Ophthalmology: San Carlos Center: Palo Alto Medical Foundation

Our first and probably only visit here was rather terrible. It was for a screening that was recommended by our optometrist and should have been pretty routine. I wish I could give fractional stars because this wasn't the worst visit I could have imagined, but it definitely was pretty bad, worse than 2 stars would suggest. The ophthalmologist seemed friendly and knowledgeable enough, hence the 2 stars rather than 1. However we only spent about 5 minutes with him out of the 2 hour visit. The rest of the time was split evenly between waiting and testing. The wait was ok, though a bit longer than originally quoted. However, for half the testing time, we were treated as if we were wasting their time. Admittedly, we were jittery with one of the machines that needed to lightly touch the eye, but the person doing the test did not even try to hide their frustration or put us at ease. I understand that they were running behind and probably overworked, but we were treated as if we were actively trying to sabotage the test which only made the environment more hostile and the test more unsettling. I don't want to tell them how to do their jobs; perhaps telling patients that the test is no big deal and to just stop flinching works most of the time. However, for us, that approach honestly just made things worse and slowed things down even more. Even more, it was the first test they tried to do after calling us in, so it just set a really terrible tone for the rest of our time with them. To their credit, they tried making small talk after that first test was finally done, but we really just wanted to be away from them at that point. It did not help that they threw in a couple of pseudo apologies, e.g. apologizing that we were sensitive rather than apologizing for anything they had done. That really just compounded the feeling that they thought we were wasting their time. I hope that we were treated like this only because they were running behind and trying to get to the next patient faster, rather than because this is just normal treatment of people who are afraid of their eyes being touched. However, we have such a terrible memory of this experience that we probably should not come back anytime soon since we'd just reflexively panic thinking back to this visit.

This review is for the San Carlos Optometry department, and in particular Siavath Assar, Optometrist. I am alarmed at how wrong his diagnosis was. TLDR: I found Siavath Assar to be an utterly incompetent optometrist. His diagnosis was completely wrong by a huge magnitude. He had me try on a single soft contact lens, and when I couldn't see clearly with it, he simply concluded that I am not able to wear soft contacts to correct my vision, and my only option was hard contact lenses or glasses. After going to an actual, competent optometrist at Stanford, I was fitted with a much different soft contact lens prescription and am seeing 20/20. Details: Assar is not knowledgable about contact lens fitting, and did not take any time to properly evaluate my case. I've had LASIK/PRK, but still need glasses or contacts to correct the residual refractive error. Assar gave me 1 contact lens to try on in his office, a +1.75, and when I said I could not see clearly at all with this prescription, he promptly concluded that I would not be able to see clearly with soft contact lenses, period. That I should just get used to wearing glasses anyway as people would need them as their eyes age. At no time did Dr. Assar try a different prescription on me before his erroneous conclusion. To boot, he had the audacity to charge me for a "contact lens fitting," when he did none of the work! His false diagnosis was devastating as I find wearing glasses all day everyday quite uncomfortable and annoying. I went to a different optometrist at Stanford, who, on his first try, gave me my proper soft contact lens prescription of +0.50. With this right prescription, my vision is extremely clear and crisp at 20/20, and I could comfortably wear the soft contact lens all day. I'm so glad I did not trust Assar. His diagnosis / prescription was so completely wrong. As you recall, he had me try a +1.75, when I only needed a +0.50 to see 20/20. The degree to which he was wrong is alarming.

I have called many times but no one pick up the phone.