What To Expect During Your Visit
Technician interview and workup
On a typical visit, after you have completed the registration process, you will be prepared for the doctor’s exam by first seeing the technician, who will:
- Document your eye and general medical history
- Document or update your list of medications and medication allergies
- Check your vision with glasses or contacts if you wear them
- In some cases may place dilating drops in your eyes depending on the doctor’s orders if you are a returning patient
- Perform testing for the doctor’s interpretation if ordered by the doctor. This may include visual field testing, OCT, Photography of the eye, Corneal pachymetry, Corneal topography, Biometry (Click here for a full explanation of all these diagnostic services.)
Doctor’s exam and discussion
After the technician completes the initial data entry and workup, the doctor will:
- Review your eye and medical history
- Review your medication and allergy lists
- Perform an exam of your eye with the slit lamp (clinical microscope), an ophthalmoscope if necessary (device to look at your retina), and appropriate lenses
- Perform tonometry if necessary (check eye pressure) usually with contact tonometer (glowing blue device). Topical anesthetic is necessary for this.
- Perform gonioscopy if necessary (use contact lens prism to look at drain or angle of eye within the eyeball)
- Review and interpret any testing which was performed by the techinicians
- Discuss with you the findings and proposed treatment or recommendations to your referring physician.
- Answer your questions.
Why the wait?
As you can tell, there can be quite a lot to do during your visit, and coordinating all of these tasks for each patient between the physician and technician can challenge any model of efficiency. This is especially true in the setting of multiple patients with several complex eye and general health conditions, some of whom may come in with unexpected problems which require more time to manage.
That said, we will do our best to start your exam as close as possible to your appointment time, but please expect to be with us up to 1-2 hours if you are a returning patient, especially if you are having any testing before seeing the doctor, and 2-3 hours if you are a new patient. Patients coming for procedures including laser procedures can expect a 2-3 hour office stay.
