The LASIK Vision Institute

almost 2 years later I am STILL pleased. I have better than ²⁰⁄₂₀ vision and was absolutely the BEST decision I have ever made for myself.

I am now 11 days out from receiving LASIK in both eyes, and I could not be happier with the results. From consultation to surgery to post-​surgery follow up, my experience with LVI has been stellar.
I was leery of receiving such a great deal (via Groupon) for this office, and therefore scheduled consultations at 3 different offices. However, I found that wasn’t necessary after meeting the LVI staff and doctors. Here’s the lowdown:
— LVI is a no-​frills operation
— the staff is incredibly kind, knowledgable and welcoming
— I woke up the day after surgery with perfect vision
— I would choose LVI again
I will happily give up a few comforts (validated parking, nicer waiting room) to save over a thousand dollars on LASIK while still receiving an A+ experience.
The staff are very friendly and helpful. Sharon walked me through the procedure and answered all of my questions in person, and then again on the phone when more came to me after my consultation. I left my consultation with every confidence that my surgery would go exactly as planned.
That confidence was well-​founded. My surgery went very well, I was given drops and clear instructions, and scheduled my post-​op for 2 days later. The post-​op went great as well — I have perfect vision! My eyes are dry but improving each day — I can tell the prescription drops are working, as promised.
All in all I had a very positive experience at LVI and didn’t spend $ 1,500 more than I needed to simply because I was afraid.
Folks, just do your due diligence. If you’re nervous about using an office that charges half of what other offices do, get consultations at 2 or 3 or 4 of them! That’s what I did, and I still picked LVI. And now I can see like Superman, no glasses or contacts necessary.

Exceptionally outstanding vision services from The Lasik Vision Institute in Bellevue, whom we highly recommend for your vision care needs. I accompanied my wife throughout her entire process of laser eye surgery (prK), including two consults — one at LVI and another at a local competitor prior to selecting LVI, her prk procedure, and her follow-​up visit. I also called and eliminated three other laser eye clinics during the selection process before narrowing down to two clinics for actual consults.
We selected LVI hands down over its competitors because of several factors: customer service, trust, equipment and total price. While the initial consults during the clinic selection process revealed that my wife could only have prk and not the lasik procedure due to the thinness of her corneas, LVI uses the state of the art EX500 device as their standard equipment while the competitor would have charged us an extra $ 1000 just to use their EX500 for the same prk procedure. We were very happy that LVI only performs prk with the EX500 and not attempt to market the device as a way to increase the cost of the total service like the other clinic.
LVI has a very friendly, energetic customer oriented staff. Very happy with the waiting room staff, technicians, optometrist and the surgeon. Sarah, LVI’s center manager, explained the entire process to us, including Care Credit pricing, and we were VERY pleased with the support and flow of the entire process. My wife’s procedure went very well and pain free. LVI offers Saturday procedures which was very convenient and the prk procedure itself was only a few minutes long. My wife also had punctal plugs (permanent) installed on request due to the chronic dryness of her eyes. We returned to LVI after a week to have her protective clear contacts removed and again the LVI staff provided a positive clinic environment. While her eyes are early in the healing process, her vision is already improved.
We HIGHLY recommend you give the Lasik Vision Institute an opportunity to earn your business. Take advantage of the free initial consult.

This place is great if you have absolutely nothing to do in life. I got LASIK done yesterday, and the surgery itself went great. Woke up this morning with pretty perfect vision. It’s the ridiculous scheduling that makes this place so awful. Each appointment I’ve had, I waited in the waiting room no less than AN HOUR AND A HALF. And hold off on being excited if you can make it past the waiting room – they often make you wait again in another waiting area on the inside. It’s not rocket science to learn how to schedule patients based on staff schedule/​room capacity, so that patients don’t wait around for hours for exams/​procedures that take less than 15 min. This place seems to be medically competent, but administratively a nightmare.

