Southwestern Eye Center

I don't care how good the doctors are in a practice

I woke up this morning with decreased sight in my left eye. Since I am a writer, I panicked. I called Southwestern Eye Center for an appointment. The young lady who answered gave me a last-minute spot for the following day.

However, the authorization initiated by my primary care doctor had expired in March. I told the scheduler that I would call Humana myself because I didn’t have time to see my primary doctor for another referral with my sight decreasing as we spoke.

I contacted Humana who made arrangements for me to be given an emergent authorization to see a Dr. Adelman. I called the doctor’s office back immediately. I told the second scheduler that Humana provided a number to the Critical Intake Department for a verbal authorization so I could been seen the following day.

However, she told me that their phone system didn’t allow for outside calls. I was so stunned that I couldn’t speak! When I recovered, I repeated that I was losing my sight RAPIDLY. She boredly repeated that she couldn’t call Humana. I honestly thought I had fallen into a black hole and it was 1975

when offices DID have a bank of phones with no capability for outside calling. Or, if they did, you had to dial 9 for an outside line. I checked my iPhone with my one good eye to make sure I was still in the year 2018! I know what I would have done in the same circumstance if faced with a frightened patient.

I would have taken the phone number to Humana, picked up my iPhone which I would have used anyway during my break to check my Facebook and Instagram pages, and used it to help the stressed patient! I could not believe that she would not be proactive to assist me. Or ANYONE in distress.

I asked to speak with a supervisor. She acted like she didn’t hear me. I said it again. This time she told me to hold on, with an attitude. Then the call disconnected. I was about to call back but realized that I did not want to trust my precious eyesight to an office with such a lack of compassion, foresight and professionalism.

I don’t care how good the doctors are in a practice, if the support staff is this lackadaisical, I am not about to PAY for the services. I called Humana and got the names of other opthamologists in my area. I called the first one on the list. I was told they had no openings for 2 weeks. When I told the scheduler my problem,

she put me on hold, and came back with an appointment for the following day! She had no problem with calling for the authorization. THAT is the level of customer care that is expected from a doctor’s office! Thank you to the office of Leslie Eisner,

MD for agreeing to help me save my most needed sense! And 1,000 “Boo’s” to the Southwestern Eye Center for not wanting to put in the effort!UPDATE: Just an hour ago I was called by this office, on an “outside line” that didn’t exist this morning to CONFIRM an appointment for tomorrow.

This is the same appointment that needed an authorization which my insurer agreed to do by phone due to time constraints. But there was no “outside line” available to get the authorization! I’m really confused…..

Is Southwestern Eye Center a legit?

Southwestern Eye Center is not running a legit business. They are not aggressive towards customer satisfaction and complaint grievance redressal, Hence 30 consumer[s] submitted negative ratings, and only a few left positive feedback.

Where is Southwestern Eye Center located?

Southwestern Eye Center is headquarted at East Bell Road 4921 AZ US. You can contact Southwestern Eye Center by dialing (602) 787-9100 or visit their website sweye.com.

How much monetary loss is incurred by Southwestern Eye Center’s customers?

According to Southwestern Eye Center’s customers, a monetary loss of US $600 has been reported. The severity of entire incident reports is high.

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30 Reviews on Southwestern Eye Center

  1. I'm so mad at them!

    I will never go again! Worst service I ever had. I emailed them 4 times to order contact lenses and I had some questions about billing so i called and when i did they never got back to me! Then I tried to get onto my patient portal and they deleted it! I’m so mad at them!

  2. Dr Owens is the best!

    Dr Owens is the best! My dad has been seeing her for many years and she’s always given him great success with his eyes. He has Glaucoma and had his cataracts removed. Both treated and continues treatment…never disappointed.

    Since my dad has done well of course, thinking my eyes are changing with age, I just started with Dr Owens and couldn’t be happier!

