Let me start by saying that I have been (had been) a patient at Chesapeake Eye Center for over 16 years. Far longer than the current staff and Doctors now there, I was first a patient of Dr. Smoot, who originally started Chesapeake Eye Center. After Dr. Smoot sold this practice, I remained a patient there. This was apparently a mistake on my part.
Before my recent appointment on 4/11/23, I had 3 appointments at Chesapeake Eye Center over the prior 6 months or so. On each of those appointments, I experienced very long wait times well beyond my scheduled appointment time. In one instance, I waited for approximately 35 minutes before being called from the waiting room. At the next scheduled appointment, I waited almost 45 minutes before being called from the waiting room. And on the 3rd scheduled appointment, it was just a few minutes under an hour before I was called from the waiting room. An HOUR! I was not the only patient to be annoyed by this, but I was the only patient to say something to the staff about it. When I said to the office staff at the counter, "An hour wait? Really? No problem, as long as I can show up an hour late for my next appointment and you'll still see me without any issue. No problem, right?" That was met with an utterly disgusted "Augh!" from a couple of the staff behind the counter. The nerve! How dare I, a mere patient, question the wait times? You know, "US", the paying patients. (aka "Customers")
On my 4/11/23 3:00PM appointment, I was legitimately 15 minutes late due to road construction on Coastal Highway in Ocean City and also on Route 90 on that day. When I arrived, the receptionist at the counter was on the phone with a patient. We acknowledged each other and I sat down in the waiting room. 5 or 6 minutes later the receptionist had finished her call and waved me back up to the counter. My license and insurance cards were copied and the appointment was confirmed. There was no issue with my arrival time. I then went back to my seat in the waiting room. 5 minutes or so later, I was again called back to the receptionists window, but this time by a different office staff member standing behind the first one, and told that my appointment would need to be rescheduled because I was 30 minutes late. I explained that my appointment was at 3:00 PM and it wasn't even 3:30 yet. Furthermore, I arrived at 3:15, not 3:30, so I wasn't 30 minutes late, but only 15 minutes late. Made no difference to this other staff member, my appointment would need to be rescheduled. (You could tell that even the original staff member who had checked me in was very surprised by this, just from the look on her face) Seems pretty clear that this was "payback" for my comment weeks earlier about the ridiculous wait times. So professional.
I declined making another appointment, and asked that the "principle" of the practice (Dr. Jason Yonker) contact me at his convenience, so that I could discuss this with him. I have not heard from him or anyone else at CEC, which speaks volumes about what they really think of their patients. "Rules for thee, but not for me" sums it up pretty well. Remember, THEIR time is valuable, YOURS is (clearly) not. If this is how you are treated with appointments, imagine how you will be treated if there is an issue with the "care" you receive. There are far better options in the area, where they value and appreciate their patients. This is NOT the same level of care and appreciation for patients that Dr. Smoot once provided.
TLDR; Extremely long wait times. Patients treated as if they don't matter. read more
