Message from Dental

To all of our valued patients 
 
We just wanted to update all of you on what is happening at our dental office presently. In compliance with both the BC Dental Association and the College of Dental Surgeons of BC, we have stopped seeing any patients for any and all routine, non-essential dental treatments. This includes cleanings and restorations. At the time when we can return to the office, which we don’t know right now, we will honour the appointments in the schedule and work on getting those of you who were cancelled seen as soon as possible. We will need your patience during that time. 
 
If you have an emergency, which is categorized as uncontrolled pain, swelling, facial trauma or cellulitis (spreading infection), please text or call 604 351 4227 and leave us you name, phone number and a short description of your emergency and one of our dentists will help address your concern either prescribing medication or referring you to an appropriate facility that is properly equipped with PPE (personal protection equipment), which we do not presently have.

We know these are very challenging times for all of us, but these decisions have been made to keep everyone as safe as possible. As you can imagine, dental work, due to the creation of aerosols when a drill or ultrasonic scaler is used, is one of the riskiest activities during a pandemic involving an illness that is spread by saliva droplets. 
 
Thank you so much for your patience and understanding during this difficult time.

 Stay safe everyone, wash your hands and practice social distancing.

Updates MESSAGE FROM REACH PHARMACY DURING THE COVID-19 OUTBREAK

In order to best serve our clients in this time, our pharmacy is establishing a temporary policy starting immediately.  Going forward, there is a maximum ONE MONTH SUPPLY of refill medications.  This will be at the discretion of pharmacy staff and may be lower for certain medications. This will resolve in the coming weeks as wholesalers restock supplies, and for now we will transfer prescriptions to other pharmacies as needed.

Inventory usage is different from location to location so most items should be found for you. We thank you for your understand and apologize for the inconvenience.

Message from REACH Pharmacy during the COVID-19 outbreak

Due to higher than usual volumes and to prevent transmission during the COVID-19 outbreak, we are encouraging all clients to only refill medications that are urgent or presently due. There is absolutely no need to stockpile as long as you have a 2 week supply of your ongoing medications.

Orders given by phone through our pharmacy can be ready by the next business day and delivered if needed at no charge. Please be aware of delayed response times as most messages left will be handled by the end of the day. 

Until further notice, our pharmacy operating hours will be Weekdays 9:30am to 6:00pm (with lunch closure from 12:30 to 1:30) and Saturdays 9:30am to 1:00pm. 

We appreciate your cooperation as we work through this crisis and thank you for all of your support.

UPCC Recruitment and Information Evening

Our REACH Urgent and Primary Care Centre Team would like to invite you to our Recruitment and Information Evening!

We strongly encourage Medical Office Assistants, Registered Nurses, Licensed Practical Nurses and Nurse Practitioners to attend and bring your CV's! Here is the link to Job Descriptions on our web site https://www.reachcentre.bc.ca/careers

Date: Thursday, November 28th
Time: 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Location: REACH Community Health Centre, 1145 Commercial Dr.
Second Floor, Room 217

Refreshments will be provided.

What is your preferred name?

Do you have a preferred name that’s different from your legal name?  Please consider the following:

In contrast to Medical and Dental computer systems, Pharmacies in BC link directly to the PharmaCare Network.  For this reason, filling your prescriptions requires our computer system to have your legal name, rather than your preferred name.

We certainly respect your preferred name and wish to call you by it.  We are working to adjust our system so that it reminds us of your preferred name during each visit.  But there is no perfect system for this, especially if our interaction with you has not yet reached accessing our computer.

 While we get to know you better, please tell us your preferred name and pronouns at each visit to our pharmacy.

FLU Shots Coming Soon!

The FLU shots will be here soon. Immunize BC has announced that the annual influenza injections will be made available around October 17th. We hope to begin administration starting Monday October 21st. Please check the Immunize BC website for updates: https://immunizebc.ca/influenza. 

This year at REACH Centre, FLU shots are available to everyone 5 years and older on a drop in basis at the pharmacy during regular hours. There will be no charge for the injection. Unfortunately, this season FLUMIST nasal spray is not available in Canada. For children under 5 years or for clients that require further consultation, please book an appointment with one of our nurses at the medical department.

Of note, Children 6 months to 9 years getting the flu shot for the first time will need 2 doses at a 4 week interval. Furthermore, clients 65 years and older should also receive a one time Pneumovax 23 injection and will be administered a slightly different quadravalent FLU shot for better response. 

If you have any further questions please call our pharmacy at 604-216-3136 or refer to the Immunize BC link above. 

Thank you Patricia for 22 years at REACH!

After 22 years of hard work and dedication, our MFC Manager, Patricia, is retiring from REACH. Thank you for everything you have done for the community and our programs. We'll miss you immensely and wish you the best in your future endeavours!

Taking Team-Based Care to a New Level

Starting September 1st, 2019, there will be some changes in how we serve our patients at the REACH Medical Clinic. The biggest change is that we will be splitting the medical clinic into two teams. Our goal is for these smaller teams to share the knowledge of our patient's needs and the care they receive. Smaller care teams will also allow care providers to create a stronger relationship with each patient to help meet their individual needs.

To meet the teams and for more information on the changes please look at our Patient Information Sheet. Information sheets will also be available in the waiting rooms.

Please contact REACH Medical at 604-254-1354 for any questions or concerns.

Our AGM is fast approaching! Join us September 24, 2019 at Brittania’s Learning Resource Centre (1661 Napier St. Vancouver, BC). Doors open at 5:30pm, and we begin at 6:30pm.

Everything old is new again

Welcome to REACH’s new website! We are very excited to be launching this updated site, which we hope will be of even more use to our wonderful community. We have created a Frequently Asked Questions page, which hopefully will answer any inquiries you have. If not, we have a contact form on our Contact us page, where you can email us any questions.

Along with our website, we are on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin,