Preparing for your Appointment

To help ensure that your experience is positive, the Kirkland District Family Health Team offers the following tips to prepare for your appointment.

Appointment time
It is important that you arrive a few minutes (10 minutes) before your appointment so that we have time to gather important health information or complete the necessary preparation procedures prior to your appointment

Review of symptoms
Be prepared to discuss your symptoms with your health care provider. Write down all of the issues you would like to try and cover during your visit. Begin with the most bothersome issue. This will allow your provider to get a clear picture upfront of what your major concerns are and appropriately attempt to address issues in the time allowed:

• What is your main symptom/concern?
• How long have you had it?
• How often and when does it occur?
• What makes it better or worse (e.g., activity, medication, stress)?
• Is it associated with other symptoms?
• Have other people in your family experienced similar health problems?
• Has this problem been addressed by another physician or medical center?

Items to bring to your appointment
Please bring your OHIP card with you so that you can update your registration. Both adults and children should also bring their immunization record so that it can be verified and updated when required.

It is best to bring your bottles of medications, if possible, along with a list of your medications, including the name and dose of each one. You will also need to bring information on any vitamins/dietary supplements and over-the-counter medications that you take.

If you were asked to complete any health questionnaires prior to your visit please bring them with you.

Types of appointments
We categorize appointments into three types.

Acute-appointments are those that you make when you are not feeling well. Examples would include, respiratory infection, abdominal pain, or any new symptoms that you are experiencing. We may refer to this as a "short appointment".

Follow-up-appointments for chronic medical conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, or arthritis. This also may be referred to as a "short appointment" or a "long appointment" if you are returning for a follow-up covering multiple issues.

Preventive visits - these include comprehensive physical exams that will allow for immunizations, and referral for screening such as a mammogram, colonoscopy and bone densitometry. It is also a good time to discuss general health questions and concerns. These are "long appointments".

The time schedule for each visit depends upon the appointment type, therefore you will need to give the receptionist some idea for the reason for your appointment.

As a reminder, we keep some appointments open for patients who need to be seen that day. If you feel, your symptoms need to be addressed urgently, please call us as early in the morning as possible.