I had PRK surgery. Landed here through Groupon like most. The procedure took only a couple minutes and 4 – 5 days at home to recover before returning to normal activities.
My vision is still improving before I can offer feedback on final results. But I’ll update this post after my third follow-​up appointment.
ABOUT THIS PLACE
Pros:
— Unbeatable price
— Surgeon meets industry standards
— Custom procedure for all patients
Cons:
— Long wait on surgery day
— High risk of spending more than planned
— Outdated prescription instructions
Now let’s discuss why you may spend more than planned…
PUNCTUAL PLUGS
These are plugs that are inserted into your tear ducts to increase tear production to relieve dry eyes.
During my first consultation I was told I have dry eyes and «highly recommended» (by a technician) to get punctual plugs at $ 200 per eye.
But then I learned that this chain has been criticized in the past for trying to sell punctual plugs to patients who didn’t need them.
Source:
So I got a second option at another facility (5-​stars on Unilocal but much more expensive) and I wasn’t recommended the plugs.
Then on the day of my surgery, I opted out to get the plugs and had to sign a form that said I was going against Doctor’s recommendations.
All patients waiting for their surgery that day were recommended to purchase the plugs.
Three weeks later and staying on top of all my prescriptions and tear drops, I didn’t experience any dry eye symptoms that would have merit the need of the plugs.
In conclusion, take advantage of the free consultation LASIK providers offer. Get a second opinion on how dry your eyes are and if is «medically necessary» to get the plugs the day of your surgery.
LIFETIME INSURANCE
The standard insurance only lasts one year. But most facilities offer a lifetime insurance. This can add $ 600+ to your total bill. Also to keep the lifetime insurance valid, you have to have an annual eye examination. These examinations are not free.
After doing some research I decided not to get it. Here’s one of the articles I read that guide my decision.
OTHER SUGGESTIONS
— PRK vs LASIK: PRK is an alternative procedure that doesn’t require creating a flap (small cut in your eye) to correct your vision.
It takes longer to recover and achieve perfect vision than with LASIK. But I selected PRK after learning that the flap never really heals.
Here is a video with more on this
— Listen carefully: During my first consultation I was told by a doctor to wait two-​weeks without wearing contact lenses before scheduling my surgery. Then the technician offered to book it in the next 1 – 2 days.
— Cross reference instructions: the hand out I got after my surgery with my prescriptions’ instructions was outdated. I learned this after noticing that the instructions in the prescriptions didn’t match the facility’s hand out.
— Natural supplements: I learned that fish oil and vitamin C can help during the recovery phase.
Overall I don’t regret selecting this place for my surgery so far (one more follow-​up). This review is more about what I wish somebody would have told me about this place before coming here. Hope it helps you have a better, smoother experience than I did.

Eye surgery was done perfect I now have ²⁰⁄₁₅. My only issue with this place is the scheduling. I scheduled my last check up after surgery. Then my yearly would have begun. These appts are done at least a month in advance. I arrive 15min before my appt as always, and there’s 10 people waiting in the waiting room. I wait 20 min and I ask what is the wait time? Are all these people in front of me? I don’t have time to wait for all this, as a matter of fact would you wait this long after dropping that much cash for surgery! I was scheduled to be seen 5 min ago. So they apologize and tell me its gonna be a long wait time. Im thinking to myself is this how it is after you have the surgery? Now because they got you on the warranty thing and that you cant miss any appointments or your warranty is voided. Is this how they treat their «old» patietns? Cause before the money exchange I had no wait time longer then 10min. So I get a new appt time and this time the front desk tells me I’m slotted in the least busy time of the week and day. So I said great. A few weeks later I once again arrive 15min before my scheduled time. There’s 3 people in front. They see me within 10min, awesome this looks promising, just wait for it… they give me the simple eye exam in the room and then the nurse tells me it’s gonna be a little bit before the doc sees me but I’m the next one. It takes a fucking hour for her to come back in again. I dozed off during that time out of boredom and saw my phone and it was an hour later. The nurse pops in her head and tells me it’s gonna be a few minutes more. It’s been an hour, I gotta go to work. I told them this is ridiculous, how is it that you spread your appts out by 15min but your spending an hour per patient? What kind of math are they using cause that shit don’t work. They apologize and tell me that they have new doctors and they are learning their patients. OK fine I get that, so make changes to the schedule. I’d rather get a courteous phone call even just a day in advance advising me that appointments will be taking longer due to having new doctors. (they’re main doctor quit because her commute was too long). I would have been totally OK with that as oppose to wasting over an hour. Damn, urgent care clinics don’t take that long and those are walk in only, in case you didn’t know that. I was upset and then had to get scheduled again. I live in renton so the s curves are shit for traffic and work in dt seattle so i90 is shit for traffic. 2 weeks later I come here 15 min before my appt and there’s 1 person in front of me. They skip her and bring me in, I didn’t expect that and I feel bad for skipping her. First in first out. Only took 3 freaking tries. So here’s the break down on wasted time and money. I used a «standard» calculator for my equation. 4 hours of commuting, 21 dollars in parking and about 2 hours in waiting and actual appt time. gonna rate them a 1 star for total disregard of time management. I paid 3000 cash for this surgery all the previous appts were on time and had no issues.

