New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai

My initial visit to the walk in optomalologist center at 310 East 14th Street was pleasant, I expected a waiting period and the admission staff was very efficient and helpful. My follow up appointment wasn't as pleasant, naturally a wait period was understandable; even though I arrived on time. My dismay with the follow up visit was after two optomalologists assessed me and concurred that two eye medications should be prescribed, however, the attending Dr. Patel failed to send the prescription to my pharmacy I reached out the same day to ask that the prescription be sent and was given the run around, one telephone person told me it had been sent, another told me the prescriptions would be sent at the end of the day and the most rude telephone person told me that I can't expect the doctor to stop what she's doing to send a prescription. The horrible part is that my insurance was set to expire the next day. I called the next( the day my insurance was to expire) and the same run around occurred. Now, I haven't the medication needed to help with my condition, which would give insight for my follow up visit in a month. I now have to wait for my new insurance to kick in and start off where I ended; repeating and delaying any progress.

TLDR: Works in a pinch (emergencies/weekend) but otherwise, if you value your time and sanity, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD AVOID AVOID AVOID at all costs. I came in on a Sunday with an emergency eye condition that needed to be addressed ASAP. The doctor did disappear for about 30 min in the middle of my evaluation, but I was in and out of the Clinic in about 2.5 hours, which I considered to be reasonable for an emergent situation on a weekend. When I tried to call the Infirmary from the drugstore because of an issue with my Rx, I called >20 times only to be transferred then disconnected, told "that doctor doesn't work here" (?) or hung up on entirely. This should've been my first clue that there is something deeply wrong with how this facility is run. When I came back the next day at 8am to be seen again about the same issue (the doctor told me to come back the next day if my condition got worse, and it did), I waited three hours to be seen, only for a front desk attendant to tell me it would be an additional 3-4 hours. When I responded in disbelief at the 6-7 hour wait time, and asked her to confirm, she actually smiled at me and started counting the hours I should expect to wait. "12:30, 1:30, 2:30, 3:30." To whoever is running this absolutely shameful excuse for a medical practice in the year 2024: There are many ways to handle the influx of people at your facility. Here are some suggestions, free, from me to you! - Sign them in, take their phone numbers, then call/text them when you are 30 min out from being able to see them - Give them buzzers, Olive Garden style. If you're worried they will steal them, take their credit card for collateral - Post estimated wait times in the lobby. If the (also broken) MTA can do it, so can you! I do not want to diminish the good work the health care workers are doing here, nor the admin staff who manage to remain kind in the face of very difficult obstacles. I believe the doctors - if you are actually lucky enough to see one - are perfectly capable here. HOWEVER, for an urgent care facility to behave so callously and irresponsibly toward folks in their most vulnerable moment - an emergency health care situation involving their most precious asset, their sight - is honestly unconscionable to me. Shame on you for not doing better.

I had an emergency where my eye was very dilated and the other wasn’t. I was seen by an incompetent doctor who was lectured by his supervisor or manager or whoever she was that he was measuring my eye dilation wrong (even though he has three degrees which he made sure to mention to me). He gave me a medicated eye drop without telling me what it was going to do (despite Mount Sinai having a “bill of rights” talking about how the patient has a right to know what’s going on and so on) turns out that eyedrop un-dilated my eyes completely making me blind. And also the clinic was closing for the night, and he wouldn’t let me stay til my vision came back. He also wouldn’t help navigate me out of the hospital. I had to find my way out by holding on to walls and walking very slowly. My phone was also dying because it was an emergency and I didn’t plan on going there and losing my vision entirely and had to find my way home in the middle of the night alone and blind and in the dark in the notoriously dangerous New York City! Anyways they didn’t do anything to fix the problem, I’m still dealing with the issues I had two and a half months ago and yet I’m still having to pay $2K after fighting against this for months, leaving numerous voicemails to no response, calling way too many phone numbers (26 to be exact I have a list) there’s nothing they can do because “they provided a service”. Ok do you call flashing lights in my eyes and laughing at it because it looked funny a service? Worst hospital with the worst doctors with the worst customer service. “New York has the best doctors in the world” okay whatever that’s clearly false.

I accompanied my mother in law to New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai (NYEEI) as a walk in. We was seen here before, so she was not new to the clinic so they had all her information. We arrived before 10am on a wednesday and was seen by an amazing nurse I believe her name was Stacy absolutely amazing, explained and asked questions that pertained to my mother in laws concerns, Stacy also remembered us from over a year ago.. which for such a busy fast paced hospital was refreshing, with that Stacy was super professional and warm at the same time which is not the norm in todays climate. I must say the entire staff was professional. I must include another member of the staff Dr. Patell was so informative and also explained every procedure and every task step by step. we was there for quite a while, but we also was able to get alone done. the bathrooms was clean waiting are was also clean. I actually look forward to accompaning my mom in law to her appointment.

Words cannot express the dysfunctional 3-ring circus that is NYEE; I say this based on a number of visits over the past 3+ years. Take at least a half day off from work for any visit: you will be seen by the doctor at least 1.5 to over 2 hours later than the scheduled appointment time. They may get your insurance information wrong so pay attention. Reception and admin support ranges from friendly to extremely rude and/or incompetent. Billing is opaque and not explained at the beginning. It turns out the doctor is one bill and all imaging and testing is an outpatient hospital bill, with high rates. I had the exact same imaging services at NYU for about $100 with my insurance, but it costs over $600 at NYEE. Had I known this, I wouldn’t have gone through with this appt. I liked the ophthalmologist I saw at NYEE very much, but will not get surgery there, as every step is bound to be a time-consuming headache. JUST WANTED ADD THAT NYEE ASKED ME TO GET IN TOUCH as noted below, so I did. Filled out the form twice and no one got back to me. THEY SIMPLY DON’T CARE.