Omaha Lincoln Eye & Laser Institute — Local services in Omaha

My LASIK experience with Omaha Eye and Laser Institute was a complete nightmare. I am 27 years old and had the procedure done November 16th, 2018.

First off, I was the last appointment of the day, which I would not recommend. They were running a bit behind and the office kind of looked like it was shutting down for the night, which made me feel like my surgery was probably going to be rushed. You are given a 5 mg Valium about twenty minutes before the procedure. If you have general anxiety disorder or experience panic attacks, it is in your best interest to visit your primary care physician before hand and get a prescription for Xanax. I am 5’1” and 95 lbs. I did not feel the Valium before or even after the surgery, which caused me to have an actual panic attack during the procedure. It was one of the most terrifying things I have ever experienced (but strangely enough, this isn’t even the worst part of this story). The one and only person who sat with me after, asked me questions, and made sure I was ok was a young nurse with dark hair and glasses. To this day, she is the only person who has truly shown me compassion at Omaha Eye and Laser Institute.

I know everyone is different but the healing time for me was especially painful. I was out of work for two full weeks. I developed black floaters in both eyes, which to this day, are still there. But the worst thing that happened was developing severely dry eyes. After two weeks, my vision was still fuzzy and I couldn’t see. Plugs were put in my eyes; one fell out a few weeks later and caused a serious sinus infection where half of my face swelled up. Of course this happened during the weekend so Omaha Eye and Laser Institute wasn’t able to help me and I had to spend more of my money – this time at the ER.

At my next appointment at the Omaha Eye and Laser Institute, I was put on a one month eye drop medication called Xiidra and was told my insurance would most likely cover it. Well, it didn’t and I had to pay $500. I was told these eye drops would hurt at first. Hurt is an understatement. My eyes felt like they were on fire while shards of glass were being ripped through them simultaneously and the pain never got any better. During my next appointment I mentioned how bad the drops hurt and burn but JoAnna Liu, the OD I was seeing at Omaha Eye and Laser Institute disregarded my concerns. I was given another prescription for one month of Xiidra, which again, was $500 out of my own pocket. When I returned for my follow up, Johanna Liu was out of the office and I was assigned a fill in doctor. Once again, I expressed my complaints and concerns to this new doctor who determined I was definitely allergic to the Xiidra eye drops. I was then prescribed a steroid topical to fix the damage the eye drops had done to the skin around my eyes. My insurance also did not cover this, but I definitely needed it so I had to pay $500 yet again. Oh, I also mention that my vision is still blurry at this point. At this appointment and the one before I had mentioned that my headaches at night were getting pretty bad but, as usual, my comments and complaints were dismissed with no concern.

My last and final appointment with Omaha Eye and Laser Institute was April 30, 2019, in which I was supposed to discuss the “enhancement” LASIK surgery. I can definitely say I do not have the confidence in Omaha Eye and Laser Institute to perform another surgery on me. When I expressed this, Johanna Liu again dismissed my concerns and continued the appointment with a very condescending tone. She made me feel very badly as if it were my fault that the surgery didn’t work.

I now wear glasses.

I understand that LASIK does not work on everyone, but I did not appreciate the way I was treated at Omaha Eye and Laser Institute. They genuinely do not care about you, they just want your money and I hope I can maybe prevent someone from experiencing something awful with this...

Up until today I would have given this place 4 stars. The medical care is very good even if you have to wait a long time to be seen.

Then this happened:

My mom has been a patient for several years. Last July she had to go into a nursing home. September 2018 she had an appointment and went unacompanied in a wheel chair van. No one said a word.

Today 3-29-19 she arrived and was sent home without being examined. Why? She arrived by wheel chair van without an aide. They've changed their rules or they were never enforced before - I don't know which and neither did the nurse that talked to me. I couldn't get there so they sent her home and they couldn't figure out why I was mad.

