Your health is our utmost priority. We treat an at-risk population in our west end clinic and therefore it is essential that all patients, regardless of your risk, follow our new protocols to ensure not only your own wellbeing, but mine, my family’s and especially that of our at-risk patients.

It is impossible to physically distance while providing hands-on Physiotherapy treatment! So, here is what we are doing to mitigate your risk for in-person visits at PhysioExcellence:

COVID Screen prior to EACH in-person appointment:

• About 12 hours before each of your in-person appointments, you will receive an email from us with a survey created from the Ontario COVID self-assessment https://covid-19.ontario.ca/self-assessment/
  • Please click on the link and fill out the survey at your earliest convenience and no later than 2 hours before your appointment time
  • A negative screen is required to be able to attend in person
  • A positive screen will require converting to a tele-rehab or rescheduling until a negative screen is achieved.
• At your appointment time I will double check that you still have a negative COVID screen before coming into the treatment room
• Your attendance for an in-person appointment implies consent to the risk of exposure despite all our sanitization procedures intended to prevent the spread

Hybrid Treatment Model with Tele-Rehab

• Any appointments that do not need manual (hands-on) treatment will be done on virtual physio with tele-rehab:
  • Initial assessments (they are 90% talking anyway)
  • Quick follow up questions
  • Follow ups to progress exercises to achieve treatment goals
  • Exercise rehabilitation appointments with our kinesiologist
  • Work (from home or office) set up/ergonomic assessments
  • Exercise review, especially with home equipment such as weights or kids
  • Post partum 2 week follow up if seen by midwife or home nurse
  • Anyone who screens positive on our COVID survey 12 hours prior to treatment
• IN-person visits:
  • Manual therapy/hands on treatments
  • Physical assessments (i.e. Diastasis, Prolapse, Pelvic Floor, etc…)
  • Post-Natal 2 week follow up if not seen by midwife or nurse
  • Post-Natal 6 week follow up

Physical Distancing/Limiting people in the clinic:

• Shirley will continue to provide all the exercise rehabilitation appointments virtually
• Deliveries are going to the front door to limit external exposures to the clinic waiting room
• There is a buffer between appointments to allow for enter/exit, without overlap, even with a pee break, and allow time for disinfecting
• Only essential companions should accompany you in the clinic:
  • birth/labour partner for birth prep treatment
  • only 1 parent chaperone of child being treated
  • small babies
  • toddlers and school age children that will sit with a device if no daycare available
  • grandma to watch baby in waiting room if baby can’t be too far from you yet
  • we will need contact information for everyone that accompanies you for contact tracing should we need to notify you/them of an exposure/outbreak
• Please sit in waiting room in a way to maximize physical distance from the door/others, just in case there is an unavoidable overlap
• Please limit your time in the waiting room after your appointment. Sadly, this means you will likely not be able to stay and breastfeed. If you need to, let me know, I’ll do my best to help accommodate you while minimizing everyone’s risk

PPE: personal protective equipment:

Patients:

• Masks:
  • all patients and any accompanying family members over the age of 12 entering the clinic are required to wear a mask
    • please let me know ahead of time if you or your family member has a medical condition that prevents them from wearing a mask
  • you can wear a clean homemade cotton/linen mask or a disposable medical/procedural mask
  • if you need a mask, please let me know ahead of time so I can leave one for you at the entrance. Due to the exorbitant costs and difficulty procuring PPE at this time, I will be charging $2 for a disposable medical mask
  • Mayana Geneviere, the beautiful nursing and motherhood lingerie company, has pivoted and is making fantastic reusable/washable masks for adults and children, with ethically sourced fabric and sewn at her factory, here in the junction: https://www.mayanageneviere.ca/pages/made-in-canada-non-medical-masks These are the ones I bought for my family.
• Hand washing:
  • Hand washing is sufficient. Please don’t waste gloves. They are in short supply and becoming ridiculously expensive! Besides, you need to wash your hands before and after anyways!
  • We have 5 hand washing stations:
    • hand sanitizer at the entrance to the clinic,
    • hand sanitizer in the waiting room
    • hand sanitizer in the treatment room
    • soap and water in the bathroom
    • soap and water in the gym
  • Wash your hands upon entry and exit to the clinic and treatment room, and anytime you touch your face

Therapists:

• therapists will wear a mask for all treatment sessions and during cleaning protocols
• visors and goggles are available and will be worn if deemed appropriate by the therapist for specific treatments (i.e. TMJ)
• gowns may be worn by the therapist if deemed appropriate
• gloves have always been worn as appropriate ;)

Sanitization:

• we have scheduled a cleaning time buffer to allow thorough cleaning and disinfecting of the treatment room between appointments
• using medical grade, government of Canada approved disinfectant products with registered DIN
• the waiting room and bathroom will be sanitized at least 2x/day, more as time allows

Contactless payments and online booking

• There is no change here. We use JaneApp for booking and Payfirma for contactless credit card payments through the booking app.
  • But if you need me to change your credit card number or book your appointments, please let me know ahead of time so we can budget your appointment time appropriately to maintain the time needed for sanitization between appointments

How you can help/what you can do:

• arrive on time, if early please wait in your car or on the bench outside the clinic
• help me stay on time!! Let me know if there is any specific hands-on treatment or new assessment you would like during your session. With the need to disinfect between patients I must stay on schedule and therefore will need to budget my time according to your goals at each session
• come with your mask, or let me know ahead of time if you need to buy a mask from me for $2
• if you have any symptoms or a known exposure, please reschedule to a tele-rehab virtual visit
• use the hand wash/sanitization stations throughout the clinic
• avoid touching your face as much as possible
• smile!