    Dr Owens and her staff are so, so nice and true professionals. They took their time with me, never feeling rushed. Explaining in detail the things I did not know/ had questions.

    I recommend Dr Ownens & Southwest Eye Center 100% ! Very happy with everyone and everything…they all made my first experience super pleasant. Thank you

  3. Great Service Provide

    I love this office they are very friendly clean knowledgeable and super easy to work with

  4. NOT recommended.

    Dr. Pfister performed pterygium surgery on my left eye about 6 years ago. It was suppose to be routine and he kept telling me on follow ups that everything was fine. After a year of follow ups and vision that made me legally blind in my left eye,

    I sought the advise of other doctors. None of them could believe how bad my eye was after the surgery. I ended up having 7 more operations including an corneal transplant! Stay away from this doctor.

  5. I would not recommend this place to anyone I know.

    ! She seemed to be very defensive about Botox, probably because she makes a good deal of money from it. She refused to admit my symptoms could be from the toxin even though it clearly states this on the Black Label warning that is on the product.

    So either she doesn’t read the warning labels on the products she injects into people or she lies to her patients. I would not recommend this place to anyone I know.

  6. she has horrible bed side manner but the worst part is that she failed at doing the surgery correctly.

    she has horrible bed side manner but the worst part is that she failed at doing the surgery correctly. When she sent me home she told me there were no after care instructions, just to keep the area clean. Well…..my eyelid never properly healed, never became flat, and the stye ended up spreading to my other eye.

  7. The front desk staff are very disorganized.

    The front desk staff are very disorganized. At our visits we were “lost track of” each time. That was their words not ours. The front desk staff would resort to Spanish between themselves after dealing with a patient that seemed to be frustrated or confused. It was pretty clear they were not talking kindly about the patient. Their behavior makes us not want to return.

  8. Very Bad

    After they gave me anesthesia they proceeded to wheel me into the operating room….there was a delay after anesthesia as the Doctor was taking a break, so was wheeled out and waiting on him to return.

    Apparently it was too long a break as when he started to started to cut my eye, there was Extreme Stinging in my eye and I was Definitely feeling the scalpel! When I screamed out they gave me more anesthesia and instead of an apology I was yelled at for moving my eye and not focusing on the light!

  9. Stay away from this place!

    Stay away from this place! This company has the worst customer service and the doctor I saw (Dr. Garcia) had absolutely NO bedside manner, did not want to answer any of my questions, and ultimately did not know what she was doing. I went in for a routine lancing on a stye.

    This had been my first time getting a stye and Dr. Garcia assured me it was a routine procedure and I would be fully recovered by tomorrow. First of all, she DIDN’T even tell me when she was going to stick a needle in my eye and was agitated when I flinched. Now, she has horrible bed side manner but the worst part is that she failed at doing the surgery correctly. When she sent me home she told me there were no after care instructions, just to keep the area clean.

  10. I will never go back to southwest eye again!

    I got a call from a collection agency for a $79.00 charge for SW Eye. I said I never received a bill. I went to them 6 mos ago. Not knowing if this was a scam I tried calling SWE every day for 2 weeks and waisted hours of my time going through a loop of press 1, press 4 only to never get a person and get put on hold. I moved further away and am not able to get to them during their hours of operations. So I got another call from the collector and said I still haven’t received the bill,

    turns out they were sending it to the wrong city and zip code. So I finally got some computer printout and tried calling SWE to pay the nominal charge and because I don’t know my acct number I kept pressing star and it would throw me back thru the same loop of press this. No one ever answers the phone. I will never go back to southwest eye again!

  11. I went to Southwestern Eye Center for the first time to discuss my cataracts.

    I went to Southwestern Eye Center for the first time to discuss my cataracts. The front office staff and the tech Kyle were great. Then I was taken into the room where Dr. Campion would come to see me. He has the worst professional manner.

