UC San Diego Shiley Eye Center

If only the Dr i saw was just as pleasant as the campus. NEVER AGAIN.
I had been seeing a NeuroOptomotrist, one I’m very happy with, has great students (also at a University, and ONE student that stays the length of the appointment) has always been a wonderful experience with appointments that take 2−3hours of testing and discussion. Today, I saw Dr Sorvino because a neurologist wanted me to see a ‘MD’. Three different? came in to ask questions before Sorvino, he spent maybe 4 minutes with me and recorded his notes to my Neurologist in front of me. Didn’t acknowledge me as a patient, didn’t talk with me about my concerns. His concern was to BASH where I came from, «Evil Empire» said the «So called Neuro doc i saw had not seen enough eyes to know what they are talking about.» The more my night goes on the more disgusted I am with my experience and regret being polite to such a #@!*#. UCSD, don’t yo
u dare reply with a Thank you for leaving a comment. I’m not in the mood.

I’m completely confused here. Just got back from my mother’s appointment. It was one of the best medical experiences I ever had and that’s saying alot. Mom is is 80 years old and we have been going through the medical gamit for you name it medical issues.
On the way from El Centro 2 hours away. I preped my mom for 2 – 3 hour wait per all these reviews. She brought a neck pillow and lunch. Appointment was at 10:00 am and we got there at 9:45 am. Reception and registration was friendly and quick. Took a seat and was promptly called in at 10: 02.
A Tech by the name Giorgio came in and was super nice. He took some initial info before the doctor came in. 10 minutes later Dr Haw came in. Real nice way about him, talked for a little then did his exam. Unfortunately Mom needs a Cornea repair on top of Cataracts procedure. Did a great job explaining what the action plan was.
Next came the surgical coordinator, very pleasant lady. This whole scheduling took about 10 min. They had to schedule two surgeries and two pre-​ops. With this completed, we were done.
So in closing this place seemed like a very well run professional operation along with really nice people. I realize I have a long way to go in terms of going back four more times to complete treatment so I’ll post if things change.

I just had an abrupt change in the vision of my right eye (suddenly seems like I’m looking through a screened window) on a Friday night. I’m thinking — great, why couldn’t this happen on a week day. I didn’t know if my symptoms were serious enough to be considered an emergency. Saturday morning I called the Center. Operator directed me to «on-​call opthomologist» messaging. He called me back within 10 minutes. 20 minutes later I was in the Center. This was the nicest guy I could imagine — Dr. Grange. He was so cool about my symptoms, explained my prognosis carefully, answered all questions satisfactorily. It turned out not to be an emergency — apparently I have a new normal. It put my mind at ease, even though not during regular hours. Scheduled a followup appointment. I was pretty impressed, even though my condition will take time to resolve.

Expertise 11 out of 10
Service 11 out of 10
Amenities 7 out of 10
I went to the beach on a Monday only to find that I had an extremely irritated eye that evening.
On the next day, as my eye fogged up, I went to Shiley and was seen by Drs Weinreb, Afshari and Taylor, and was diagnosed with a disastrous corneal ulcer.
If they had not seen me so quickly (within three minutes of arriving), there was a risk that I could have lost my cornea and required a transplant. The ulcer was burning and growing very very quickly.
They spent about 60 minutes with me, including some testing to pinpoint the source of ulcer. All three doctors were incredibly attentive, patient with my many questions, and clear in their communication and orders with me. I got very lucky by seeing them, in particular.
I went back today and received similar attention and treatment. I wish every provider interaction was like this. They even gave me samples of the antibiotics I needed to get me started and also arranged for an on campus pharmacy to compound the medications to make it easier for me to get since I cant drive in this condition, and multiple über rides cost $$
The facilities are not so great but I don’t really care about that. I will be switching over to ucsd because I need to access these providers. Kaiser does not have this caliber of eye care.

Worst treatment by a Doctors office ever. Be prepared to wait 3hrs before you see a doctor. They are just failures at all operations.

I took my Mom for her Glaucoma yearly check up. Mom had to wait 3 – 4 hours to be seen! When I go to see my Orthodontist it takes only 0 – 4 mins to be called! Unfortunately, there is a super long waiting time and all these students come and checked my Mom. I WONDER HAVING PPO, can’t there be another Ophthalmologist in San Diego who is good enough like Shiley center who does’t torture patients waiting for half a day every time we go?

Difficult call to make… great doctors flawless surgical procedures. Terrible Organization, overbooked, 5+ hours waiting times .This is a teaching hospital so be prepared to wait and wait and wait.

