Northern Virginia Eye Surgery Center

I had my cataract surgery here and had the best experience for both eyes. The staff were friendly and efficient. I’ve been to 5 surgery centers and this is the best by far.

Horrible service very unprofessional and rude staff.... never will return or recommend to anyone

Horrible service. Can’t even follow through with a prescription and didn’t bother calling me back to fix it. Left me waiting for hours with no attempt to help.

Nice people.

If I had this to do all over again, I would choose to go somewhere else. Although they appear to be very efficient, there is a rushed atmosphere and you feel like you are in a cataract surgery mill and I guess that is the case. The staff was courteous, though not friendly. I am a nurse and I have worked in many clinical areas and I recognize when people are performing at a quick but professional and competent speed, but these people seem to be on a quick timeline and that is their end goal. They just struck me as people not happy with what they are doing or where they are doing it and are just going through the motions. With the first surgery, as soon as I was taken back, I was asked if I wanted to use the bathroom. Sounded like a good idea, but the nurse walked in with me and said, 'here, I'll even put the seat down for you', which she proceeded to do with her bare hand and then just walked out without washing her hands. I just hope she went to another sink somewhere else and washed her hands. Next, you are put in a bay next to someone, separated by curtains and they keep the lights out as they quickly start to administer drops. They don't use disposable BP cuffs, but use the same cuffs over again on multiple patients. They also use multi-dose eye drop vials, so these medications go from room to room as well. There are no gloves or hand sanitizer in the bays, but they do push around a little cart of supplies that has gloves, etc. on it. With the first surgery, the anesthesiologist came in and nudged me with his elbow (my eyes were closed as instructed) and it's dark in there, and he introduced himself, said he would be giving me my anesthesia, looked at my vital sign monitor and walked out. He didn't ask any clinical history and or explain the IV sedation. The 2nd anesthesiologist did at least look me in the eye and ask me if I had any questions. Neither one of them cleaned the saline lok hub with alcohol or wear gloves when they injected the IV medication. After the first surgery was completed, I was rushed out, they even sent me out with the ginger ale can in my hand with only a few sips out of it. The 2nd experience was a little better, but you are definitely ushered in quickly and out quickly. The front desk staff is also courteous, but not friendly, don't even look you in the eye, and again come across as very rushed. Before either procedure, I had seen my eye surgeon(eye specialists and surgeons of Northern Virginia) and their office insisted on collecting my health insurance deductible upfront which was $1,000.00. I paid this of course, and then the surgery center called and informed me that since I still owed the deductible (nothing had been billed of course because nothing had actually been done), that I had to pay them upfront as well. Even though I explained that I had already paid $1,000 to the doctor's office, they actually stated that they were entitled to collect it also. This came from a young lady named Kelly. I called the eye surgeons office and they didn't offer any solution, so I ended up paying $2,000 instead of 1,000. The doctor's office apologized later and said that they usually call the surgery office to say that the patient has already paid the deductible and that I somehow fell through the cracks. They did reimburse the deductible back to me quickly. Overall, the surgery went well have had no complications. My thoughts to the owner are, the facility overall looks old and shabby. Could use a serious facelift. The stretchers patients lie on are EXTREMELY uncomfortable. Your staff could use some customer service training in terms of making patients feel more like an individual there for your expertise instead of a number and a procedure. There were some practices that I consider poor hygiene, such as the lack of gloves and cleaning the IV site. Encourage the anesthesiologists to spend more than 30 seconds with you. It leaves you with the impression that they think they are doing you a favor by being there.