We have been quickly adapting to changes during this time of uncertainty while COVID-19 affects Canada and the way we manage and care for our patients.
As mandated by the College of Optometrists of Ontario and College of Chiropractors of Ontario, we have been closed to routine services since Tuesday March 17th, 2020. Although optometry services are deemed to be an essential health care service, we are limited to provide only urgent vision care to help reduce unnecessary visits to emergency rooms while front line health care workers deal with COVID-19.
Urgent vision issues include, but are not limited to:
sudden onset vision loss or peripheral vision
sudden onset flashing lights and/or floaters in vision
painful eye with light sensitivity
sudden onset double vision
eye injury (severe trauma or chemical burn)
red, painful eye accompanied with: blurred/foggy vision, nausea, discharge or cloudy/foggy cornea
Dr. Ivy Koh, our optometrist, will triage your vision care concerns based on your description of symptoms via email or phone call to the office and determine if this is urgent or non-urgent.
In-office care or ophthalmology referrals will be determined with this first screening of the concerns.
As you may know, in-office care is limited to patients that truly require it, as there is risk for both practitioner and patient with any in-person contact due to the nature of COVID-19 and incubation period that can still be asymptomatic, in addition to current worldwide shortage of personal protective equipment.
Currently, we do not have firm date of return set for opening of routine care in Ontario due to COVID-19 provincial regulations. In lieu of this, we have set up a method of continuing to provide care to patients seeking help by telemedicine. Currently, telemedicine consults are not a covered service under the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) for any age group. You may be able to bill your third party insurance provider for the consultation:
Telemedicine consultations with our office cost $40 per session.
As your vision symptoms were screened by Dr. Ivy Koh and deemed to be non urgent, you can access care remotely via telemedicine with the following instructions:
New patients to the office are required to send a completed intake form (fillable PDF). This can completed on your computer, saved and emailed back to us
We will send a link to an official invoice for the consultation via PayPal of Stripe. You are not required to have a PayPal or Stripe account and can pay via debit, credit or PayPal.
Once payment is received, we will transmit a link to the online telemedicine portal through doxy.me web program, which will require a computer and internet access. If you prefer phone consultation only, you can request this as well.
Any medical prescriptions required as deemed appropriate for your treatment will be faxed to your preferred pharmacy remotely
You can send your invoice payment to your third party insurer as a claim or request us to attempt electronic claims on your behalf to pay you as the patient directly
Alternatively, if you wish to decline or defer any telemedicine consultations at this time, we encourage you to keep watching our social media channels (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook), our website or call our office phone to keep updated as to when we will be able to provide on-site routine care.
We are still able to order and offer free shipping to home for our contact lens patients, Please contact Dr. Ivy if you wish to take advantage of this. We can also try to help any patients that have ordered glasses through our clinic before if they have broken their only pair of glasses as we will have your measurements on file.
We hope to have a webshop for the clinic open very soon, where you can purchase eyecare products and contact lenses from the comfort of your home even if the clinic is closed , which will continue even after COVID-19 is defeated. Keep updated on our social media channels.
Stay safe, stay healthy and we’ll get through this together (but physically apart)!