As bad as it gets. Expect to wait really, REALLY long for any doctor you see, in particular Dr. Weinreb. And no apologies. My impression is that first and foremost, Shiley’s ‘research’ is of utmost importance. The patient comes a distant second to research. They always have various research grants going on, will try to take your blood for their projects… and expect you to wait to help them after you have already waited hours for your own appointment. Often you will be seen by multiple associates in white coats. No, it’s not extra care you are getting. These are researchers who are there to observe and learn from your disease. What a shame and waste of estate monies that the Shileys donated millions to such a dreadfully run clinic where patients are given short shrift. The management is awful. Also beware of being given their Avastin eye injections. It led to overnight blindness. Dr. Natalie Afshari, however, is a skilled and caring surgeon but probably an exception at Shiley. Somebody at Shiley should pay attention to its low Unilocal ratings and DO something. Start treating the patient better and taking steps to cut the wait time.

After multiple bad experiences, I have decided to share it with folks to spare their insurance $ and time. Yes, it is customary to wait for 1−2h in the lobby even for a scheduled appointment. It appears doctors at Shiley do not even consider it worth apology that they are late. I am a busy researcher/​teacher at the UCSD and had to inform receptionist after one hour of waiting that I am getting late for my meeting and her plain answer was, we can reschedule you if you have to leave, no apology for the time wasted in the lobby. But this is the least important thing, the thing that bothered me the most, was lack of knowledge and poor communication on the part of three doctors at the Shiley Center. The doctor who prescribed my lenses was unable to communicate well in English and the number was totally wrong and they were not willing to admit the mistake.
Second time my physician recommended to visit a specialist at the Shiley Eye center for the tiny black dot that was bothering me. It would appear right at the time when I am trying to focus the laser light on my sample to lase it– in short it was hindering my work in the lab. As usual I had to wait two hours in the lobby. Finally doctor asked me to tell him the reason of my visit, perhaps he did not even read my physician note neither did he spare time to read three page long form that I had to complete before the appointment. After listening, he simply responded it is an aging processes, sorry we cannot do anything about it. I asked him, if there is any exercise or something you may recommend to avoid further increase in the floater size or number. His plain answer was, «there is no treatment nor can you control it». I could not resist staring at his face and thinking, how come a specialist has no training about the basic scientific principles to obtain data and analyze it. It is a basic research ethic and moral obligation to note down basic observations (patients description of the vision problem in this case), carefully analyze data, make a hypothesis and test it with certain criteria’s if his/​her understanding is accurate or not. ALAS specialist at Shiley center had no time to even think about his moral obligations. I was frustrated at the wastage of precious time and doctor’s attitude. I did some of my own research on the «floaters» in the scientific literature (real science journals), decided to take eye vitamins with regular eye drops. I made some adjustment in my diet, to include fish and fresh carrots and raspberry juice etc. Voila– after three months, it is reduced to almost «pin head» size.
Do not waste your insurance money on doctors not able to follow the basic principles of their profession.

Shiley Eye Institute Optical Shop… I’ve been going to this shop for almost 10 years (I work next door) to buy my frames and lens. I normally deal with Robert which I normally have a great experience with… But not today. (my eye exams are normally done at the VA) Since I my prescription didn’t change in the last year I decided to wait till now.
My wife has complained about the customer service and even though she works close (Qualcomm) she’ll use people in Chula Vista.
My Sister in-​law also switched to Chula Vista and she like me works for UCSD.
In the past, I’ve walked in and sat down gave them my name and verified my info and they’ve typed into the computer and presto my record has come up.
Not anymore (my best impression of Inspector Clouseau from pick panther when he drops a Ming vase another person says «that’s a priceless Ming vase!!» and Clouseau responds «Not anymore») Now I have to fill out a small sheet of paper that the older lady couldn’t read, and I had to give my name and SSN so she could look me up. And then could not understand that I want to used my and my wife’s VSP insurance
Want I wanted to do is have my lens changed on the current pair that I use. (I get lens one year and full lens and frames the next year)
The older lady just could not understand what I wanted. And said I get 100 dollars off of frames. Well I don’t want frames but I do want to combine mine and my wife’s insurance. So she gets up and goes ask the other lady (which has been working there as long as I have and is really friendly) comes back and says we need to switch you from the primary and you out your names as primary on the little form. Well Yeah you asked me to. But I don’t want to change primary just… We need her name… Linda…She lines out my name as primary and writes in my wife. Ma’am you’re starting to frustrate me, I just want… she gets up and starts to walk away… I just picked up my stuff and left. Going toward Walmart… Costco…

Parking Only! Not Doctor!
Stay away for about 1 year! Or come 1 hour early! Shiley only gives 20 parking spaces. Don’t park in spots marked A. Staff is waiting to ticket you which is so wrong — because the hospital and Perlman parking lot is cut in half– they are building a parking structure. Valet costs $ 7 plus tip cash only UCSD should be accommodating their patients but they are not… Bummer. And the offices are NOT letting you know ahead of time either.

