Genesis Fertility Clinic Blog
searching: “olympics”
August 18, 2009
The Olympics & Genesis
At Genesis we are trying to figure out how to manage the clinic during the 2010 Olympic Games in about six months. Although it will be a bit of a challenge, we are determined not to close and, of course, not to compromise patient care.
Closing is a huge inconvenience for our patients. We know this because every year we close at Christmas to give our staff holidays, perform necessary maintenance, and to update the laboratory with new technology. Because of the nature of fertility treatments, this blip of a closure ends up affecting a lot of patients. Believe it or not, I am already discussing the Christmas closure with patients in the office because it may impact when they decide to start a cycle of IVF or even IUI. We realize the inconvenience BUT the Christmas closure is a necessity that maintains our excellence in the field. A closure during the Olympics, however, would have nothing to do with maintenance and excellence so we will not close.
Staying open during the Olympics will require some significant planning on our part. One of the issues is making sure that patients and staff can get the clinic. We have checked the roads and things should be just fine for most people. It may involve weaving around the back roads, but getting to the clinic and getting access to the parking lot should work out.
We toyed with the idea of being open extra early or extra late during the Games but haven’t settled on either. We had thought about providing more care out at our Surrey office but again, that plan is just in the works now. We certainly are thinking about it. We are also currently handing out a survey to our patients hoping to get some advice and suggestions as to how to make the clinic function well for them during the Olympics- hey, we are in this together!
When I initially thought about Vancouver winning the right to host the Games I really had no idea how it could impact people’s access to medical care. Although it will offer challenges, we are determined to provide continued excellence in fertility care to our patients right through the Olympic Games.
(As a side note, we are pleased to have Dr.Taylor and Dr.Fluker as official Gynecologists for the 2010 Olympic Games.)
Dr. Jason Hitkari, MD, FRCSC
Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility