I made an appointment with Chippewa Valley Eye Clinic as I needed a new prescription for my contact lenses. Being a college student at the time in Eau Claire, it was much closer for me to see a doctor in Eau Claire than drive home to see my usual doctor. The clinic looked promising from the testimonials on its website, but my actual experience was anything but positive. I should have known from the moment when I called to make the appointment.
When I called I asked if possible for an appointment time in the afternoon. The receptionist told me they had an opening at 2:00 p.m. and I said I'll take it. Then when I was asking her about their office location and confirming the date and time of the appointment she told me, with a confused sounding voice, that my appointment was at 2:30 p.m., not 2:00 p.m. I told her that it wasn't a problem for me to come in half an hour later, so we scheduled it for 2:30 p.m.. Then before she hung up she said we'll see you then at 2:00 p.m. Okay, so is this appointment at 2:00 p.m. or 2:30 p.m.? Which is it? She confirmed it was at 2:30 p.m. and we hung up.
After that debacle on the phone with the receptionist, I hoped my appointment would go much smoother. I arrived 15 minutes before my 2:30 p.m. appointment to turn in the new patient paperwork and to have extra time in case I needed to fill out anything else. By the time I was called back it was 3:05 p.m., more than a half an hour after my scheduled appointment. I understand that doctor's offices sometimes run behind and I tried to remain positive.
The technician I had (unfortunately I do not remember his name) was nice, but he seemed completely exhausted. Then I had the chance to meet with Dr. Chad Vieth for the first time. This is where things went completely south. Dr. Vieth spent more time trying to convince me to get LASIK eye surgery than he did actually examining my eyes. I told him that I would love to get it someday in the future, but as a college student I couldn't afford to get LASIK surgery at this time and that we could talk about the surgery more at a later time in the future. I politely tried to end the conversation, but he kept going on and on and on about getting LASIK surgery. It felt like I was getting sold to by a car salesman rather than seeing an eye doctor.
During the short time that he actually spent examining my eyes, I told Dr. Vieth that when we were going through the different options (Which is better? Option 1 or Option 2?) that things were still a bit blurry for me (I am nearsighted). He said that the options were worse when he increased the power for me, so increasing the power of my prescription would not help with the blurriness.
When Dr. Vieth said that we were done and I can go up to the front desk and order my contacts, I politely asked him for the prescription. He seemed quite offended when I explained to him that as a college student that I was price conscious and I wanted to shop around online for prices. I've ordered contacts for years from walgreens.com with no issues. He give me my prescription along with the prices if I ordered my contacts through their clinic (no surprise walgreens.com was much less expensive). Before I walked out the door, he made sure to remind me, again, to come and talk to him when I was ready to get LASIK surgery. Again with the car salesman behavior.
During the following year I made an appointment at an eye clinic in my hometown. Again, I let the doctor know that when reviewing the different options that things were still a bit blurry. He also said that increasing the power of my prescription would not help, but then he put a different lens in front of my eye. It was night and day difference. The doctor had diagnosed me with astigmatism. Look, I am no optometrist and I don't know if I had astigmatism when I saw Dr. Vieth or if he missed diagnosing me. This appointment with the clinic in my hometown was a year after I saw Dr. Vieth, but it did make me question the level of care I received from Dr. Vieth at Chippewa Valley Eye Clinic.
Between the confusing call to schedule the appointment, the time I spent waiting for my appointment, and the appointment itself I would not recommend Dr. Vieth nor the Chippewa Valley Eye Clinic. Dr. Vieth could have spent time actually getting to know my needs as a patient. A great question related to my eyes that he could have asked was, "How many hours a day do you look at a computer screen?" a question relevant to a student and one that my eye doctor in my hometown asked me. Instead he spent nearly the whole time selling me on LASIK surgery when I told him, as a budget conscious college student, that I couldn't afford the surgery right now, but maybe in the future. I needed a doctor, not a car salesman. There are other optometrists in Eau Claire. I'd recommend going to one of them instead of Chippewa Valley Eye Clinic. read more