Wills Eye Institute

Dr. Carol Shields and her team are really amazing and that’s putting it lightly. They saved my Mom when they found a melanoma in her eye. Dr. Shields sprung right into action mapping it out so she could see the extent of the growth.
I was really blown away by how fast they jumped into action. Dr. Shields was looking at my mom’s eye and called in several staff members to get a look at her eye. It was really inflamed and very red looking. It looked like she had a black eye out was so swollen. They ended up having Dr. Carol Shields come in and take a look at it and she went into action.
Like I said before she and her team started mapping out the melanoma. They had the location of it on the eye to where and the size of it. I have never seen anyone do what she did. She was masterful and really very throughrou.
Afterwards she said that Mom had a melanoma and that she would need to have the surgery immediately to get it out or risk it spreading. She and her team left the room so we could talk about the options, but there was really no choice. Mom had to get it out. She is in the best place in the world for this. It was a bit of a no brainer. You couldn’t find a better place to have this kind of surgery. We told Dr. Shields our decision. Mom was scheduled for surgery the very next day.
We arrived there about 7 in the morning and the room was filled with patients having surgery. The waiting room emptied one by one and at about 11 when they finally called her back to prep for surgery. There is a Wawa just outside of the hospital and it’s a great place to grab a sandwich while you wait.
I didn’t hear anything from them until about 2. Dr. Shields came out and explained that they took the melanoma out and grafted pieces of another eye onto my mom’s eye. She said that the surgery was a complete success and that there were no complications.
She said it would be a 40% chance that she wouldn’t be able to see out of that eye again. Dr. Shields was so good that Mom can see pretty well out that eye. Every year we return for a follow up and we are just forever grateful to Wills Eye Hospital and especially to Dr. Carol Shields. Thanks to her my mom is doing fine and her eye is still doing good.
If you need anything major done on your eye make the trip to Philadelphia. It may just save your eyes. There is no better place than Wills Eye Hospital and Shields and Shields. I’ll be forever grateful.

I visited wills eye emergency room. The nurses were really nice, and very helpful. They advised me to make a follow up appointment with their oculoplastic department on the following Monday. I tried to call the oculoplastic department since Friday, and left messages. I decided to walk in Monday morning, when I told the woman at the front desk my story «Kathy» she was extremely rude and condescending. I definitely will not recommend Wills Eye Oculoplastics Dept.

Had routine cataract surgery in July, December I’m still having problems. Returned every month to address the problem. Different doctors each time with different directive. Expect to spend 3 – 4 hours for routine visit. Last visit 9am appointed arrived 8:30, 11am still haven’t seen a doctor. I complained the doctor suggested I take my business elsewhere. He must think they are the only game in town. Looking for new optometrist.

Let’s put it this way… I had a 1:30 pm follow-​up appointment. It’s 4 pm and I have yet to see a doctor. Never. Again.

Today I went for a follow up visit, recommend from wills eye emergency. I was so disappointed in the front end service they were rude and I was ignored. They did not know how to get a authoriation from my insurance they said I had to do it. I tried and the insurance company got on the phone with them to let them know it was there job (they knew this). They have wonderful doctors in there clinic, I hope they will train there front end and supervisor about customer service, especially this is the medical field. Sad to see such uncaring front end when patients need kind and caring
rating for the front end desk is «-0 «must put a rating to post but I already rated them a –0

Super friendly and efficient staff. I was in and out within two hours. I’m feeling much better after the ointment they prescribed. My eyes are my life. I have sclera like buckles in both eyes, and I am beyond thankful to have this hospital so close by.

I was a little disappointed with my visit here. I came to the resident clinic because they had the first available appointment. If your time is valuable to you, you may want to skip the resident clinic and wait for the next available private office appointment, because you will wait for hours here! And not just an hour or two. You will wait multiple hours — I was here for more than 3 hours, which I found pretty ridiculous.
I also liked the idea of a resident clinic because I thought that 2 doctors (the resident and attending physician) looking at my eyes could be better than one, in case one of the doctors sees something that the other doesn’t. Well, my perception of the resident clinic was a little off, because the attending physician never looked in my eyes, so I only got an opinion by 1 doctor who has only been practicing for a couple years. Oh well.
The front desk staff, medical assistant, and resident who did my exam were very friendly. I was a little taken aback by the attending physician’s attitude, though. I felt he dismissed my concerns, and while I appreciate that he trusts his resident’s exam, I would have liked him to look in my eyes, even briefly, just to make sure the resident didn’t miss anything.

Two hour wait minimum every time. This is so ridiculous. Switching to Penn. There are lots of cornea specialists out there that treat patients with respect but this office is not one of them. There is no excuse for over scheduling like this.

