Wilmer Eye Institute At Johns Hopkins

I can’t say enough good things about the Wilmer Eye Institute. I went to the location at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. It was easy to make an appointment with my preferred physician who was recommended to me by a friend. My initial appointment was with Dr. Campochiaro, who is a retina specialist. That place is like a well oiled machine. There are lots of people in the waiting room, which made me think I was going to have to wait a long time, but I think it was less than 10 minutes before I was in a chair being seen by an assistant who put drops in my eye to ready me for the doctor. Dr. C’s fellow diagnosed me with a nevus on my retina which was the first time anyone ever told me that I had it. Dr. C came in, listened, looked at my eyes, then got on the phone to an anterior eye surgeon, Dr. Gottsch and asked if Dr. G could squeeze me in that day, which he did. In the meantime, Dr. C sent me to have photos taken of the back of my eye. Again, the waiting room looked full, but I waited less than 5 minutes. I didn’t even wait very long to see Dr. G, even though I didn’t have an appointment. Surgery scheduling was a breeze and my surgery was just 2 weeks later. Everything went very smoothly with the surgery. I am a registered nurse, so I notice lots of things about health care environments. Everyone seems to be very competent. Everything is very clean.
My second surgery, just one month later, was done by Dr. Fasika Woreta, rather than Dr. Gottsch, because he retired from surgery. I liked Dr. Woreta even more! She explained everything, gave options with pros and cons of alternatives. She has an office in downtown Bethesda and one in Baltimore at Johns Hopkins. I had posterior subcapsular cataracts. Dr. Woreta operated on my right eye yesterday. While my vision is now great in both eyes, I had less discomfort and could see much sooner out of the right eye. I think she used more modern techniques. I woke up this morning, took off the bandage and my vision is almost perfect. I’ve been crying all morning at the miracle of it all.

TERRIBLE. I have lost 150.00 on a prescription that I cannot wear! I had previously seen Dr. Michelle Hessen, but her schedule was completely packed (and for good reason!!) so I had to see Dr. Kimberly Williams Bolar. After I got my new prescription, I noticed two things– the prescription was off, AND Wilmer Optical changed the type of anti-​reflective coating used on the lenses. I could not wear the glasses. I had to go back to the same doctor to be able to get a free prescription adjustment at Wilmer Optical. Dr. Williams Bolar spend a long time trying to adjust my prescription, and I hoped that it she had finally gotten in right. But, no, the new prescription is just a terrible as the other. AND, Wilmer Optical did not save my original lenses, so now I have a COMPLETELY useless pair of glasses, I wasted a lot of my time, and 150.00. And the best they can say, is, well, you knew you could only get one free adjustment. Johns Hopkins is quickly becoming the BIGGEST let-​down when it comes to patient care.

I have monocular vision and I had people tell me to go John Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute for help given my vision condition. In 2007, I suddenly went blind in my left eye and have never had the vision return.
I was hoping that the reputation of this place would provide some insight into what happened, but I have only had a mixed bag of results. The last two doctors got into a verbal argument when one of the doctor’s was being dismissive of some of the potential reasons for the blindness in my left eye and continued problems with my right eye.
I was clinically diagnosed with Lyme disease, 2009, about 2 years after I went blind in my left eye. The vision along with other symptoms/​issues only began to get better with antibiotic treatment.
There is one doctor in particular who has been terribly unsupportive and his name is Dr. Eric Lowell Singman, M.D., Ph.D. I never knew until recently that there are programs and doctors to help people with low vision, monocular in my case, and Dr. Singman never mentioned this to me despite the fact I have had significant issues which included maintaining my employment which he refused to help me with and finding help for learning how to live with monocular vision. He just could not be bothered and he never referred me to any low vision physician or organization that does help people like me.
For this reason and fact I have seen a number of eye doctors at Wilmer Eye Institute, I would have to not recommend Wilmer for those who have truly novel and complicated vision problems such as mine. You will me not be well served and Dr. Singman could have cared less about my vision problems. He even subtly suggested I go elsewhere and stop coming to Wilmer Eye Institute. Hopefully, I will be able to find a low vision specialist elsewhere who will be able to help my with my vision problems.

I sought a second opinion with Dr. Repka at Johns Hopkins after having a mediocre experience with my daughter’s pediatric ophthalmologist in York, PA (where I lived before moving to CA last year). It’s only a 25 – 30 minute drive south to the Wilmer Eye Institute and our experience with him was phenomenal.
The wait time was never long, 10 – 15 minutes max, which was important when bringing a one-​year-​old in for appointments. They have a separate waiting area for kids with toys and books, and all of the nurses and Dr. Repka have an excellent rapport with kids — not just my daughter, but her big brother (who was 5 at the time and worried about his little sister’s upcoming surgery).
Dr. Repka immediately affirmed that my daughter needed to have surgery and scheduled her a few weeks out. He was very reassuring to all of us as we approached the surgery and especially the morning of, when we had to be at JH’s surgery center downtown. Both parents and big brother were allowed to wait with her in the pre-​op area prior to the surgery.
The surgery was successful and we had three great follow-​up appointments. At the time of the third appointment, we told Dr. Repka we were moving to San Diego and he referred us to several of his colleagues for continued care.
I just wanted my daughter to have the best care possible, and was very glad I made the decision to see Dr. Repka. There is not one thing I would change about the experience with this doctor or the Wilmer Eye Institute.

My daughter has the rarest form of glaucoma that has been diagnosed. She is the 3^rd patient… ever. She has been a patient for the last 12 years, since she was 5.
We just had her appointment last Friday. The admission line is a fiasco, whoever came up with this admission method probably invented the soup sandwich.
But once you get to the waiting room the staff is well trained, professional and friendly. We see Dr. Quigley, who is the director for glaucoma services. He is very knowledgeable and always takes the time to make sure my daughter is comfortable.
Her condition is only in one eye; the left for those taking notes. When we first met Dr. Quigley he vision was 20 – 40 in her good eye and 20−600+ in her bad eye. After some study and consideration she underwent surgery to have a Bleb put in her eye. Yup «Bleb». it is a real word; in her case it is a valve that regulates pressure in her eye.
About a year after the surgery the vision in her left eye began to improve. It is now about 20−80ish. She wears glasses and sees pretty good.
So if that is not 5 star worthy I don’t know what is.