The LASIK Vision Institute — Local services in Virginia Beach

I HAVE BEEN DECEIVED AND DISRESPECTED. I came to this center in mid December. Spent hours on my first day here for my evaluation even though I had an appointment and didn't leave until 6 PM because they were busy with all the other customers. But I waited. Christine and another female doctor both asked me if I wanted to get my procedure done the next day, showing me how much each of my eyes cost and the best plan, made me pay for a deposit, never once did they mention anything about me being an ineligible candidate for the lasik procedure. So I came back early in the morning the next day. Paid for my procedure beforehand, got my eyes dilated. When it was my turn, I had already donned the cap and shoe covers, Christine came and told me that Dr. Brusco said my prescription numbers were out of his perimeters as a surgeon. So he was not comfortable with performing the procedure on me. He was comfortable with the two patients I saw who went before me and got their procedures done. I was seriously upset. Why hadn't the female doctor noticed that my prescription numbers were unusual and gave me a heads-up that there might be a possiblity of me being turned down for this procedure? Clearly she was not paying full attention to me when she was examining me. Then Christine said there would be another surgeon in town the following week, Dr. Beyer, who has way more experience than Dr. Brusco and would be able to treat me. She said she would fax my results over to Dr. Beyer and let him decide whether he is okay with my results. She voided my credit card charge this time. That Saturday, Christine called and told me Dr. Beyer and his assistant have looked at my results and were fine with them. However, due to my daughter being in the Navy on sea duty, she was not able to drive me to the center on the Friday that Dr. Beyer would be in, since my daughter has duty that day. So Christine told me about the Richmond center that Dr. Beyer would also be in on Thursday. My daughter was able to drive me to Richmond for my procedure after work. Everything seemed to work out so we paid for the procedure again. This time a week ahead of my schedule procedure day. When Thursday finally came, the Richmond center gave me a call and said their power was out so all procedures are canceled for the day. Friday was the only day Dr. Beyer would still be in the area. My daughter had to tell her supervisor about everything and requested for a couple of hours off her ship in order to bring me here to Christine's center and see Dr. Beyer. Again, I had donned my shoe covers and cap, and Dr. Beyer told me himself that I have an abnormal eye and I would not be eligible for the procedure. I asked him why didn't he find out about this when he saw my results Christine had faxed over to him and his assistant. He said he doesn't look at patients' record until the day of the procedure. Completely different from what Christine had told me. I was never taken seriously by any of the doctors or surgeons. All the time and effort my daughter and I put into this mean nothing to these people. Christine submitted my refund request on Dec 29th, and told me it would be expedited. The following Tuesday I called her again and she said she knows a guy who works in their corporate accouting office and he has already processed my refund. She told me to call her back on Thursday and she would be able to provide me a set date as to when my refund will actually be credited back into my bank account. But it snowed on Thursday so they were not going to be back in business until Tuesday. I had to call their corporate myself on Friday and talked to their manager, Brooke, who told me that my refund has not been initiated nor processed and it would have to take another 7-10 days for it to be expedited. Christine said my refund was intiated and processed since Tuesday. But Brooke says my refund has not been processed. Today is Tuesday and I called Christine's center and spoke to Belinda, their center manager. She could not provide me with a set date even after talking to...

UPDATE: If my initial review was bad, I want to report that continued (or lack of) service from this place is absolutely atrocious! THIS PLACE IS CHEAP FOR A REASON!!!!! After my surgery, I started my follow-ups and then COVID-19 pandemic happened. Early on during the pandemic, I arrived at my scheduled appointment and these people were too lazy to call me and let me know that they had cancelled all visits. No, they put me at risk and allowed me to make the trip, enter their building to read their sad little note on the door saying they were CLOSED indefinitely! CONSIDERING THEY WERE NOT WORKING, LIKE A LOT OF OTHER HEALTHCARE WORKERS, ETC., YOU WOULD THINK THAT THEY WOULD TAKE THE TIME OFF TO CALL THEIR CLIENTS!!! NO!!!! So I thought, 'well, they will probably call me when they return and are able to see clients'. Wrong! One year later and I have yet to hear from them. LASIK VISION INSTITUTE DOES NOT CARE ABOUT THEIR PATIENTS!!! THERE IS A REASON WHY THIS IS THE ONLY HEAVY DISCOUNTED LASIK/PRK IN THE AREA!!! Everyone recommended other places, but they were not offered by my insurance. I am fighting this with my insurance to allow me to go to a place that not only does a better job (without the laughable claim that they have a 'celebrity surgeon'), but actually cares for me as a patient. Stay away from this place if you can afford a better option.

