16 March 2020

To our valued client,

With the increasing measures being taken in response to COVID-19, we wanted to reassure you that our facility continues to be open and running as long as we are healthy, and until otherwise advised by Health Canada, the Government of Saskatchewan, or one of our Regulatory bodies requiring us to close.  We would also like to remind you that we all will get through this, as a community, together.

Please ensure you feel 100% healthy and have no risk factors before entering our facility.  If you are feeling ill, unwell, have ‘just a cold’, or were in a situation where you may have been at risk to being exposed to COVID-19 in any way, you will be required to reschedule your appointment.  We also respectfully request that you reschedule if you have travelled in the last 14 days, or have attended any large gatherings, events, meetings or conferences.  If you are experiencing ANY cold or flu-like symptoms, please either go online or call to cancel your appointment. There will be no cancellation fee or administrative fee charged for rescheduling, we thank you for being a respectful and prudent member of our society.  To be clear, our practitioners will refuse to provide treatment to a client if the client appears to be presenting any symptoms or risk factors.

In situations like this, we need to think about everyone.  We have members of the Brownstone Health team that are high risk.  We have one that is immunocompromised.  Respectfully, we simply can not take the chance of any of our team members getting ill, our other clients getting ill, or intentionally contributing to this pandemic in any way.  We are looking to our clientele to help us because we are a community of people that care for each other.  Please cancel your appointment if you have any reason to believe you may put another person’s health in jeopardy by coming into our facility. 

We also wanted to reassure you that we are going above and beyond the hygiene and sanitation requirements of our regulatory bodies in an effort to keep you and our staff safe, including:

• Increasing frequency of our regular hospital-grade sanitation of all surfaces, including the front desk, doorknobs, and bathrooms, as well as our equipment, furniture, and treatment tables.
• Continuing with frequent hand-washing.
• Returning to use of paper for intake forms (from shared devices or dry-erase forms).
• Ensuring that if a staff member is ill, they stay home.  You may experience short-notice cancellations, or the opportunity to be treated by a different practitioner of the same profession.  Please have patience and understanding if this occurs.
• Increasing physical distance between people.
• Making applicable appointments available over the phone via tele-technology.

In order to assist us with maintaining a safe clinic for all of you, we now request that people:

• Wash their hands with soap and water immediately upon entering the building at one of our washing stations
• Attend your appointment promptly, instead of really early, to minimize waiting in common areas of the clinic
• Please cough into your elbow, rather than into your hand (or preferably cancel your appointment unless absolutely necessary to keep it if you have a cough)
• Go online or call to cancel your appointment if you are experiencing cold or flu-like symptoms. Again, our practitioners have the right to refuse providing treatment to a client if they appear to be presenting with symptoms.
• Respectfully honour the self-quarantine timelines set out by the WHO before booking an appointment if you have been sick
• Respectfully honour the Government of Saskatchewan’s travel self-isolation and wait a minimum of 14 symptom free days before coming for an appointment
• Do not bring extra people to your appointment unless necessary, and ensure that anyone accompanying you is not at risk or exhibiting any symptoms
• Pay for treatment using the tap-function of your card to minimize cash and touching the merchant terminal
• Avoid touching your eyes, face or mouth
• Get proper rest, eat well, manage anxiety, and take a few deep breaths.  We will get through this. 

This is a very challenging time, let’s try to help each other.  Please stay soft, kind and considerate.  Take a deep breath and be gentle, as everyone is trying their best.  I know that I am.  We thank you for your co-operation in keeping our facility healthy.  As long as we can stay healthy, we will continue to provide you with the highest quality healthcare that we are able to.

Take this opportunity to do something considerate for someone else.  Help a stranger (but maybe don’t touch them), drop supplies off at the door of someone in self-isolation, buy some gift cards from small local businesses, write a letter, call a friend.  This is a chance for us to make our community better- try to find that silver lining!

Please contact us if you have any questions, and check back on our website for updates.  We will continue to notify people the evening prior to their appointment with our status for the next day.  This is a fluid situation, and its changing rapidly.  We are working diligently to stay on top of it.  

Yours in health,

Daysha Shuya, Clinical Director