Let's make it clear, you can make any rules you feel you need to but you have to make the patient and nursing faciity aware BEFORE they get there not after.

My frail 85 year old mother made a trip across town for nothing.

The nurse said just tell them you need an aide sent with her. She's a medicaid patient and they don't pay for aides to travel with her. She would have to private pay to the tune of $25 an hour for an aide if a family member isn't available. Traveling there and back and having the exam would be minimum 2.5 hours. Medicaid allows her to keep $40 a month from her soc sec and pension. Also, a wheel chair van round trip is $80 that the nursing home spent for nothing.

The nurse asked me to reschedule. I told her my mom would not ever be coming back. She couldn't figure out why I was mad.

The nursing home didn't know about this rule, I didn't know about this rule. My mother didn't have anything to do with making the appointment yet she's the one they punished for it.

In fact, Omaha Eye and Laser never informed the nursing home that they were returning my mother unseen by their doctor and why. The nursing home didn't hear about it until I called and told them what was going on.

So here's my rule Omaha Eye and Laser: I do not let anyone treat my mom like an inconveniently placed piece of furniture. She's a human being.

Never again.

Update:

When I was arranging to get her records sent to a new doctor they told me I could only get the last 2 visits UNLESS I paid 50 cents a page to get the others. She's been going there for years so her records are going to be pretty long. So her old scans won't be sent to the new doctor.

They took no responsibility for anything that happened, royally upset my mother, wasted $80 of the nursing home's money, and now they want more money.

No apology.

I used to think this place was classy. Judge for yourself.

4-2-19 Although I do appreciate Omaha Eye and Laser's apology I would just like to point out that as I am disabled and my mother's only relative in this area it would be impossible for me to be at every appointment. She does not qualify for a free escort, as she is on medicaid and cannot afford the afford the extra $50 to $75 to hire one.

Although your intention is to provide better medical care, your policy actually denies her access to any medical care at your clinic. I fail to see how that provides her better care.

Thank goodness there are so many other Doctor's offices whose policies do not...

Can't stick to appointment times. Change rules about follow up based on their availability but if you have the same situation, no deal. My grandmother who is 91 had an appointment and living out of town makes it hard for me to get to and from. Her first appointment was supposed to be at 12:00pm, however they called and moved her up to 8. I can just walk away from work that is not scheduled, however I had to use a sick day to take her. then they scheduled her follow up eye appointment at 3pm, and forgot to move it up when they moved up the surgery. and they had to do the follow up the same day, because they are closed on Friday. they eventually moved her follow up to 1:30 but no sooner. so it was a 7 hour day there. Then her second appointment was the following week. it was supposed to be at 12:20, and they pulled the same thing moving her up to 10:30, once again I have a meeting at 10. I called back to see if they could move it back, and they told me they could not and if she didn't take it they would have to move her appointment completely. So I have to use another day off to go. and they would not move her follow up from Friday at 1:00pm to anytime Thursday, even though they just did it the week before when they were going to be off.... @ndly my grandma was only getting cataract surgery and did not get the package to fix her eye sight so that she would not need glasses. I did not find this out till after the surgery. I do not feel they explained that to her correctly at her age that she would understand that they are already replacing the lenses. I had my vision correction at another facility (Dr. William R Schlichtemeier) and I would highly recommend going somewhere else before going to this place. all they care about is pushing people through for money and not the actual patient needs. They also did not notify my grandma that her vision would change from her old RX to a new RX and that she would have to wait until afteer a month to go get glasses due to the surgery. so at 91 she cant see very good, and will not be able to for a month, when she can get in. seems very irresponsible on the businesses part. However like I said they do not seem very concerned about the customers and more about the money... if you want someplace to correct your vision I have heard they are good, but if it is for a older family member who no longer drives and lives a lone. then I would go somewhere else. also after the surgery she was told she would need to take drops for the rest of her life that are $117.00 a bottle. Nothing was said beforehand and she lives on a...