It has been an honour and a pleasure to work with all of you over the last 11 years. Traveling from Chicago to practice functional medicine on Vancouver Island began some of the most meaningful and important years of my life. I consider you a proactive community in self education and self care, and conscious of your ability to author many aspects of your own health and wellbeing. Your feedback and shared experience has taught me much over this last decade, and I am very grateful.
Our office manager, Robin, has been an integral part of developing, supporting and fine tuning the operations of Marigold Clinic, and I am ever grateful for her contributions over these years.
At 71 this summer, I acknowledge that my own energy and resilience are shifting, and it is time for me to step down from clinical practice. It is time for me to spend more time with my family, all of whom live in the United States or South America.
Below you will find timelines for last appointments, refills and transfer of records.
In the following months, we will write again to outline other opportunities for follow up with MDs, NPs, naturopaths, nutritionists and personal trainers so that you can continue with functional and integrative medicine providers on your health care team as needed.
Carrie Ingrisano, MS, FNP, IFMCP
Final appointments, labs, and prescriptions Current patients ( seen within the last 18 months) who wish to have a follow up appointment prior to clinic closure in July, here is what we suggest:
Make an appointment with Robin for April, May, or June.
Please have any outstanding labs done prior to your appointment; or, we will review your records and if needed, send a lab req or standing lab orders to be completed and copied to your GP / specialist.
July appointments will be saved for new health concerns that may emerge for you after routine follow up.
At your final visit, we will provide long term prescriptions as appropriate.
Many people on Vancouver Island do not have a GP. For those who do please stay in touch with your GP, and consider planning a follow up visit there. If you are without a GP, you can call # 811 to begin the process of being assigned to a new provider.
Requesting your medical records Providers in BC are required to maintain medical records for 16 years or transfer them to individuals We would like to assure that you have access to your medical records. Marigold uses the electronic medical records system call OSCAR. It is does not connect directly with the VIHA electronic medical records system, which means that new providers will not be able to look up your records with the exception of labs and imaging studies.
There is no option to “download and print” a whole chart in one document as the medical records software divides labs, reports, prescriptions and progress notes areas into separate programs. Gathering medical records requires going through each chart, choosing and copying each lab or note or document, and transferring it to an email or drive. The process is time consuming, and for this reason there is a time based charge.
There are two options for receiving your records: 1. Robin has agreed to gather and email in PDF format, individual documents and notes, and email this to you in PDF format. There will be two options. All records must be requested from Robin by July 1st.
a. The practical "recent medical records bundle” which includes: your initial consult, the last two years of progress notes and labs, all specialist reports; and the last two years of x rays and imaging reports. The cost for this will be $50.
b. The “complete chart bundle” which includes: all progress notes, all labs, all imaging studies and specialist reports . The cost for this will $75. c. Email messages sent to and from you and the clinic are not included in either bundle.
2. The medical records storage company called DOCUDATA SOLUTIONS will pick up, scan in entirety, and then shred any old paper charts. They will also keep any transferred electronic records from our OSCAR system in permanent storage.
Docudata then recoups their cost for scanning, shredding and storage by - Charging each patient $90-110 per chart plus 13% tax. The advantage of this system is that there is no time frame by which you need to request your records. They will always be available.
The Functional Medicine approach intends to discover root cause of illness and use lifestyle strategies to shift body functions on a cellular, tissue, and organ level toward optimal health.
Functional Medicine strategies include the knowledge of a GP or NP blended with a knowledge of nutritional planning, genetic influences, nutrient and herbal therapies, high tech testing, sleep and stress management, exercise prescriptions, and even hormone replacement therapies.
We owe much of our knowledge base to naturopathic curriculum and many of my faculty at the institute for functional medicine were naturopaths, chiropractors, pharmacists and nutritionists.
At this time there is no other MD or NP on Vancouver Island who offer functional medicine; however here are several FM clinics in Vancouver.
Many naturopaths have functional medicine training and are expert at managing digestive issues, adrenals, thyroid, hormone balance and replacement, detox, and complex chronic illness. Naturopaths can prescribe estrogens and progesterone, but are not at present able to prescribe the controlled substance hormones - DHEA and Testosterone. Lab work ordered by naturopath is private pay.
Nutritionalists and Personal trainers are powerful coaches for health and energy gains.