So, I can’t speak for all services but I went for an eye exam only. I am an employee at the UCSD Moores Cancer Center so I didn’t have to find parking (which is worse now since they are building more again.
I got there at 9:30 for an 10am appt. The assistant took me back at around 10 – 1015 which is good for a clinic of that size. Then I had to wait an hr to see the Optometrist. She was very excellent and very personable and professional. She answered all my questions and one thing I will stress to people is let the doctor know what you will primarily using your new glasses/​contacts for. I have to look at computer screens and cell phone screens since I work in the clinic and see patients but most if not all of our charting/​communication ect is via computers and cell phones.
I specified this and she helped tailor my prescription accordingly. Apparently they have different «settings» depending on what you will be using them for and how bad or good your script is. (I have slight astigmatism in both eyes but each is a script of 1.00).
Also, if you plan on buying your glasses somewhere else or online be sure to ask for your «PID». You’ll need that they don’t write it down unless you ask.
But all and all it was a good experience, yes I had to wait a bit but that’s the name of the game sometimes.
I didn’t really have to interact with the reception staff besides checking in so I can’t speak to how curt or blunt they have been to other people.

My doctor is very good but everything else really sucks. Regardless of your appt they always make you wait for at least one hour, no one has your chart so you end up repeating your story a thousand times.
Post ops have Been a nightmare because they have a triage of doctors who call you back whenever they want (seriously!!)
At this time i have no choice but to continue my treatment with my doctor here but i hate. Staff is rude and mediocre

I’ve been coming here for 5 years for yearly eye exams and this year I decided to get glasses from a different shop (online, or local) to save some money, and also because the Shiley Eye Center Optical Shop doesn’t really have the style of glasses I want. I asked if they could give me my pupillary distance (PD) in addition to my lens RX (so I could buy them online, or at a different shop) and the optician refused to give me my PD. They even refused to give me my PD values from my last appointment a year ago. Lens Rx are useless without a PD, and I was extremely frustrated and disappointed that they withheld this important information just so they could sell me glasses that didn’t fit my style. I will not be using their optical services again.

This is a review for the Ratner Children’s Eye Center. A 20 minutes doctor’s visit with our 6 month old baby took THREE HOURS. We showed up 10 minutes early to our appointment, and we had to wait over 30 minutes before anyone told us that they had 1 out of 3 technicians and are running behind. Once in the room, we saw the tech who asked us a bunch of questions we already wrote down on the triage sheet, waited another 30 minutes before the Fellow came in, did a partial exam, and told us my son’s eyes had to be dilated for 30 minutes. Couldn’t the tech dilate my son’s eyes before the Fellow came in 30 minutes later? In the 2.5 hour fiasco leading up to seeing the actual doctor, we saw a «technician» and a visiting fellow during which time all questions were repeated over and over, exams were repeated. The final visit with the actual doctor, Dr. David B. Granet, only took 20 minutes, during which time he REPEATED the exam and REPEATED all the questions we were asked. He never acknowledged that he saw us exactly 2 hours and 45 minutes after our scheduled appointment, never apologized, at this point my 6 month old son was in melt-​down mode because we had to wait for almost 3 hours, during which time he could not nap and could not eat. I do not know how he can do a proper eye exam when a child is screaming and crying from hunger and tiredness. He did not seem to care.
I have had the unfortunate pleasure of being a patient at UCSD before, in other departments where I have had similar experiences, but I have NEVER had to wait THREE HOURS for a 20 minute doctors appointment. The clinic staff seems completely apathetic to our misfortunes and called in a «patient experience» rep who seemed nice but essentially powerless.
Unless if you have NO choice, STEER CLEAR of UCSD Medical Center… the doctors may be trying to do good but the system and staff they hire are incompetent, inefficient, and DO NOT CARE about you, your baby, or your TIME!
Do yourself a favor, go to Rady’s hospital for your kid’s issues.

5* = Robert N. Weinreb, M.D.
–4* = Waiting for 3 hours and 5 minutes to see Dr. Weinreb!