I am not satisfied with QualSight Lasik and the fact that my ONLY option for PRK was the Lasik Vision Institute...the worse place in my area! My ONLY good experience was the Admin supervisor and one of the nurses (who was very helpful), everyone else was awful. The receptionist was not friendly or knowledgeable on payment process, and if it wasn't for me asking to speak to a supervisor during a desperate need at the beginning, I would have not even been able to get the surgery through my insurance (this is a totally different matter).

My worse experience was with the surgeon, Dr Beyer, who only flies in for the surgery and then flies out of the area, he is NOT LOCAL! There is NO personal care. It felt like an assembly line, one person in and out QUICKLY and the next person in right after, everything is done in a rush to get as many people in and out as possible, since surgeon is only at the location a few times a month. The next day my appointment was moved up because the surgeon wanted to fly out of town earlier. There is NO PERSONAL care! Laser Vision Institute brags that the surgeon has done surgery on celebrities like Kevin Costner...WHO CARES?!? I would rather have someone that will give me personal care and make me feel valued as a patient and answer all my questions CALMLY and not in a rush! Do not get your surgery done here! I am not even sure how precise he was as I was on the chair what appeared to be seconds...he was rushing! The next day I shared my feedback with the surgeon and told him I would prefer 'Quality' over their rush for 'Quantity'. He said to me: that he didn't have time for the 'touchy-fealy' and that he was just there to focus on the eye surgery. I said, that is fine, but i didn't feel comfortable or at ease, which made my experience awful! They did not even offer 'valium', which their legal documents say it's an option, but they said it's not a requirement...THEN TAKE IT OFF YOUR DOCUMENTS! The whole environment was so stressful, I think something like valium would have helped. Lastly, the money was not worth the surgery. Additionally, even though I was supposed to have a 'dicount', I later saw they also advertise on Groupon for way cheaper, so it would have been even cheaper had I gone to Groupon. Blue Cross Vision/QualSight failed me by offering this place 'on a discount' as their only option, when there are so many other places out there way more recommended by most, like...

Alright, now that I've completed my final post-op appointment, let me tell you about my experience with the Lasik Institute in Virginia Beach.

First appointment was pretty simple: They sat me down, looked at my eyes, decided what my prescription parameters were and explained everything I wanted to know. Signed the dotted line and we set up the date for my evaluation.

2nd appointment: It took a lot longer, because this was late December (everyone wanting to start the year with new eyesight), and there were a LOT of machines involved. They looked at my eyes through several different machines and decided that I could opt for the procedure that day if I chose. So, we agreed, signed up, and were told to come back later that day for the operation.

3rd appointment: The procedure! Honestly, the prep for the procedure took longer than the laser operation. It was actually kind of funny. They had me lay back on this comfortable bed/bench, they numbed my eyes with drops, and used a device to hold my eye open so I wouldn't blink. It didn't hurt, and they made sure I was comfortable before proceeding with my operation. Then, they slid the laser machine into place and told me to watch the green light. Easy as pie, and while I could feel the laser procedure, it wasn't painful or uncomfortable. It felt like a warm, gentle breeze blowing on my eye and it was over in seconds. Then, they did the same thing with the other eye.

Immediately after the procedure, I was given a prescription and aftercare instructions to follow to the letter. I got my medicines filled at a local pharmacy and went home. The aftercare is a long list of instructions, a steroid treatment to speed healing and prevent infections, a pain suppressant (because eyes will be mildly sore and your brain will be tired from processing all the new details it can see), and a sterile eye drops regimen (DO NOT SKIP THESE!!!). The regimen is long, and you must be religious about wearing sunglasses during the healing process! I liked the free sunglasses they gave me in my aftercare instruction kit, and if I hadn't broken them two weeks ago, I would still wear them!

Now, after the procedure, I have had to go in again for a series of post op examinations over the past six months. These are meant to determine how well my eyes were healing and if further medications would be necessary, as well as tracking my new visual acuity. Every time I went in, I was greeted and seen to within minutes. They would look at my eyes, ask if I was following my aftercare regimen, and ask if I was having any symptoms or irritations.

The final result: After 17 years of glasses, my final prescription being -3.50 on my right eye, -3.75 and astigmatism on my left eye, the expense of paying for new glasses and contacts, not to mention the frustrating and time-consuming maintenance of them... My vision is now 20/15 (darn near perfect), no symptoms of dry eye, my eyes have healed perfectly, and I'm only kicking myself that I didn't get this procedure sooner!

The staff at the Lasik Institute in Virginia Beach are courteous, professional, and friendly. They will answer your questions, they will make you comfortable, and they will make sure you have all the information you need to decide if Lasik is right for you!

Thank you,...