Just called to make an appointment. First I’m waiting on hold for 7 minutes then the woman tells me there are no openings until January 7^th. Ok. I can handle that. What what I can’t deal with is her rude and condescending tone. She literally hung up on me without a word as I was declining and thanking her for her time. If that’s any indication of the service I’ll be getting after waiting a month to be seen, I’ll take my business elsewhere. Thanks!

This was my Second surgery here.
If you have to have eye surgery, this is the place to go. They are the EXPERTS! Very caring and competent.
I’ve been using Scott Goldstein for several years. He’s incredible in every aspect. He’s an amazing doctor and surgeon. Superb bedside manner. His office personnel are amazing too.
Highly recommended.

I had a great experience at Wills/​Corneal Associates for my Lasik surgery last year. My experience began when I called in for a consult. Before that I had scheduled a consult with another local eye «institute,» but found the gentleman with whom I was scheduling to be quite odd, which did not leave me with much confidence about the practice. I then called Corneal Associates within Wills, and was connected with Sarah, the office manager. Sarah was wonderful and explained everything I needed to know before coming in for the consult itself. Already being more comfortable with Wills before I even stepped foot in the door, I cancelled my consult at the first hospital.
The consultation appointment takes some time — I was probably in the office for about 2 hours total — as they do a number of test on your eyes, including vision tests, mapping, photos, pressures, and I’m sure a bunch of other things I didn’t realize when I was looking through various machines. The tests are all performed by a technician. After the testing, the doctor, in my case, Dr. Rapuano, comes in and goes over the tests with you, does his own exam, and explains your options. In my case, I was a candidate for 3 different types of refractive surgery. Dr. Rapuano has been doing refractive surgery since it was in the FDA trials. He was wonderful in explaining the history of the procedure, the differences in the procedures themselves, the risks/​benefits of each, and recovery time for each. I actually ended up opting for a slightly different procedure (epi-​Lasik, rather than Lasik) than I had initially imagined, thanks to Dr. Rapuano’s detailed descriptions.
He answered all of my questions, and took his time with me. I left my consultation feeling confident in my doctor.
I scheduled the procedure for about 6 weeks later due to my schedule. Dr. Rapuano and his entire staff were wonderful during the procedure. I was, of course, quite nervous, but Dr. Rapuano’s sense of calm and confidence really helped settle my nerves. He talked to me during the entire procedure, which also helped. I was in the OR for maybe 15 minutes tops!
Following the procure I had various follow-​up appointments over the course of a year. At each one, the staff was friendly and professional. I almost never had to wait for than 10 – 15 minutes in the waiting room before being called back. I could not have had a better experience with Wills and Dr. Rapuano and thankfully had a wonderful result from my epi-​Lasik surgery.

Got great care for cataract surgery from a technical perspective. The customer service is another story. They assume you have a friend or family member who can stand by to pick you up because you don’t know your pick-​up time till the day before. Their requirements for pre-​op are obsolete and not backed by research. They asked for personal information at a reception desk in front of a room full of people; when I refused, they said, «Oh well, it’s probably in the file anyway» So why ask? There’s no auditory privacy during pre-​op and they ask the same personal questions they ask on your forms *and* at the reception desk. They apparently do not read the information they demand you send ahead of time and they got some of my information wrong; I have no idea how. The waiting rooms are noisy and crowded. However, I was able to find some people in the hospital who were humane and helpful. If you demand what you want and you are reasonable, they will try to work with you. But it’s a battle. I was totally stressed out by the time my surgery began.

So disappointing. I waited three months to get in with a referral to neuroopthomology from my neurologist. I was there for over five hours in which they did two short tests. At that point i had to go back to work so I couldn’t return to the main opth office with any results as i told my workplace i’d be back in two hours (obviously ran over that). I got a nasty phone call for a reschedule the next day, waited over 90 min, saw noone and ended up leaving again w no information as i expected this to be a brief follow up. When i phone the office back they put me on hold for over 10 min (they knew who it was) and then i hung up and called back and they put me on hold again for over 10 min – finally picked up at 11 min 37 seconds holding (so childish).
I’m still having some very serious vision problems. When i called to ask about any test results they told me (in a condescending tone) to get a fax number and send it to them and they would fax results to my doctor. We never really finished my appt. Meanwhile i think i will end up blind in my right eye. Best in the nation? NOT.
If you end up going here, assume well over six hours to complete your appointment and don’t expect a friendly greeting.

