When your family doctor gives you a referral for a specialist at the Albany, the quickest and easiest way to get your appointment is to stop your family doctor’s Receptionist and book it before you leave!

Your family doctor Receptionist has access to all of our Specialist’s schedules.  If there is a Specialist schedule that they can’t see or book, your family doctor Receptionist will direct you to the floor and the Receptionist who can book it for – before you leave!

If you have to leave and don’t have time to get your Specialist appointment booked, you can call our  Booking Center at 416-461-9471 Ext 3100 to book.

We do track referrals and if you haven’t booked your referral, our Reception staff will call you to book an appointment.

If you have provided us with your email address, you will receive an email message reminding you of the specialist appointment and asking you to confirm that you will be attending.

Yes.  Reception staff who support the Specialist will be calling you within 2 weeks to book the referral.

You can also call our Booking Center at 416-461-9471 to book an appointment. 

If you have provided us with your email address, you will receive an email message reminding you of the specialist appointment and asking you to confirm that you will be attending.

All initial consultations are covered by OHIP with the exception of our Podiatrist.

In the initial consultation, the Specialist may advise you that a procedure is required.  The Specialist will also advise you if it is an OHIP covered procedure or if you must pay (usually for a cosmetic procedure).  Every procedure is different so the cost may differ between patients.  If OHIP covers the procedure, it is because OHIP feels that the procedure is medically necessary.  If OHIP does not cover the procedure, it is because OHIP feels that the procedure is not medically necessary ie cosmetic.  If you feel that the quoted price by our Specialist is too high, you can choose to not proceed with the procedure. 

If you are required to pay for the procedure, we will collect 50% of the quoted fee as payment from you when booking the procedure and will collect the remaining when you arrive for your procedure.

It depends on the Specialist you saw.  You may only need to see the Specialist once.  Sometimes, the Specialist wants to book a follow-up visit with you or see you for a period of time.  Alternatively, the Specialist may suggest additional tests like an MRI or CT or may suggest a procedure.  Depending on the type of procedure, the Specialist may be able to actually perform it at the Albany Medical Clinic in one of our two operating suites or the Specialist may arrange for the procedure or test to be done in a hospital setting.  Sometimes, the Specialist may wish to refer you to another Specialist – which may help in providing your family doctor with a diagnosis and, if required, a treatment plan for what brought you to the specialist in the first place.  

After the initial consultation, the Specialist will write a report that will go back to your family doctor outlining what the next steps are. 

Every Specialist provides our staff with their own specific schedule. Some specialists give us a schedule for three months at a time; others give us one month at a time and others have established a regular schedule and then advise us to block off their schedule when booking vacations or time away from the Albany.  Many of our Specialists also have hospital privileges at a nearby hospital and must be available for on-call shift schedules that are posted every three months.

If you are trying to book an appointment with one of our Specialists and our Receptionist advises that we don’t have a schedule yet, please be patient – we won’t forget you – and will call you to book as soon as we get a schedule. 

Wait times to book a Specialist appointment do vary based on the Specialist and patient demand for appointments.  Generally, you can book a Specialist appointment within 4 weeks at our Clinic – but for some Specialties (like Neurology) appointments are being booked further out.  If after seeing the Specialist, you are advised that you will need a surgical procedure at the Albany, you can book your procedure right after your consultation with the Specialist.  If you need to have the procedure or test done at a hospital, the Specialist’s hospital office team will contact you with the date of the procedure/test.

Time is set aside by the Specialist for your procedure. 

If you cannot make a scheduled appointment and you give us more than 2 business days, we will re-book you to another date.

If you book the procedure and then want to cancel – and give us more than 2 business days notice – we will refund your deposit.  If you book the procedure and then cancel without 2 business days notice – we will deduct $250 from the deposit and return the balance to you within 30 days.

Specialists in Ontario have busy schedules – between clinic days and surgical time (where applicable).  If you need to cancel a Specialist appointment, please give us 2 business days’ notice so that we can re-book another patient into the time slot that you can’t attend.  If you do not give us appropriate notice without us being able to re-book another patient, the Specialist has dedicated his time to you foregoing seeing another patient.

If we charge a fee for your ‘no show’, it is because you did not give enough notice to us to re-book another patient.  Our Specialist time is valuable and scarce.

At this time, we have not implemented online appointment booking for our Specialists.  We will advise all patients when this feature is available.

Family doctors can make referrals and send them to us either by fax or by using Ocean e-referral. 

Our Nursing team, that assist our Specialists, will meet with you post procedure and give you written instructions in person (or send them securely to you via Ocean messaging) on what you as a patient should and shouldn’t do – and when to return to the Clinic to get stitches out or to receive wound care.