Windermere Plaza Medical Clinic
Unit 212 - 5540 Windermere Blvd SW T6W2Z8 Edmonton, AB, Canada

Dear Patients Flu season is upon us once again. We are starting our flu clinics as of next week... These clinics tend to fill up quickly so book early! Please note that we are still having some challenges with unprecedented call volumes (since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic), and we're working hard on addressing this. If you're unable to get through when you call, send us a text message at the office number (780 466 6236) and one of our team will get back to you as soon as they can. We will be taking all necessary precautions to mitigate the risk of Covid-19 (rooming patients promptly to minimize patients in the waiting room, cleaning after each visit etc). As before, these clinics will happen in the evenings and on weekends. We will schedule short booked appointments for flu shots only, to ensure our physicians don't run behind and everyone gets seen right on time. For any other medical concerns, patients are welcome to see our walk-in physician. You do not need to be a patient at our clinic to come in for a flu shot. All patients (over the age of 6 months) are welcome! We look forward to seeing you at one of our clinics! The link below highlights the importance of 'herd immunity' that mass vaccination attempts to achieve: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqKP-ETVvrc

Dear Patients The Covid-19 pandemic continues to impact our lives significantly. Access to healthcare continues to prove challenging. Physicians are retiring and clinics are closing, leaving many patients without a family doctor. It is a well established fact that continuity of care (ie. having a medical home where patients have access to the same doctor and/or team of healthcare providers) improves health outcomes across the board. This includes a survival benefit (patie...nts who receive ongoing care from a healthcare team they have a strong relationship with live longer). With all the fear and anxiety that this pandemic has incited, it's also a really difficult time to not have an established relationship with a trusted doctor. With this in mind, we are expanding our capacity for meet and greet appointments to give more patients the opportunity to attach themselves to a family physician and medical home. Over the last 2 months we had put meet and greet appointments on hold due to the pandemic, as one of our measures to halt the spread of Covid-19. The unintended consequence of doing so has been denying patients who are looking for a family doctor to attach, leaving them feeling isolated. We understand that the risks of Covid-19 spreading are still very real. For this reason our physicians who are accepting new patients are willing to do these virtually wherever possible. We realize that this isn't ideal (most patients who are attaching themselves to a new doctor would like to meet that doctor face to face at the first visit), but these are not ideal times. We still have some excellent physicians who are taking new patients. Prior to the pandemic, they were filling up quickly. We expect this trend to escalate going forward. Call us soon if you're looking for a family doctor!

Dear Patients We understand that the COVID-19 pandemic has left patients feeling scared and isolated. We want you to know we are here for you. All of our physicians are available to provide care for their patients. Given the current pandemic, we will do our best to keep people from coming to the office. If you have a medical need, please call the office, and we will arrange for your physician to call you back and provide medical advice. We are also looking at video-conf...erencing options, but we have to weigh up its benefits against the risk of a privacy breach. In cases where an in-person consultation is unavoidable, we have instituted the following operational changes to make your visits as safe as possible: - when you arrive at the office, remain in your car, and call the front desk to check in - our front staff will either advise you to come straight in, if we have an exam room ready, so that you don't have to spend any time in the waiting room; or - our front staff will advise you to remain in your vehicle, and call you when an exam room is ready - each room will be appropriately sanitized before and after your visit - we are limiting the amount of in person visits to the clinic per day to the bare minimum to ensure optimized social distancing Given the operational challenges we currently face with government funding for virtual visits, and some staff members off work self-isolating, we have taken the decision to shorten our hours of operation. We will be closing at 6pm from Mondays to Thursdays. We will still have staff manning the phone lines till 8pm and our evening physician will still be available for virtual appointments till 8pm. Friday and Saturday hours will remain unchanged for now. Our after hours service is also still running, although care may also be provided virtually for these where possible. Our walk-in physicians are still available to manage walk-in patients, but the above parameters will apply (ie. we will try to manage these patients virtually, and arrange only for those who need an in-person visit to come to the clinic). One of the unfortunate consequences of this pandemic, is that patients with legitimate medical concerns are putting off getting them dealt with, because they're terrified to go to the doctor's office. These medical concerns are then becoming more severe, resulting in sicker patients needing more advanced care - sometimes hospitalization. This isn't ideal in the face of a pandemic. Help us keep patients out of the hospitals. Call us if you're in need of medical attention Sincerely, Physicians and staff Windermere Plaza Medical Clinic

Dear Patients Flu season is upon us! Be sure to get vaccinated to protect yourself and your loved ones! We are starting our flu clinics as of this week! These clinics tend to fill up quickly so book early! As before, these clinics will happen in the evenings and on weekends. We will schedule short booked appointments for flu shots only to ensure our physician doesn't run behind and everyone gets seen right on time. For any other medical concerns, patients are welcome to ...see the walk-in physician. We look forward to seeing you at one of our clinics! The link below highlights the importance of 'herd immunity' that mass vaccination attempts to achieve: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqKP-ETVvrc We look forward to seeing all of our patients for vaccinations over the coming weeks! :)

Dear Patients We are very excited to announce our latest physician recruit, who is well known to the Windermere community. It gives us great pleasure to welcome Dr. Kristen Hemrick to the team!... Dr Hemrick has been providing excellent care to patients in Windermere for the past year at another clinic in our community. She is an exceptionally talented physician, warm and friendly, with excellent clinical skills and a great bedside manner. Like drs Rossi, World, and Leung, Dr Hemrick has a special interest in women's health and is proficient in IUD insertions, endometrial biopsies and related office gynaecologic procedures. Existing patients of Dr Hemrick are welcome to see her at our clinic. Given that she has an existing panel of patients, she will only be accepting new patients for a limited period of time. Dr Hemrick will be leaving her current practice on July 31st. She will be joining our practice as of the beginning of September. For the month of August, our existing team of physicians will happily provide care to any of her patients with pressing needs. Dr Laura Mowbrey is also still accepting new patients, but wait times for meet and greet appointments have stretched to September due to overwhelming demand. If you would like either of these excellent physicians to be your family doctor, call us at 780 466 6236 without delay!