Our family relied upon Dr Bloomgarden at the Park Ave branch since I was a child, and his smaller…read morefamily oriented practice has been taken over by Dr Krawitz. They have suffered the fate of most medical practices, being forced by the insurance companies to become large corporate conveyer belts that shuttle patients through their doors as quickly as possible. Long gone are the days of developing a trusting relationship with an MD. We discovered that one MD at OCLI sees 80-90 patients PER DAY.
Despite persistent reminder voicemails from Krawitz's office, we were unable to get my mom an appointment with him for 2-1/2 months, so were forced to go to Lens Crafters for an optometrist, only to discover we still needed an Ophthalmologist appointment. OCLI's Garden City call center was more accommodating when I spoke to them than they had been with my mom, and managed to get us in the same day if we were willing to see a different doctor at the Jericho Turnpike location.
There were no parking spots when we arrived and the person ahead of us had to park by the curb along the building. Fortunately someone pulled out and I got the only remaining spot. Inside it was pretty much a zoo. I've never seen so many patients in a doctor's office except the emergency room of the county hospital. The front desk staff were quite nice and helpful, and seemed to be managing the horde quite well. The techs who did intake and some of the testing were a different matter, however. The tall skinny blonde with the high pony tail and the shorter pudgy retinal scan tech really treated us with nothing short of contempt and wouldn't answer any questions. My mom's father had been a physician and she remarked that he would never have allowed his assistants to treat patients like that.
Dr. Breingan, on the other hand, had a wonderful chair-side manner, was very patient and kind, and took time to respond to any questions and concerns we had. Michelle, who was assisting him, was also exceptionally nice and friendly.
In the past, pre-pandemic inflation, Mom had paid $800 for bifocals here, which barely have any frame at all. In California where I live now, the first pair of bifocals are covered for free by insurance, while progressives receive this astronomical pricing. To their credit, OCLI had a sign saying that patients who make a donation to victims in Ukraine will receive a discount on their glasses.
The corporate support and size of the practice means they have an array of the latest most amazing exam equipment, so there are some benefits, I guess. We don't really have much choice where else to go at this point, so are going to have to continue here. The other patients we spoke with while there were also long-time patients, coming from Dr. Bloomgarden's office. They didn't seem to experience the same unfriendly treatment we had.
