Dr. David Hanley Osteoporosis Centre - Calgary

Follow up after the appointment

A commitment to a long term plan design.

The first appointment is really just the beginning. Where possible, the DHOC physician will put together a long term management plan, usually spanning 3 to 5 years. In most cases, your primary care doctor will be able to implement the full plan after receiving the necessary information from both the DHOC physician and the DHOC pharmacist.

Additional testing, if needed.

In some cases, your DHOC physician may order additional tests and/or request a clinic follow-up visit with you to review results or finish the decision making and plan. Your physician should inform you if this will be the case but please feel free to ask if it is unclear whether you need to return or not.

I forgot to ask….

We recognize that often questions or concerns may arise after you have left the clinic. You are welcome to call the DHOC and our desk staff will direct your call. We can help you best if we can ensure you talk to the right person - pharmacist (questions about medications), dietitian (diet questions) or nurse (all other questions). When necessary, our staff will take your question to your DHOC physician for input as well.

Returning your calls

Many of our clinic staff work part time and our physicians have many other responsibilities outside of clinic. This, along with variable call volumes may sometimes make it challenging to return your call as quickly as we would like. In general, we try to return your calls within 5 business days. If your question or health concern is more urgent, you may need to go to your primary care doctor or the emergency room where the physician who sees you can page the endocrinologist on call if necessary.

Questions from your primary care doctor and re-referrals

Our DHOC physicians and staff are here to support your primary care doctor as they put your management plan into action. We are very willing for your primary care doctor to contact us; we can schedule a formal telephone consultation between your doctor and the DHOC physician if additional advice is needed. We also recognize that sometimes your primary care doctor may want you to be re-assessed in our clinic at a future date. Re-referrals are welcome and depending on complexity, can often be seen relatively soon if a full 60-minute consultation is unnecessary.

Please note

In order to ensure that we are working with your primary care provider and with the most up to date information about your health, we must insist upon re-referral from your primary care doctor if you wish to return for an unscheduled clinic visit that was not already arranged by the DHOC team. This usually applies to patients who need a second assessment after an initial visit years earlier.