Pediatric Ophthalmology Associates - Westerville

I've brought my son here 3 seperate instances, and all three times felt very impersonal. The doctors are very professional and thorough . I'm very pleased with there analysis, but limited to that interaction many others i've had with staff have not been great. I am writing this review because I was a little disappointed in my sons fitting at the optical shop. This being a pediatric specific doctor , I was hoping they'd make the expierence exciting for me and my 1.5 year old since we are dealing with some complicated things! Instead of being met with kindness or welcoming energy I was immediately met with "DO YOU HAVE INSURANCE " to which I said yes and then i was questions on if it was actually vision etc. I know this is essential to the purchasing process, but it felt extremely rushed and transactional only. No kind greetings, no assistance. I tried on every pair and had to initate any and all help i needed and i seemed like I was "bothering" them. Then I was proceeded to be pushed on warrentys . I just did not enjoy that expierence for me or my son at all. Was very disappointment made a scary time even more hard which is unfortunate. but like I said im extremely greatful for my sons care from the doctors but the other staff definitely needs some training on patient interaction.

My son has been coming here over 4 years now. Dr. Golden is the best! Yearly checkups are time consuming due to having to dilate his eyes, but well worth the wait. My son looks forward to his appointments.

We initially came to this pediatric ophthalmology office due to a referral evaluation. The doctor was thorough in explaining the diagnosis and discussed that glasses would be the first step, with patching being the likely next treatment depending on what was seen at the follow-up. One issue I wish had been communicated more clearly from the beginning was billing transparency. After the initial visit, I followed up when I received a bill and learned that a refraction (the brief measurement used to determine a glasses prescription) is often processed by insurance as a vision service rather than a medical benefit. Even though the office considers it part of the medical evaluation, it may not be covered under medical insurance, and this resulted in an unexpected out-of-pocket charge for both of my children since they don't use vision insurance. After a later appointment for my younger son, we ran into another major issue: his pupillary distance (PD) was not measured or provided. PD is required to order glasses outside of the office, which was very important to me with the high costs of their optical shop. I opt to purchase glasses from online vendors for a fraction of the cost. When I followed up, I was advised that only Dr. Golden records PD and that other providers in the practice do not( my kids saw different doctors due to availability so I did not run into this with my older child since Dr Golden included it on the prescription as normal). This was surprising for a pediatric eye practice that advertises in-depth testing, and it creates unnecessary barriers for families trying to purchase affordable glasses elsewhere. I spoke with the office manager, Laura, who was professional and acknowledged they receive about 8 calls per day regarding PD and said they are working on improving how this is handled. She suggested i come back in., which is additional time, planning, energy & driving for my family. We are not local but luckily my older son had a follow up appointment that I could bring my younger son to as well. I communicated the plan and expressed I don't want there to be any confusion when we come. However, when we arrived for that follow-up appointment, the front desk had no idea about this plan, which led to unnecessary back-and-forth and highlighted a lack of internal communication. We also experienced long wait times on both visits, followed by additional waiting to see the doctor. Additionally, the follow-up visit itself felt inconsistent compared to what was discussed at the first appointment regarding next steps for treatment, which made it difficult to feel confident moving forward. Ultimately, the PD issue was only resolved because we happened to have another follow-up visit already scheduled, but between the repeated long waits, inconsistent communication, lack of billing transparency, and the inconvenience of traveling out of our way for routine care, we've decided to request our records and transition our children's care locally going forward. Especially since there is nothing additional the office does for my kids in comparison to a regular, local eye doctor.

NOT IMPRESSED! Couldn't even get beyond scheduling - the reception staff needs some serious training! First call made, I was told they could not schedule, needed a referral sent and they would call me to schedule. Second call (the same day!), I got transferred by Nationwide and didn't even KNOW I was back scheduling with POA, was told I did NOT need a referral and was scheduled right then.... Third call, I wanted to check on my insurance coverage/get more information about the appointment itself - spoke with a Cindy, who straight up had no phone etiquette and sounded like a teenager with their first job who had no idea what they were doing! Lots of uhhh's, huh, and then she told me they did NOT take my insurance....even though I had confirmed that when making the appointment initially. Even IF they have 4.5 stars based on the great doctors there, you can't even make it that far based on the severely undertrained and unprofessional support staff who run the place! Too much of a bad first impression, that I do not have the confidence to keep my appointment with this business.

This was our very first visit today on 01/16/2024. Despite my son absolutely hating the eye drops to dilate his eyes,we had an excellent experience! The lady who dilated his eyes did a wonderful job and was so sweet to my son! Next time I will get her name and post it because they all deserve to be recognized by name! Dr. Golden was wonderful, patient and thankfully did not rush us out of our appointment! My son ended up needing glasses and the front desk women and the lady who helped us with his glasses are absolutely wonderful! Very patient people we had a fast visit and everyone there is so sweet and friendly! Thank you ALL and please keep up the excellent work! We appreciate you all and what you do.

My children had eye surgery 6-7 years ago and Dr Golden and staff have taken excellent care of them throughout! My kids beg to go more than 1x a year. Even though they hate the dilation, they enjoy the fun aspects of the exam and they love spending their Good Patient coin after the visit. We love Miss Kim in the Optical store, too.

Dr. Golden has been taking care of my son's beautiful eyes since he was born, 16 years ago! He was born with congenital bilateral cataracts, fancy way of saying born with cataracts in both of his eyes. Which had led to many surgeries & procedures, but the staff in this practice has taken every chance to ensure parents & patients completely understand everything. They genuinely care about what they are doing for these sweet babies to be able to see the world through their own eyes, even if those eyes need a little bit of help getting into focus. Thank you!!

I wish I could leave separate reviews for pediatric ophthalmology associates and their optical store because we had very different experiences at the 2 places. I'd give pediatric ophthalmology associates 5 stars. Every one we encountered was wonderful and our wait times were very short. With that being said I would rate their optical store a 1 star, if that. When we went in to choose my daughter's glasses I thought the lady running the store was nice. She took her time and helped us pick her glasses that fit or so I thought. She said she'd text in 1 to 2 weeks when the glasses were in. 2 weeks came and went so I started calling and leaving voicemails. I left 3 voicemails and probably called 10+ times. No one from the Westerville optical store ever answered the phone or responded to the voicemails I left. I only got a response after I left a voicemail for the woman that manages all their optical stores. After I left her a message I got a text 11 mins later saying my daughter's glasses were ready for pick up. When we went to pick them up, Kim that works in the Westerville store had my daughter try on her glasses and then she adjusted them a little. When my daughter tried them back on my mom pointed out that the glasses were sitting on her ears and that would be uncomfortable. So she adjusted them again and said that's as good as they were going to get even though they were still sitting on her ears. Every time my daughter wears her glasses not only do they sit on her ears but they actually slide down and sit on her ear that's folded over. I can barely get her to wear them because she says they hurt her ears. I wish Kim would've taken the time to properly adjust her glasses because we paid a lot of money for them to be something my daughter can only wear for a short period of time. Now I have to take my daughter to a different optical store to get another pair of glasses that will actually fit and be adjusted properly. I would definitely recommend pediatric ophthalmology associates but DO NOT use their optical store if you want your child to have a pair of glasses that they can wear.