with the on-call doctor.
  • A doctor will speak with you about your health concern. They will help you decide what to do next.
  • You and the doctor will decide if you need to see a doctor right away, if you can wait until the next day to see a doctor, or if you don’t need to see a doctor at all.
  • The doctor will also provide advice on how you can manage your symptoms.

If you are sick and need to be seen by a doctor on a more urgent basis, the clinic is open every weekend and holiday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The phone is answered between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m.

The weekend and holiday clinics are NOT for routine health care visits such as physicals, well-baby visits, prenatal visits, reviewing test results or prescription renewals. These routine healthcare visits should be booked with your healthcare team during regular business hours.

Advanced Access means we prioritize certain concerns for appointments when we work with you to book your appointment. Concerns that require an assessment by a health care professional within the next 24-48 hours are prioritized for any available same day spots.

Appointment reasons that are best addressed by your family physician and their team or by the clinician of your choice can be pre-booked for a later time (e.g. forms, mental health counselling, reviewing recent results, etc.).

We hope that moving towards this new Advanced Access Booking System will ensure all our patients get faster access to their doctor or other health care professional. Please see our original open letter from January 3, 2022: Open Letter to Patients – Stonechurch (PDF)

Our Family Medicine residents play an important role in your health care.

Who is a Resident?

A resident is a fully graduated medical doctor who is completing an additional two years of education in family medicine. They work with a specific family doctor to provide you with the best health care possible.

How does that affect you?

They are typically the person you will see in the majority of your appointments. They will follow your care for the two years they are with the clinic.

Each resident is monitored by one of our family doctors at the clinic through cameras in the room. This allows the family doctor to give them feedback and advice on providing your health care.

Residents are one part of a larger team that works together to care for you and your family.

If you are a patient at Stonechurch, call us to book your next appointment. Starting February 13, 2023, you will be able to also book online.

We are not currently accepting new patients at this time.

How we protect your Privacy:

  • The physicians and staff at the McMaster Family Health Team treat your personal health information with respect and sensitivity in accordance with the Ontario Personal Health Information Protection Act, 2004 (PHIPA) and all other applicable laws.
  • We take steps to protect your personal health information from theft, loss and unauthorized access, copying, modification, use, disclosure and disposal.
  • We conduct audits and investigations to monitor and manage our privacy compliance.
  • We take steps to ensure that our physicians, staff and any other person who performs services for us protects your privacy.

For more information please review: Privacy Notice – McMaster Family Health Team (PDF)

While OHIP provides coverage for many of the services we provide, there are some services that are not covered. SFHC is pleased to provide these additional valuable services, but the responsibility for payment will be with you or the third party requesting these services. Examples of such uninsured services include medical/legal reports, insurance forms, sick notes, employer or Ministry of Transport driver’s physicals, etc. Please be aware that you may be asked to pay for these services prior to receiving them. You can find a list of these services, along with their reasonable fees on the SFHC fee schedule (PDF).

Please note that the updated uninsured services fee guide for SFHC will take effect July 1, 2023

FAQs

SFHC has a 3-business day turnaround time for prescription renewals. Be advised that you may be called in for an assessment by our clinicians if this is required prior to renewal. We suggest you plan ahead and contact your pharmacy or SFHC for renewals when you have 14 days’ worth of medications left on-hand.

In line with best practice recommendations, SFHC has a 30-day turnaround time for any form. Please plan for this time period, whenever possible, if you require a form to be completed, such as  Ontario Disability Tax Credit Forms, Service Ontario Parking Disability Forms, Short Term Disability Forms, Employer Forms, etc.

We strive to respond to all incoming phone messages from our patients. Our clinical teams prioritize and respond to these phone messages in a timely fashion. Please be advised that it may take up to 3 business days to receive a response for a phone message.

We recognize that situations may arise where you will need to cancel an appointment at the clinic. We ask for at least 24 hrs notice to cancel an appointment. This will allow us to provide another patient with this appointment spot.  You may be charged a no-show fee if you do not show for an appointment.

SFHC is committed to providing a clinical care and work environment that values equity, diversity, and inclusion. We work hard with our staff to treat our patients with courtesy and respect. Because our staff reflects the valuable diversity of our Hamilton community, we ask that all staff be treated with courtesy and respect. Discriminatory, inappropriate, or threatening behaviour towards any team member is not welcome. Repeated incidences of these behaviour could lead to the termination of your care here at SFHC.