We hope this message finds you all healthy and staying well, physically, mentally and emotionally through these trying times. Please take a moment to thoroughly read this update and please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or concerns!
Our pre-existing clinic policies that are not updated in this message remain in effect and we would encourage you to see below to review information on things like Direct Billing, Online Booking and our Cancellation Policy.
At this time, we wanted to update you since the news of the third province wide State of Emergency and Stay at Home Order was announced. There will be some things with this news that will affect our team at Thrive and you as our clients and patients.
At this time, THE CLINIC REMAINS OPEN for Chiropractic and Massage Therapy appointments however, we will continue with our strict clinic protocols for our overall team and client safety. As Regulated Health Care Providers, we remain essential at this time and the Ministry of Health (MOH), has allowed us to continue to practice.
Please note all Manual Osteopathic treatments booked after April 8th will be cancelled until further notice. All of our Osteopathic clients will hear directly from the clinic or Barbara regarding any upcoming appointments booked after April 8th and we will prioritize your care for when the lockdown is lifted or when we receive new direction from the MOH.
Feel free to connect with your practitioner (email links on our website) or our administrative team with any questions or concerns regarding your upcoming appointments or any of our clinic policies and procedures.
Rest assured that our team at Thrive continues to follow the strictest guidelines and protocols for Health Care Facilities as defined by our regulating bodies, the Halton Region Public Health, Public Health Ontario and the Ministry of Health. We continue to monitor for updates and adjust our protocols as required.
With the recent increase in COVID numbers and the implementation of a third “lock down”, here is a review of our current and some updated/new standards for your health care appointment:
- We will continue to screen all clients by email/text 24 hours prior to an appointment time and again, with your practitioner upon arrival at the clinic.
*Please note* We reserve the right to cancel an appointment if a COVID prescreen is not completed and we are unable to contact you to complete it by phone/email.
*Please ensure that your contact information is up to date for both phone number and email and that your option for either text message/email reminder is correct as this is how your prescreen is sent.
- In addition to our regular Ministry of Health COVID screening, our practitioners reserve the right to do an in person temperature check (forehead/wrist) to prescreen individual clients for fever at our discretion.
- Moving forward from the previous lockdown on December 28th, all clients have been be required to wear a proper 3 layer medical mask to eliminate any question of the level of mask protection being used. Should you not have a medical mask, one will be provided for you. We reserve the right to cancel your appointment should you refuse to wear a medical mask for your appointment. Cancellation fees will be applied in this situation.
- All clients/patients will be risk assessed to ensure that the benefit of the treatment they are coming in to receive, outweighs any risk to them or our team. Should we feel the benefit of the treatment does not outweigh the risk to you or ourselves, we will be rescheduling these appointments for when we are not in a lock down situation.
- Regular cleaning and sanitizing continues to be our priority between clients in each treatment room as well as on a regular basis throughout the common areas and bathrooms.
Our practitioners and administrative team are working as efficiently as possible while adhering to sanitizing/social distancing protocols, so please have patience as we prepare for the next client, assist clients at the front desk, and continue to ensure your safety and well being in the common areas.
To assist us with limiting congestion in the common spaces, please continue to arrive just on time for your appointment and enter when it is your appointment time only. If you have any questions or concerns, call us and we will do our best to help.
Please take a moment to review our ongoing clinic policies below:
Online:
We are pleased to have our online booking option back up and running! You can now book up to 2 months in advance and 24 hours prior to an appointment time, with any of our RMT’s, our Chiropractor and our Osteopathic Practitioner online (*note that as of April 8/21, Osteopathic treatment is not available for booking under the latest provincial lockdown. We will advise as soon as booking can resume). Any bookings within less than 12 hours prior to an appointment must be done through reception as COVID screening must be completed at this time to ensure the safety of our team and other clients. Currently, our Registered Psychotherapist is on leave and is scheduled to return in the Fall. Please reach out to our administrative team for referrals to our community partners in mental health.
As always, clients are required to fill in their health history* online prior to their appointment time (this does not apply to Psychotherapy clients), so that their Health Care Practitioner is able to review the health history information and prepare for the upcoming treatment with any additional questions or requests, or even recommend alternative action prior to coming in to see us for an appointment. Health history forms must be filled in completely to the best of a clients ability so that treatment can be provided safely.
*Within the scope of the online health history form, are a number of items for the client to provide consent to including (but not limited to):
Cancellation policy – We require 24 hours notice for an appointment cancellation. Appointments cannot be cancelled online with less than 24 hours notice and the client must call the clinic to do this. Direct billing to insurance is not applicable to missed appointments or late cancellations. The client will be responsible for the fee associated with their appointment and payment will be due at the time of the missed appointment or cancellation.
-Massage Therapy, *Osteopathy & Psychotherapy: the full fee for a missed appointment or an appointment cancellation with less than 24 hours notice, is applied and payment will be requested at the time of cancellation/missed appointment. *note as of April 8/21 and through lockdown, Osteopathy is NOT available for booking.
-Chiropractic appointments: the full fee for a missed appointment will be charged, cancellations with less than 24 hours notice will be subject to 50% of the appointment fee and payment will be requested at the time of the cancellation/missed appointment.
Our Health Care Practitioner’s practice time is valuable and this time is set aside just for you! In order to offer this time to another client (especially with our newly required COVID prescreening standards), we require this 24 hour timeframe. We appreciate your understanding!
Direct Billing information – While we offer and will attempt direct billing for clients through most major insurers, it remains the responsibility of the client to confirm their eligibility for direct billing and to ensure they know their individual benefit coverage for the service they are receiving.
Payment for services received will be due at the time of appointment and clients remain responsible for payment if direct billing is not available or declined to them. Missed or cancelled appointments CANNOT be billed through insurance and it remains the responsibility of the client to provide payment at the time of the missed appointment or cancellation as per our Clinic Cancellation Policy.
*NEW* 24 hours prior to an appointment, reminders are sent and with this reminder is a new COVID-19 prescreen tool that MUST be filled in by ALL clients and sent back each and every time! This is an ongoing screening tool which we are required to use a day prior to your appointment. This may also be done by phone with our administrative team. An additional screening will be done again at the time of your appointment. We reserve the right to refuse treatment if a prescreening is not completed prior to your appointment. Any “day of” screening will be completed outside of the clinic, prior to a client being allowed entry into our space, to help keep our practitioners, office staff and other clients as safe and secure as possible.
As we continue to work together to stay safe and healthy, we so appreciate your ongoing support and cooperation with our protocols. If we all do our part, we can keep working and doing what we love, providing care to all of you.
Thank you!
Team Thrive
