November 11, 2022

RE: MASKS

BC COVID-19 SELF-ASSESSMENT TOOL

IMPORTANT NOTICE TO PATIENTS REGARDING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

FOR ALLERGY SHOT PATIENTS:

When you come in for your scheduled allergy treatment appointment:

• Please attend your appointment as scheduled.  If you arrive too early or late where it runs into another patient's appointment, you may be asked to wait outside the office so that we can ensure social distancing or your appointment may be rebooked if you are too late.   
  
  

• Please wear a mask upon entering the office. A medical mask is mandatory at this time, and you will be provided with one if you do not have one. 

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• Ensure you have been self-isolating and maintaining social distancing recommendations before attending the office.
  
  
• Run through the COVID-19 Self-Assessment Tool before attending the office.
  
• While we missed seeing you and its nice to catch up, please minimize conversation when getting your injection with Dr. Lee to avoid potential spread of droplets when speaking.   
  
  
• If you are stable on immunotherapy and you have a family doctor, Dr. Lee may discuss the option of getting your shots done at your GPs office to ensure you can get your injections in a more timely manner.   

If you have missed some immunotherapy injections due to this closure, Dr. Lee will adjust doses as necessary to help you resume treatment and will make recommendations for further treatment.

Everyone should minimize unnecessary trips outside of the home and practice social distancing. We must flatten the curve to help our hospitals and hospital staff deal with COVID-19 (SAR CoV-2).

FOR OUR SCHEDULED TELEHEALTH FOLLOWUP PATIENTS WITH UPCOMING TELEPHONE APPOINTMENTS:

• We will be also leaving our automated telephone reminder call running, so you will get another reminder about 2 business days before your appointment.
  
  
• Dr. Lee will be calling from his private line, so if you have call display it will say "Private Caller".

For more information, please visit

 

http://www.bccdc.ca/heath-info/diseases-conditions/covid-19

INFORMATION ON COVID VACCINE EXEMPTION AND DEFERRALS

The goal of your appointment with an allergist will be to help facilitate safe vaccination.

Currently in British Columbia there are no vaccine exemptions, only deferrals. Individual physicians and nurses are not permitted to grant deferrals. Deferrals are granted by the Ministry of Health/Public Health by a committee.

Be aware that issues surrounding COVID 19 are changing rapidly and current evidence about allergies and vaccinations may change in the future.

Please refer to the following if you wish to read more about COVID-19 vaccinations and allergy.

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COVID-19 Vaccine Testing & Administration Guidance for Allergist/Immunologists from the Canadian Society of  Allergy and Clinical Immunology

PDF Version

CSACI Update.pdf

Dec 2, 2021 3:56 PM

COVID - 19 and Food Allergies

• Within 24 hours of appointment, self-screen with the BC COVID-19 Self-Assessment Tool

https://bc.thrive.health./covid19/en

• Rebook your appointment or switch your appointment to telephone if:

• Mandatory masks are required; you will be provided with a medical mask if you do not have one.  If you cannot wear a medical mask, please contact our office to rebook or to change to telephone appointment if appropriate. If you are exempt from wearing a mask, a note from your doctor must be presented.

• Once you have completed the history form, option to transfer it electronically to our office (encrypted file transfer).

SECURE UPLOAD

Once you have clicked the link, click blue UPLOAD FILES box on the right-hand side of the page and follow screen instructions.

• Only the patient being seen (with one guardian, if applicable) will be allowed in the office.

    Thank you for your cooperation to ensure your safety and safety of other patients (which may include people with lung disease and low immune systems) and office staff.

Lansdowne Professional Centre located on the southwest corner of the Shelbourne Street and Hillside Avenue intersection, across the street from Hillside Shopping Centre; there are three gas stations at the other three corners of the intersection.

There is a Pharmasave located on the main floor of the centre.

We are on in the Landsdowne Professional

Centre II building on the third floor in suite 315.

On Shelbourne Street, facing the intersection of Hillside Avenue and Shelbourne Street.

The entrance of the underground pay parkade is on the opposite side from the parked vehicles.

**Please note that the Landsdowne Professional Centre is two separate buildings (Landsdowne Professional Centre and Lansdowne Professional Centre II) that are joined together.  Each building  has an elevator and is accessible to each other via a passageway connecting both buildings with the address of the buildings at the top of the doorways.

Our office (315) is located right outside the elevator on the third floor of the 3066 side of the building in the southwest corner.

PARKING

We recommend you use the underground parkade. It is $2.50 for two hours. Parking on ground level in front of the Pharmasave at 1641 Hillside is 30 minutes only and is patrolled.