I got my surgery back in 2006 and I paid around $ 3000 because I got a Life time warranty. So I was told that If my eye sight get week again then I can get a free lasik but when I contacted them, they said sorry we cant honor that warranty because you didn’t came to us for checkup every year… The Manager Sarah is really rude and she even said bad stuff about her own company… It took me few years to pay off my loan of $ 3000. So don’t go there… they are bunch of Liars and they don’t even do good surgeries

I was truly scared of how the procedure would work out. I had purchased the Groupon coupon and was so unsure of whether to use it or not as it seemed too good to be true… BT then again, I come from India and I know pretty good hospitals will do it within 1000 USD out there. I finally understood the huge price difference and attributed it to lifetime guarantee program and other discounted services u can get after 1year of the surgery.
This review is 3 months close to my PRK surgery. I had a –5 power in my eyes before and as of today, my vision is perfectly clear. I went for my post op eye checkup yesterday and was told I have 20/​20/​vision in right eye and ²⁰⁄₁₅ in the other. The change in my vision has been a phenomenal experience for me as I have been wearing glasses since I was 10yrs old.
The journey is for the mentally tough though. Right after the procedure, there will be high photo sensitivity and u will feel stinging pain for the next 4 days. Its like a sandstorm in the eyes and I literally was sitting in a dark room for the initial 4days. After 2 weeks my vision was better BT definitely not clear. After 4 weeks, I was still not there and wondered if my procedure was successful or not. Now that the vision has cleared, I am wondering next if my dry eye situation will heal in 6months or not… I never had dry eye before BT now post the PRK, I finally understand clearly what dry eye means… Sometimes when I wake up in the morning, it stings and during the day it gets blurry if I don’t put my drops regularly. Preservative free vial eye drops are expensive BT necessary.
Experience of the staff has been absolutely wonderful and supportive so far… They are extremely patient and explain to the best of their understanding. Though my reservation with dry eye remains, I still feel maybe I should have taken this leap long before!

I scheduled a consultation online then within an hour got a phone call from Florida to confirm the date of the consultation. After doing much research on various LASIK surgeons in the Northwest I decided to cancel my consultation with The LASIK Vision Institute mainly because a red flag for me was the fact that they were only charging $ 600 per eye. LASIK costs $ 1500+ per eye. I love saving money but for some reason if someone is going to laser my eye open I am willing to pay a little bit more. After canceling my consultation I get an email from them saying that they will give me a better deal for the surgery, $ 300 per eye. Another red flag! Why do you need to go cheaper? A reputable surgeon doesn’t need to beg you to be their patient.
I canceled my consultation in August and I’m still getting emails with even better/​cheaper/​free offers on LASIK.
My advice to anyone interested in getting LASIK: save and pay more to have someone laser your eyes open. Don’t go to someone that begs you to be their patient.

I’m approximately a week removed from surgery and my eye sight is now ²⁰⁄₁₅. I couldn’t be happier with the staff and results I gained from The LASIK Vision Institute. Highly recommended.

I’m soooo pleased with my procedure. I was nervous to do a groupon eye surgery but I’m so glad I went through with it. I ended up saving a ton of money and have perfect vision. The staff is absolutely wonderful. The doctors are lucky to have them. I had a few issues with waiting and the doctor calling out but they were so friendly that I didn’t even mind. Alyssa in the front is so genuine and talks to everyone like they are her own family member. Sara did my two week post op and she was amazing as well. I can’t remember the two that assisted the doctor in my surgery-​a younger gentleman and a really sweet woman with long hair-​they made me feel so comfortable and the guy coached me through the whole thing. All in all a great experience. Thanks!

