The Eyes Have It . . . Revisited

After many years of using our Ophthalmologist I have ceased our relationship.  The reason is that the Ophthalmologist himself no longer sees patients unless they are coming to him for surgery, he hands off his normal patients to his staff Optometrist for service.

And for a number of years this was okay, then he got a certain Optometrist who upon examining my eyes decided I had severe Ocular Hypertension.  All previous staff Optometrist had concluded my eye pressures were high but were normal for me.  I had seen at their request a Retina Ophthalmologist and he did not find any problems either.

Time passed and the staff changed, and I was left with the same Optometrist.  He immediately, had more tests done and set me up for another appointment in 30 days.  When I came in for the appointment, a technician greeted me as normal and then took me into a room I had be through before.  She was going to give a Goldman test. 

I stopped her, and said, "Why were we doing this test, I thought I had a special appointment with the Optometrist."

She said, "No, this was a normal annual test to determine if I had Glaucoma."

I replied. "I am not taking this test, it is a waste of time.  If this is what is going to happen, cancel the appointment."

She tried to convince me to see another different staff Optometrist.  By then I had become convinced the staff was just generating work that was unnecessary.  I had concluded that all the past history I had with the doctor was never looked at or just disregarded.   Each appointment was just a new appointment without any past consultation or review of history.  I was wasting my time and government resources to continue to use this doctor or this facility.

I contacted my normal personal physician and requested a referral to a local Ophthalmologist.  The old one was over 50 miles away and perhaps a local one would be better.  He gave me two references and I used one of them.

I had to wait about three months to see him, but just completed my initial visit with him.  His technician was excellent, thorough and fast.  We did a one additional test.

I saw the doctor, explained my concerns and why I was seeing him.  He examined me, looked at the test results and gave me a technical explanation regarding his examination.  He concluded my eye pressures were normal and my other special test said I was in the acceptable range.   His examination of my retinas was normal and I did not have any vision problems.  In fact, he said, "See me next year."

I feel vindicated and relieved.  I now know I was indeed being "worked" to keep the level of attendance up at my old eye doctors office.  They had a staff that they had to support and thus kept things going so to speak.  All unnecessary and at cost to my insurance carrier, the US Government.

As usual the adage comes to mine, Buyer Beware!