B.C. walk-in clinics held to stronger standards after CBC Go Public investigation

Walk-in clinics across the province will now be held to the same standards as those where patients book appointments, according to strengthened guidelines by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C.

This means that rather than treat patients' visits as one-off events, walk-in clinics must keep detailed medical records, contact patients about test results, and offer to be a patient's primary care clinic for check-ups and continuous care if they have nowhere else to go.

Also, walk-in clinics must have access to Pharmanet, B.C.'s database that tracks what prescriptions patients are taking.

Beefed-up standards sparked by CBC investigation

The college's CEO Dr. Heidi Oetter says many walk-in clinics already operate this way.

However, she says it's important to strengthen the message after a CBC Go Public investigation revealed an imposter used two stolen care cards to fool doctors and pharmacists into handing over 23,000 painkillers over five years.

An internal investigation by the college this year revealed that most of the physicians involved failed to check Pharmanet.

If they had, it would have shown the patient was getting narcotics from dozens of doctors because both of the care cards she used were repeatedly prescribed oxycodone.

"It identified the importance of ensuring that the group walk-in clinics have a longitudinal patient record, so if somebody comes back again and again, it acts as a unified record," Oetter told On the Coast's Stephen Quinn.

"We've talked about the importance of emphasizing communication with other care providers, and the requirement to check Pharmanet because I think that report really exposed some shortcomings in some clinics."

Providing a "medical home"

Oetter says the beefed-up standards are less about making sure every British Columbian has a family physician than about ensuring that people have a "medical home" where a group of physicians can provide long-term care even for patients with chronic issues.

"The message is really if somebody drops by to get their birth control pills reordered, and they haven't had a pap smear, and they don't have otherwise an identified family doctor, then that's the kind of service we expect people to be able to obtain at a clinic that perhaps they've walked in for a visit as opposed to book the appointment," she said.

The college also expects every walk-in clinic to have a medical director to make sure the clinic is complying with guidelines.

A quality assurance program also exists to ensure the standards are being enforced, Oetter said.

Listen to the interview: Standards for B.C.'s walk-in clinics strengthened