    He did not greet by name, did not ask how I was doing, did not explain anything about what he was doing, and did not explain all of my options. He asked if I would want glasses for reading or for distance after the surgery. He was abrupt with his assistant, Molly, and treated her like she was his to order around.

    I have scheduled by surgery but after considering overnight, I will be cancelling this surgery and find somewhere else where the Dr is willing to talk to me. The technician, Kyle, spent quite a bit of time and did ALL of the testing. Dr. Campion was in and out in less than 5 minutes. I want someone taking care of my eyes that actually takes the time to have a conversation with me.

  12. I have never given a poor review in my life.

    I have never given a poor review in my life. Things happen, and people make mistakes. My left eye was to be completed first. All paperwork and prior exams were done. During the surgery to remove a cataract, I sat up and started to move off the table. Unfortunately,

    the scalpel went into my eye.
    My records clearly show I have Narcolepsy, and see a Sleep Specialist
    monthly. All I remember of the surgery is hearing the Dr. scream at me, and
    I obeyed. In the recovery room, he came in and apologized for screaming at me. He stated ” I failed to read your pre-op and did not realize you are a
    Narcoleptic.

  13. I will definitely go back and I am requesting Dr. Owens to be my primary Optometrist.

    Dr. Owens is very friendly and easy to talk to. She made me feel comfortable during my visit even though I was initially worried to have my eyes checked.

    She is very knowledgeable and explained everything to me that I needed to understand, which put my mind at ease. I will definitely go back and I am requesting Dr. Owens to be my primary Optometrist. ????

  14. I believe that this organization is trying to take advantage of older customers who will pay any bill without questioning it.

    When I first went in for an annual eye exam, they tried to give me a medical exam at increased cost. I then went home and rescheduled again for the annual eye exam. It went okay that time, except that the in-house facility that they sent me to for contacts would not order the contacts unless I agreed to pay the full cost regardless of the result of the insurance claim (I told them that I would only pay the difference between what they charged for the contacts ad what the insurance agreed to pay).

    My insurance paid the cost (less my co-payment) for the exam. A month later the Eye Center billed me (without first billing the insurance) for $125 for contact fitting which I did not request and for which I do not have contacts to be fitted (see above). I believe that this organization is trying to take advantage of older customers who will pay any bill without questioning it.

    1. Business DESIGNED to take advantage of elderly who will just pay any bill!

      I SOOOO agree with your review Earl! Thank you for submitting it ~ maybe some of the other elderly people will wake up and question their billings. In my own case, after Medicare paid for my cataract surgery ~ I got a bill for an additional $500 for “the theatre” (the operating room) and the surgeon. I called them and raised holy dust and asked them to explain to me how the bill Medicare paid for the surgery did not cover the operating room and the surgeon? There could have been no surgery (which Medicare paid for) without those two!

  15. I would Never go back again!!!

    I have Never had to give a surgeon a bad review and I have had many surgeries…hip replacements, shoulder replacement and back surgery. My surgeons did excellent jobs! The surgeries went well and the results were good. One happy reflections is the fact that At No Time during the surgeries did I wake up or feel pain while they were performing the surgery!! That is no longer the case! .

    I had cataract surgery on the 13th of August, Dr Pfister performed this surgery, I was not worried as he did a previous surgery on the other eye with no problems. Well, this one was definitely different!! After they gave me anesthesia they proceeded to wheel me into the operating room….there was a delay after anesthesia as the Doctor was taking a break, so was wheeled out and waiting on him to return. Apparently it was too long a break as when he started to started to cut my eye, there was Extreme Stinging in my eye and I was Definitely feeling the scalpel!

    When I screamed out they gave me more anesthesia and instead of an apology I was yelled at for moving my eye and not focusing on the light!! The whole experience was traumatizing!! Not saying don’t go there……just make sure they don’t do this to you!!! So glad this was my second eye, as I would Never go back again!!!

Reviews: 30
Reported Loss : 600 $
Severity : High
Reported by : Anonymous
Views :