I’m now 5 months out and the results are interesting. I went from extreme nearsightedness to only being able to see far. I swapped one kind of sight for the other and I’m not sure how I feel about it. I didn’t expect to not be able to see things up close until later in life, I’m only 36. I’m already in need of readers.
If I could go back in time, I would reconsider doing PRK or Lasik. I had no problems with contacts and my eyes were never dry. Now they are super sensitive and often dry.
The Lasik Vision Institute didn’t prepare me for my results but maybe I didn’t ask enough questions. I am giving them 4 stars because they didn’t do anything wrong and they did a great job with my procedure. I just wish I had known how drastically it would change my near sight.
It is amazing to be able to see far without correction but it’s so strange and foreign to not be able to see up close. I can’t find splinters, I can’t read labels, etc.
I’m writing this review because there are people out there (like me) that might not have considered how different it will be, how inconvenient at times, how frustrating.

Here I am at my first post op appt. I can see incredibly well and I’m so happy with the groupon I purchased for my traditional lasik surgery. I also got the temporary collagen punctal plugs which were originally offered for 100/​eye at the first appt but when I declined they lowered the price to 35 $ per eye right before my surgery. I have no pain and no issues with dry eye so I’m stoked I waited for a lower price and glad I got them, and I feel like the friendliness of staff is wonderful.
They lose a star though for the amount of time that I had to wait on the day of surgery. I was quoted 60 – 90 min for my ride to wait for me but I was in office for 3 hours. Honestly my ride stayed with me and she was able to see the surgery which was fun. So it was whatever but I definitely don’t recommend your ride planning anything afterwards.
It is also now 30 min after my appt. time and I am still in the waiting room. So this place over books and takes for ever but you definitely don’t pay for quick service and for the price of my surgery I’m ok with that.
My vision is already great and I can’t wait to see what the dr says.

I waited 50 min only to be told that my consultation would be an additional 2 hrs after this. I don’t know a single person who has the time in their day to just sit around and wait. Unfortunately I can’t trust an office to perform a surgery on me who can’t be organized enough to schedule one client per room in a timely fashion. The front desk staff was great, and I can tell that their business model causes these issues and not the the front desk staff, but nonetheless, I’ll be looking into other options.

I had my surgery 5 weeks ago and cannot be happier I made the decision to go forward with CustomVue Wave Front Lasik! The staff in the office was extremely friendly and helped set me at ease when I came in for all of my appointments.
I felt they were very upfront with how long the appointments would take, and set clear expectations on how my vision would improve after the surgery. I was a little nervous because I had blurred vision right after the surgery… but when I woke up the next morning I did my usual «search for the glasses» hand motion to my nightstand and realized… wait…I can see!
It’s such an amazing feeling to not have to put glasses on or wear contacts to do things. I have worn a form of corrective eye wear since I was 5 years old…26 years later I can FINALLY see. I’m reading things I would not have been able to with my glasses on in the past.
I will say it is important to listen to the staff, they help many customers regain sight and know what they are talking about. After my three week checkup I mentioned that I experienced slight blurry vision on occasion. They let me know the importance of continuing to put lubrication eye drops in OFTEN (especially since I work at a computer most of the day). Sure enough it has made a HUGE difference. I still can’t get over the fact that I can see!
I would recommend this place to anyone who asks (and have to several friends who are looking into it as well)!
Thank you LASIK Vision Institute, the office manager Sarah, and the rest of the staff for helping me regain sight again! It’s an incredible feeling, and you all made the experience outstanding!