On the whole (I have one small quibble I’ll save for later) I was happy with my one experience at Wills Eye.
I walked into their Retina Department with no appointment, a walk-​in, and a first-​time patient. I was having symptoms I feared might be the beginning of a tear in the retina of one eye. I’m also uninsured. They agreed to see me. The people who processed me were courteous and reassuring. Luckily, as it turned out, I did not have a torn retina, but the symptoms were alarming. I’d never had any kinds of eye problems before in my life.
My quibble is about a pet peeve of mine that wasn’t associated with eye care. The doctor I saw rushed into the room, said hello to me in a cursory way, and never made eye contact with me at all until after he’d examined me. As I was getting ready to leave, he handed paperwork to me and said, «This goes to the girls out front.» Hold on. Females who are old enough to have given birth are not «girls.» They’re women. Call them «ladies» if you’re so uncomfortable with calling women women, but I felt that was incredibly degrading to the women who process patients. It left me wondering if the doctor would have failed to make eye contact with a male patient the way he did with me. It just felt dismissive. I’m wavering between a three and a four-​star rating because of it. They need to educate their physicians about addressing patients in a respectful way.

I went here to check out some retinal holes. I was completely freaked out by my eye doctor that my retina was going to detach making my eyeball fall out and me being 50% blind. However, for your information, retinal holes affect 10% of the population, are genetic, and just need to be minded.
The appeasement came from the doctors at Wills Eye. Although I was completely freaked in the waiting room because I was by far the youngest person there, the doctors assured me that my situation was normal, and thankfully not that big of a deal. The best part of my experience was prior to seeing the legit opthamologist, I was seen by a nurse… and could hear the patients who are about as hard of hearing as they are of seeing being untinentionally yelled at by the doctors. «CAN YOU SEE THIS??? TELL ME WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOUR VISION!!!
Anywho — this is one of the best eye specialists in the area. So if you’re referred to them, you’re in good hands!

I’ll keep it short and sweet. If I was not lucky enough to live here, and instead lived some place where people don’t have access to the top retina specialist in the country, I would probably be blind today. Instead, I’m ²⁰⁄₂₀ in both eyes.
And I’ll never whine about long waits to see a specialist again. No one wants to be told that there is an emergency that is causing the doctor to be delayed, but when the emergency was mine, and I heard the complaints, I vowed that I would never forget what an emergency really means to the person going through it.

I’ve had excellent care at Wills Eye, specifically in the Occulo-​Plastics division. I was referred here for an emergency visit and was welcomed warmly by Dr. Joseph Flanagan and Dr. Mary Stefanyszyn. I was seen immediately and squeezed in for a second appointment a few days later. They really took the time to address all of my questions and concerns. I highly recommend Wills Eye Institute.

Our experience with wills eye was very disappointing. My wife and I have been here on three different occasions and have left feeling that the management and staff left us with a lot to desire. The wasted time and lack of office management is extremely frustrating to deal with in today’s society. I am not sure if Wills is resting on its reputation from the past, but I felt like we were in a place that has the same equipment from the 80’s and a support staff from a bad temp agency. When going to a place that has a good reputation you should expect high quality service, not service that makes McDonald’s look like a four star restaurant !

If there’s something going on with your eyes, go to the best. I have a corneal condition, and when I initially went to a local eye hospital, I was made to feel as though I was imagining my problems. I booked an appointment at Wills the next day and never looked back.
The Wills staff is quite friendly and I knew I was in exceptionally good hands with Dr. Hammersmith. She talked me through all my options and explained things so that I could understand them, including several treatment options that had never been discussed by previous doctors.
Have I had to wait in the waiting room prior to an appointment? Sure, but if you’ve ever had an issue with your eyes, you know how NOT FUN it is. If someone is rushed into Wills with an emergency as I’m waiting for my scheduled appointment, by all means, go ahead.

I go for eye exams to the corneal center up on the ninth floor. Due to a unique eye condition, I don’t normally see in three dimensions. Essentially everything is flat and I’ve just grown used to judging distance by how fast things get big (exciting driving indeed).
Now, an eye exam here is very thorough. Plan on 90 minutes. You’ll meet with a pleasant technician who goes through your chart and reviews this and that. Essentially getting everything in order and the basic tests out of the way,
Next, you’ll meet with a ‘fellow’ who does all your basic exam work, dilating, and further exams. Finally, the Senior Doctor gets in there and gives you The Exam.
This exam pretty much encompasses everything just short of removing your eyes and swishing them around in their mouth or reballing them on the counter. You have no doubt when you finally walk out of exactly what condition your eyes are in, what you need to do to keep them healthy (if anything), and any questions you may have had are answered clearly in plain English.
Oh, and how good are they? They were able to prescribe me glasses (yes glasses, not hard lenses or surgery) that gave me ²⁰⁄₂₀ in one eye, ²⁰⁄₁₅ in the other, and dimensionality back. Trust me, everyone who drives in the car with me on a regular basis sends thank you notes to my doctor. I wouldn’t trust anyone else with something as important as my sight, and neither should you.
If they speed up the whole waiting room process, they’ll get 5 stars from me! We’ll see next year when I go back for my checkup.