COVID-19 Vaccination Policy

Prairie Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine (POSM) is committed to health & safety, including the health & safety of its employees, physicians, patients, and their families.  All physicians, staff, allied healthcare professionals, and learners at POSM are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

COVID-19 MEASURES

Effective April 4, 2023: Masks are welcomed, but no longer mandatory. Masks still provide an added layer of protection.  If you are experiencing any mild cold or flu-like symptoms, please advise our office staff & please wear a mask during your appointment to protect others.  If you are experiencing significant symptoms, we kindly ask you to reschedule your appointment. Thank you for your cooperation.

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PREVIOUS COVID-19 UPDATES

Update January 3, 2022

Our office is open for in-person appointments. We employ a series of measures to keep everyone safe and to help limit the spread of COVID-19. If you are feeling unwell, we ask that you stay home and let us know immediately and we will reschedule your appointment. Masks are required for all individuals in the office. They are to be worn over the mouth and nose. As of January 3, 2022, only medical grade masks will be allowed; cloth masks, gators, plastic face shields will not be allowed. If you do not have a medical grade mask, one will be provided to you at your appointment. We encourage good hand hygiene, and have a hand sanitizing station to be used upon entry. We ask that you arrive no more than 5 minutes prior to your appointment, as we have limited seats available in our waiting room due to physical distancing measures. We also ask that you do not bring extra people to the appointment, unless absolutely necessary. We encourage everyone who is able to get fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Together, we can strive to keep everyone healthy and safe!

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Update July 11, 2021

Today the Province of Saskatchewan "re-opens" and the public health restrictions put in place for the COVID-19 pandemic are being lifted. However, COVID-19 has not completely disappeared. At Prairie Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine, we still have policies in place to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and to ensure the safety, health, and well-being of our patients and staff. As per Saskatchewan Health Authority guidelines, you will still be required to wear a mask to your visit and we will still have a screening questionnaire to be completed prior to your appointment. We will still try to minimize the number of individuals present in the office. If you are unable to comply with these policies then please inquire about a virtual appointment and we would be happy to help accommodate you.

We encourage everyone who is able to receive (both doses of) the COVID-19 vaccine.

We look forward to seeing you!

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Update May 22, 2020

We at Prairie Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine are excited to announce that we will resume in-person office visits in June. We still do have to be careful to minimize any risk of transmission of COVID-19, so we will be employing various strategies, including screening all patients with a questionnaire prior to and at the time of their appointment, spacing out appointments and minimizing the number of individuals present in the office, frequently cleaning exam rooms and common areas, and employing a continuous masking policy, among other things. Click here for more information related to an in-person office visit. Please note that in-person office appointments are being provided to those in which a physical encounter is deemed essential to the assessment, such as a new consultation. Many appointments will continue to be offered virtually (most follow-ups and some new consultations), as virtual care is still the recommended mode of patient assessment as it is the safest for patients, staff, and physicians. We will be contacting individuals to book appointments in the near future. We will do our best to start with patients whose appointments were previously cancelled due to COVID-19 and then move on to patients on our waitlist. We again thank you for the patience and understanding you have demonstrated during this unprecedented time.

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Update May 8, 2020

On May 5, 2020, the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) released their plan for resumption of health care services affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This plan entails a stepwise reintroduction of health services, with phase 1 set to begin on May 19, 2020. We at Prairie Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine are currently formulating our plan to begin seeing patients in the office again. We do not have a definite date for this yet; it is dependent upon our ability to obtain necessary supplies essential for everyone’s safety, as well as the status of the pandemic. There are currently a low number of active cases of COVID-19 in the southern half of the province, but that could change at any time. Please note that at this time virtual care appointments are still the recommended mode of patient assessment in order to protect patients, staff, and physicians. We will continue on with these virtual appointments, but for those scenarios where an in-patient visit is deemed essential to care, an in-office visit may take place, once we are able to do so. As always, we will continue to work behind the scenes, and you can still contact us by telephone or email. Please know that we do empathize with you; we know that you have a condition that requires assessment and treatment. However, we want to ensure we proceed cautiously and methodically, keeping everyone’s safety first and foremost. We appreciate your ongoing patience.

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Update April 25, 2020

On April 23, 2020 Premier Scott Moe and Chief Medical Health Office Dr. Saqib Shahab announced the details of the Re-Open Saskatchewan plan. The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) is set to release updated COVID-19 pandemic modeling next week, and is currently formulating a plan to resume health services affected by the slowdown. We at Prairie Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine will be reliant upon the information and direction provided from the SHA to determine when we can resume seeing patients in our office. Thus, for the time being, we will not be starting to see patients in our office. We will continue to provide virtual appointments for those eligible. We will provide an update on our website and contact those on our waitlist to schedule appointments (starting with those whose appointments were previously cancelled) once we are safely able to do so. As always, we will continue to work behind the scenes, and you can still contact us by telephone or email. We respectfully ask that you do not call inquiring as to when we will be able to book patients in the office as we still do not know. We are hoping it is soon, but more information is needed before we can develop and implement a plan to safely re-open our office.   

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March 19, 2020

On March 18, 2020, the Province of Saskatchewan declared a State of Emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  To support efforts to limit the spread of COVID-19, as well as to conserve resources, the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) has mandated that all elective/non-urgent procedures, surgeries, clinics, and appointments be postponed until they can safely be rescheduled. Thus, as of March 23, 2020, the following will be postponed indefinitely:

  • All elective and non-urgent outpatient visits in the hospital and community settings

  • All non-urgent screenings and non-essential outpatient elective procedures

  • All non-urgent diagnostic imaging appointments and procedures

  • All elective surgical procedures

There is no current timeline for return of these elective services, as it is dependent on the state of the pandemic. Emergency services, cancer and urgent/emergent surgeries will continue to be provided.

In order to do our part at Prairie Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine to limit the spread of COVID-19 and comply with the SHA mandate, our physical office space will be closed indefinitely. We will continue to work behind the scenes, and you will still be able to contact us via telephone or by email. Some follow-up appointments may be able to be done over the telephone (or possibly secure videoconferencing which we are currently looking into); our office will contact those who are eligible for such a follow-up appointment. However, some follow-up appointments will not be able to be done by telephone/videoconference, and these appointments will be postponed until we are able to resume elective/non-urgent outpatient visits. For the time being, all elective/non-urgent new consultations will be postponed. 

Unfortunately, we currently do not have an accurate timeline for re-opening and resumption of elective appointments. We anticipate it will be at least a few weeks, but it could be significantly longer until we can safely re-open.  We respectfully ask that you do not contact us to inquire as to when we will resume scheduling elective clinics visits, as we will not be able to provide an answer. We will post an update on our website, and contact patients to (re)book their appointments, once we are safely able to resume elective clinical practice.

We appreciate your patience and understanding during this unprecedented and difficult time. Please stay safe and do your part by practicing spatial distancing, employing good hand-hygiene, monitoring for symptoms, self-isolating when necessary, and considering testing when appropriate. For more information on COVID-19, including a self assessment tool to determine if you should be tested for COVID-19, please visit www.saskatchewan.ca/COVID19.  

Thank you for your understanding in this matter.
Prairie Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine Staff