South East Eye Fail

My name is Dianna , I'm writing you to complain about the recent service both my children received at South East Eye Specialists in Tallahassee Florida.
Back in mid to late June I called Prestige to ask about what pediatric ophthalmologists in town are covered since our last pediatric ophthalmologist hasn't been able to complete a contract with Prestige. I was referred to James Stephens and John Bell at South East Eye Specials. So I called them to make appointments for my children, my daughter Adeline being 6 and son Ethan was 1 at the time. We had two separate appointments that where easy to make. I made it clear that my son is young but still needs to have his prescription checked. So my daughter was scheduled for an appointment with Stephens for later in September, and my son had an appointment with Bell August 27th.

I got a call the week of August 18th, saying that the office is holding a clinic for medicaid patients to come in and get caught up in appointments in time for school. We then where scheduled for a Saturday 2pm appointment. We got to the office, filled out paperwork for my daughter, I also filled out paperwork for my son since he was going to be seen within 4 days. The beginning was fine of the appointment, I don't know which doctor saw my daughter. The appointment was going alright. I was explaining to the doctor about my daughters history of wearing glasses since we have been going for over three years to get her eyes checked. I was explaining that she had a large jump in her prescription a year ago. The doctor I was talking to then tried to brush off her history claiming that my daughter wasn't in her full prescription. I then tried to tell him that she has been in a full prescription for at least 2 years, and he just ignored me. Then appointment ended shortly after and my daughter got to pick out new glasses. There was a representative from The Hour Glass at the office with glasses for the kids. I've had a family history of eye turning in my family and personally know how to pick out glasses for my child, and the representative just gave her some glasses to look at but wasn't paying attention to how large or small her head is or how the lenses would be on her eyes. To help children at risk of eye turns, when picking out glasses you need to have a pair of glasses where the lenses help center the pupil in center of the lenses. I guess the representative hasn't been fully trained to fit children to glasses, so I picked out the ones that would best work for my daughter. After the glasses, they did not make a follow up appointment to see my daughter, and we left.
After the comment from the doctor on Saturday about not listening to my daughters history, I was a little worried about how my now 2 year old sons appointment was going to go.
On Wednesday, we arrived to the office at 1:40pm for my sons 1:45 appointment. Knowing that I had already filled out his paperwork and gave them a copy of his insurance card and my drivers license. We go to open the door to the office and it is locked. I was shocked, I had checked the time of my appointment and earlier in the day I received a call to confirm the appointment for my son with Robert Assantes. Which was strange since when we had made the appointment over a month and a half earlier we made the appointment with Doctor Bell. I brushed it off, understanding that emergencies happen so that is maybe why he was not going to be able to see my son. So I start knocking on the front door and after a couple minutes of standing outside with my son someone comes up and unlocks the door stating that everyone is out to lunch and don't come back until 2pm. Which was very confusing since that was 15 minutes past the time of a scheduled appointment. About 2:15 we are finally called to the back, the nurse who took us to a room asked me to fill out another set of the same paperwork I filled out Saturday since they couldn't find it. I also had the prescription of the last pair of glasses my son was prescribed. So after 10 minutes of trying to decipher the way a ophthalmologist writes a prescription to how a optometrist writes one, and figuring out something with paperwork she took us to a different to attempt putting him on a machine where he needs to look in a small hole to read his eyes. My son was not having any of that. Then they tried to do a 3D test. Typically these are preformed on older children who have the ability to speak, who know letters and different animals. My son may have a hearing problem and has a speech delay. He knows only a handful of words, and does not speak that often. I tried to tell the nurse that my son just turned 2 and doesn't know his animals. She still tried. The nurse then wanted to dialte my sons eyes, which is fine, we have done this before since my son has been having his eyes checked since he was 6 months old. She asked me to restrain my son by myself so she could try to put the drops in his eyes. This tends to need another nurse to help restrain a small child along with the parent to successfully get the eye drops in. He may have got some of the drops his eyes, since he was flailing while I was trying lay him in my lap and restrain him and hold his head down. Then the wait for the eye drops to kick in which can take 15 to 20 minutes. Then a doctor comes in and greets us. Trying to explain how the appointment was going to go. He asked me if I had anything that his nurse could in the back of the room to try to distract him. My son can barely see 2 feet in front of him, and to try to look at something two inches in size five and a half feet back in a dark room is impossible. I also again am told to completely restrain him by myself, this is actually a three to four person job. The way that the doctor was trying to go through the exams was that of a doctor who doesn't see young children. When my son didn't cooperate with how he was going with the appointment the doctor asked me how the previous doctor preformed the exam I told him that my son would have to be restrained by a few people, while someone held an eye open for them to look at it. The doctor then tried something else asking me to restrain my son, then quit. The doctor asked me how my son was doing at his doctors appointments and I told him that my son may have a possible speech delay and hearing issue. The doctor then asked me if my son was Autistic. I told the doctor no, he asked me again, I reiterated my previous answer of No. The doctor then went on to say that he can't finish the exam, that maybe my son should return once a year for him to acclimate to the office and equipment. That the previous prescription was good for five years even though I stated that his prescription was only one third of his full prescription. Then he stated that the reading the previous doctor got was not correct anyway and probably was a misreading, though he did believe that my son was diffidently near sided(meaning he can't see far away). The doctor explained that he sees people who try to bring in children as early  one and a half years in a mocking way, like you can't diagnose eye problems in children. So he ended the visit. We went up to the check out desk to make another appointment for my son and my daughter since her appointment wasn't made after her appointment, and the staff seemed confused that I'm even asking for another appointment for my son.

My complaint is the complete lack of professionalism of the staff and doctors. For them scheduling my childs appointment before their office was even open, for the constant switch in doctors for who my children where actually going to see. For a doctor to expect my 2 year old son to sit through a exam for a 4 or 5 year old, then when he couldn't that he wanted to say my child is autistic. Then for the doctor to discredit our previous doctors diagnosis because he didn't know how to do an exam on a two year old. He then had the audacity to try to poke fun at parents who are concerned about eye issues with their small children. Then for the doctor to not even acknowledge my daughters history in her glasses. I find this office to be a complete joke and do not trust them to diagnose my children correctly. The staff is not qualified in the lest bit to accurately diagnose children. They are not trained to practice pediatric optometry, and therefore you should not be referring your members to that office.
The doctors in Leon County that have the credentials to see children and correct diagnose them are Francis Skilling, and Brian Sherman. They are the only ones in the county or surrounding counties that properly see children but have not been able to contact Prestige to finish a contract. I've called numerous times asking to talk to someone about what is going on, and they only refer me to a number that the doctors office can call. Which is not helpful since I don't work for that office nor can I take my children there because the visit would not be covered by Prestige. I have now asked for a referral to take my children to a hospital in Jacksonville Florida to be seen by a specialist there since the only qualified Ophthalmologist is two hours away from town.

I understand that my children and I are medicaid patients, on government assistance. I believe that even though that is the case, children should be allowed to have correct care to help prevent having even larger issues. To be told that my 2 year old sons prescription is okay for 5 years is not something someone who is qualified to see children say since a childs eye sight can change within 3 to 6 months.

If anyone has any questions they need to ask me, I would be more than happy to speak with anyone.