Please note, we cannot be responsible for parking tickets due to failure to obtain pay parking, nor are we responsible for any parking violations arising from use of the parking lot at the adjacent shopping centre.

The link below will open up our PDF history form.

You may UPLOAD your history form through our secure encrypted file transfer link before your appointment.

Please use the above link to upload any photos that you are asked to send. If you send photos, please make sure that your photo filename have your name so that we can identify you from other patients.

PLEASE WAIT A FEW SECONDS AND YOU SHOULD SEE THE SPINNING ARROWS NEXT TO YOUR FILENAME AS IT IS BEING UPLOADED. ONCE THE SPINNING ARROWS TURN INTO A CHECK MARK, YOUR UPLOAD HAS BEEN COMPLETED AND IS BEING SENT TO OUR OFFICE.

Need more help? For detailed uploading instructions, please see our link below.

We have decided to carry on with booking appointments for immunotherapy due to the increasing number of patients on the treatment.

We will not be returning to drop-in times.

You may call the office to book an appointment, or we now have limited spots available for online booking through the link below.

BOOK IMMUNOTHERAPY APPT ONLINE

Please note that this link is for IMMUNOTHERAPY ONLY. All other appointments, whether in-office or by phone, must be booked with the office staff directly in order to ensure the correct amount of allotted time on Dr. Lee's schedule.

Please do not book more than THREE immunotherapy APPOINTMENTS AT A TIME online due to the limited openings available.  Patients who book more than three appointments ahead may have the extra appointments cancelled in order to give everyone a chance at the spots and will be asked to contact the office to book future appointments.

Office staff have the ability to book appointments that otherwise may not appear  as openings on the schedule as we tend to book IT patients in small groupings throughout the day. We recommend booking your next injections at your appointment.

General Treatment Hours for

ALL TYPES of Immunotherapies:

We generally book immunotherapy treatments onsite between:

 Due to the social distancing required, our schedule may not always be as flexible to ensure we do not have too many patients in the office at a given time.

Please be seated in the waiting room for

30 minutes after

EACH injection(s)

Please note Dr. Lee will not be accepting allergy shot patients on the following dates:

Hours of operation generally are Monday to Friday with closure on all statutory holidays.

The office is open for scheduled appointments during the hours listed below.

Monday 9:00 - 4:00

Tuesday 9:00 - 3:00

Wednesday 8:30 - 4:00

Thursday 8:30 - 4:00

Friday 8:30 - 4:00

For immunotherapy hours, please see TREATMENT SCHEDULE.

Telephones are answered between 9:00 to 12:00 and again from 1:00 to 4:00 pm. If you get our answering machine, please do leave a message and we will return your call. Please note that due to high volumes of calls at times, messages left may not be returned on the same day.

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Office Closures

If you have not seen us for 6 months or more, you will need a new referral, in accordance with Medical Service Plan guidelines.

If existing patients have been recommended to have a reassessment in one year or more, you will need to obtain a new referral in order to have another appointment arranged. We usually make this request in the last consult letter to the referring doctor, but following up with the referring doctor may be necessary.

 A referral letter is mandatory and should be sent from the referring office directly to our office. An appointment will not be booked without a referral.

We are not set up for e-referrals and accept referrals by fax only.

PLEASE NOTE THAT WAIT TIME FOR A ROUTINE APPOINTMENT IS APPROXIMATELY 11-12 MONTHS.

Specialized procedures may have longer wait times.

Wait times are subject  to change.

Once your appointment has been arranged, you will be contacted approximately a month prior to your appointment date. An appointment may be left on voicemail or via email, so please ensure that the contact information that will be provided from your referring doctor is up to date.

Appointments must be confirmed or they may be cancelled.

We have had some reports of the appointment confirmation emails going into people's SPAM folder.

Most patients will be asked to avoid antihistamines 5 days prior to their appointment if it is anticipated that they will be having skin scratch testing.

See additional instructions depending on the type of appointment you have been scheduled for (eg. patch testing, penicillin testing).

If you are a new patient, please arrive 10 minutes early for your appointment to fill out a history form.

Please have the following information with you on the day of your visit:

• Health Care Card (BC, Out Of Province)
  
  
• Military Number (if your referral came from one of the base clinics)
  
  
• Quebec residents, please contact the office directly for health coverage information.
  
  
• Most up-to-date medication list, including regular supplements.

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Alternatively, you may download, print and fill out the history form below and bring the completed form to your visit or upload to us via secure file upload link.

RETURNING PATIENTS

If you have been to see Dr. Lee before, please ensure that your contact information, family doctor etc. is up to date at the front desk.

Please use dark ink when filling out the history form so that our scanner will be able to read it.