I just left Shiley Eye Center after canceling my surgery after having already checked in for it! Let me preface this review by stating that Dr. Kikkawa is a wonderful and talented surgeon. He has performed plastic surgery on me several times previously and I was very pleased with the results. My complaint is with the Billing Department.
When I had my pre-​surgery appointment I was told that the billing office would call me with the estimated costs prior to my surgery. I was told by the billing person that UCSD did not have a billing code for my procedure and she would have to do some research on it. I did receive a call stating that my surgery was set and when and where to appear. So, I thought, well my procedure must be covered by my insurance.
Today, after riding on that filthy and poorly lighted elevator to the third floor surgery area and checking in, I was told to go to the first floor to talk to billing. Oma, the billing person told me my procedure would cost me $ 5000. When I asked her what code she used, she showed me the code number and said it was the code for a similar procedure. She did not know what this ‘similar procedure’ was however, so how did she know that it was comparable. When I said that I had had the procedure before at another facility and it was one tenth the price, she said «hospitals are always more expensive».
I then met with Oma and Dr. Kikkawa to discuss the cost. He said he was embarrassed to discuss the costs and I said it was very upsetting to me especially since I was told about this cost only after I had checked in for the procedure. If I had been alerted beforehand, I could have discussed the cost with my husband and done some comparison shopping to determine if the costs were appropriate. Since I was blind sided at the moment of surgery, I felt I had no choice but to cancel the procedure. Before I left the room, I told the doctor that I thought this matter was very poorly handled and as I turned to leave I heard Oma laughing.
Insult on top of Injury!!!

I want to preface this review with the caveat that Dr. Korn, my surgeon, is a brillant, extremely talented and gifted surgeon of a calibur that is seldom seen. His demeanor, communication skills and compassion are only matched by his proficiency and artistic talent that is nessecary to achieve optimal results in this precision field of opthamalogical reconstruction. That being said… it is very sad that the facility is so misadministered.
The level of complete lameness at this facility is way below the one star I was forced to give.
Staff could care less about the patients waiting in the waiting room. If the woman who was talking to people wearing the scrubs and I will guess that she was one of the nurses had spoken to me like I heard her speak to other people or on another day she and I might have had a completely different conversation and not in a good way. Her demeanor and just plain meanness would be more suitable for a work environment such as an auto wrecking junkyard or a waste management company.
Add to that the fact that it seems SOP ro make everyone wait 2 hours+ past their appointment time.
Have fun on your way to the surgery center… not only are you understandably nervous at the upcoming procedure but then you get to ride in the creepy clattering elevator that sounds like its going to die or fall while it takes you up two floors hopefully you won’t get stuck. So if your nerves were traveled in the first place they certainly will be by the time you reach the center.
When inquiring through different channels about the ridiculous amount of delay time I was met with indifference and given more of a run around. I will add to this when I actually do get into my surgery.
As a top point here, this is to be the second part of a 2 day prodedure and I am sitting here with a giant hole in my face.
Just met with the 3^rd person in charge who again had no answers or solutions or probable time frame of further delay.
Just show up 4 hours late and you might be on time?
Well the calamity of errors continues.
As you may be able to see the hospital liason commented on my post and gave a phone number to call which of course was only an answering machine… leave message.
And wait I almost forgot to mention their post op instructions we’re completely wrong.
They listed an anti nausea medicine as a pain killer and they told me to put ointment on my eye but I’m not allowed to take the dressing off my eyes for a week. I did finally speak with my doctor who straighten out my post op instructions and told me what I shouldn’t be doing and what I should which was nothing like what was written on the paper work. what a bunch of clowns. I wouldn’t let these people touch my dog.

I am out!!!
Once a year I have the misfortune of going through this process and each time this place is complete and utter chaos. A 2.00pm appointment becomes 2.30pm even though I am there 10 mins before my appt. I guess my time is just not that important… Well as much as I like Dr Freeman unfortunately I can no longer accept the tardiness of his staff and (reluctantly) I am forced to go elsewhere.

Nearly a year ago my 91 year old mother was scheduled for eye surgery and they told her to arrive before 7:00 AM. At 3:30 PM they told her she had not been «cleared» for surgery and would need to be rescheduled. Her second appointment was a similar experience. We waited for over 7 hours to be told she wasn’t even on the schedule. They conceded they had «made a clerical error» and did the surgery but she was over 40 hours without food before we finally got home that night.
When we went for her follow up appointments, we ALWAYS waited at least 3 hours to see the doctor who clearly let us know how very important he is and how little value we had. Like others who have reviewed this institution, our experience has been HORRIBLE.
Because of her surgery, Mom had to be seen once again today for a follow up visit. We decided to cancel her appointment and could not do that online, could not send an e-​mail, could not leave a message and could not reach any live person. The message just kept repeating…“your call is very important to us and someone will be with you shortly”…for hours!
If you value your medical dollars DO NOT SPEED YOUR MONEY AT SHILEY. They don’t value your business.