I had my eye surgery on 1÷30÷2015 at the LASIK Vision Institute in Bellevue and I could not be happier! I had reservations about getting the surgery done, but I am so glad that I did! The office staff was so helpful and friendly. They really put my mind at ease. I had my initial appointment on the 26^th and had my surgery on the 30^th! The procedure itself only took about ten minutes, and my vision was drastically better then next morning. It has only improved over the past 30 days!
I went with the Custom Wavefront LASIK Surgery. I wanted the surgery because my nighttime vision had really deteriorated. I could barely see to drive at night due to the halos and starbursts. I could not ever get used to wearing contacts, and my depth perception was not that great with glasses. Since the surgery, I can now see perfectly at night! No more halos and starbursts! It’s like a whole new world has opened up for me!
When researching about LASIK, I came across a company called QualSight. They offer reduced LASIK rates through their affiliated LASIK surgeons. This really saved me a lot of time and money with the hassle of trying to find a good LASIK surgeon in my area. I would highly recommend that you start your LASIK research with them. They have a wealth of information on their Website.
I am so glad that I finally took the step and got LASIK at the LASIK Vision Institute! It was one of the best decisions that I could have ever made! QualSight also made the process a whole lot easier!

My fiancé was scheduled at 3:15pm we arrived about 10 min early and sat and waited 45 minutes past his appointment. Not a great impression right before they perform surgery on you. When they took him back and processed the groupon they asked how he was going to pay the remainder for the custom surgery. He didn’t choose custom so that was another annoyance. It is now 4:41pm and we are sitting and waiting in yet another waiting room. The lobby is packed full of people and this is apparent that this place is a lasik mill. I really hope that they do a good job and we do not have any issues to deal with down the road as I suspect it would be an unpleasant experience.
We shall see how his vision is, my dad had the «basic» done over 10 years ago in Canada and is still glasses and contacts free. I wish this for my fiancé. And will post an update if he ever makes it into surgery! quite rude making people wait for almost 2 hours after they were scheduled.
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I’ve been wanting to get surgery since I was 15 years old, now I’m 21 and this place was awesome. I wanted to get the surgery to be qualified for a military job and because I hated wearing glasses and contacts. My eyesight was –3.25 in both eyes with slight astigmatism.
The staff working there are very friendly and professional, they were very thorough in explaining everything, and answering any questions I had. I got the PRK surgery because my cornea was too thin and I like the durability of not having a flap because of my active lifestyle. I had my surgery day on December 12, 2014.
Today I just went in for my one month check up and my eyes checked ²⁰⁄₂₀ in one eye and ²⁰⁄₁₅ in the other, so my overall vision is ²⁰⁄₁₅ now! Woooo! And everything seems to have healed well.
Overall I’m very impressed and happy with the surgery and it’s crazy how people take their perfect vision for granted. It is amazing what these guys do.
If you’re considering getting laser surgery, definitely check these guys out!

Went in for eye surgery today. These people are great! Not only are they super professional, but they are also really easy going. The price point was great, the staff was phenomenal… I highly recommend!
Sarah (Office Manager) is great! Makes you feel right at home. The rest of the staff was awesome as well. Super informative. I never felt rushed, or like I was being treated like a number.
I am here 2 weeks after the surgery and can’t stop being impressed at how happy I am with my new sight.
I would definitely recommend this place to anyone. 5 stars easy!

~i was very nervous of getting laser eye surgery, but i always wanted to get it done for the longest time. I was born in Vietnam during the Vietnam war. I was in an orphanage where i didn’t get proper medical care. My eyes were infected with bugs which caused me to have bad eye sight and a lazy eye. i was adopted by American parents. They sent me to Madigan hospital at Fort Lewis. I had eye surgery when i was a baby. They tightened my eye muscles. I wore glasses since then. I’m 40 years old now. Its time to get laser eye surgery recommended by my eye doctor, because every year my eyes get worst with astigmatism. It gets difficult for me to wear contact lenses, and my eyeglasses keeps getting dirty and annoying.
I was approved for financing so that helped. I was in and out of different rooms getting my eye examination. The waiting room took a long time. But the staff was friendly. I was a good candidate for this procedure. I could feel the ring pushing around my eyes. I can feel the liquid drops as the surgeon placed the flap on my eyes. Then my eyes shut tight last night. I woke up and my eyes opened. They were still red and sore. Today i went in for a follow up. they congratulated me and said i have ²⁰⁄₂₀ vision even though I’m still blurry, but my eyes are getting clear. Thank you!