Ellis Eye & Laser Medical Center

I’ve been thinking about having lasik for a while and have been shopping around, I saw this number online so I made an appointment at dr. Ellis office in San Francisco. I really like that dr. Ellis is the one that did my surgery, since he’s so experienced. Anyways, I liked the staff there, Nelly my counselor helped me and she was very nice and informative and I had lots of questions! I got my surgery done and I couldn’t be happier with my vision. I can drive at night, see my babies faces and no more broken glasses or forgetting to put on my contacts. I highly recommend this practice. The only thing I wish is that I could’ve had my surgery on a Saturday I had to do it Monday but it was worth it in the end!

I’m writing this review at a point where I’m still «in recovery» from the Wavefront LASIK procedure I had performed by Dr. Ellis at his El Cerrito surgical facility following an initial consultation on Union Street in Cow Hollow, San Francisco.
Dr. Ellis’s practice appears to position itself to prospective patients as the intersection on the axes of price point and years of experience. This is _​not_​a luxury LASIK surgical operation, which was fine with me. The less money spent on personnel who doubled as models and facilities draped in mahogany and marble, the more — presumably — focus on patient care and quality medicine. Dr. Ellis has been in this game since the 70s, according to the diplomas and certificates that wallpaper his offices throughout the Bay Area, and patients can certainly benefit from the experience that comes with many thousands of procedures and relatively modern surgical equipment.
The care I received was very «new world;» the waiting room at the office had the same vibe one gets when renewing one’s driver’s license at the DMV. On surgery days, it is a churn-​and-​burn operation in his surgical facility. The care is adequate and accommodating, but once your eyeballs are sliced, there’s a very quick exam and you’re out the door.
I entered Dr. Ellis’s practice for the first time on the day before New Year’s. I was wearing a nearly-​five year old prescription for −1.75÷−2.00 nearsightedness that had migrated from −1.50÷−1÷75 over a period of 15 years, and had moved to −2.25÷−2.50 in the following five. During that entire period and right up until the day before the surgery, I had perfect reading vision to within an inch of the end of my nose. My ability to read 6pt type on a document just a few centimeters from my eyes remained untrammeled, though I knew that I would sacrifice the perfection of my reading vision in exchange for a life without contact lenses. After the surgery, it took several days for my nearsightedness to settle into a position where I could evaluate the status of my reading vision. To within 12″ of my face, my vision remains excellent, but I now require reading glasses for anything closer than that — again a trade-​off I was well prepared to make. What’s disappointed me, however, is that my farsightedness is worse after the surgery than it was, corrected by a nearly five year old contact lens prescription. I’m not entirely sure if my corneas are still in a state of fluctuation following the surgery or if «this is it.» If it is, I’m curious whether or not Dr. Ellis will reshape my corneas again in order to provide me with actual ²⁰⁄₂₀ vision in both of my eyes, because I’m pretty sure that — right now — I don’t have it. The stories about people walking out of LASIK facilities and suddenly having ²⁰⁄₁₅ vision seemed too good to be true and — at least in my case — they actually were.
UPDATE: 10 weeks after the surgery, and my vision is still showing signs of persistent nearsightedness. I need reading glasses for the first time in my life (which I expected), but my night vision is poorer than it was before the surgery (corrected), and my latest vision test indicated a −0.50÷−0.50 deficiency in both eyes. I’m hoping that by my next exam, my vision has balanced out to something closer to 20/​20, but at this point my lens-​corrected vision was far better than my post-​LASIK vision.

I created a Unilocal account just to review my LASIK surgery with Dr. Ellis’ practice, because if you’re anything like me you care a whole lot about your eyes and want to do as much research as possible before going through with LASIK.
The «bad»:
1) Echoing what a lot of people have already commented, LASIK in general is an exercise in business more than it is an exercise in medicine. Dr. Ellis’ office will have a pitch for you, but keep in mind that you will run into this ALMOST EVERYWHERE you go, so it just so happens that these guys have a slightly stronger pitch. (The comment someone else said about the «study» is true; I don’t think there is a study, and that was just an attempt to get you to sign up, so it’s a shame they rely on such sales tactics).
2) My particular experience with Dr. Ellis’ staff was pretty damn good. I do realize other places may have better service (since I went elsewhere as well), but keep in mind that you’re coming here to get your eyes fixed and not necessarily to get pampered! Remember your priorities!
3) Because this is a business, the price they charge you CAN be negotiated, and though this may be a turn-​off, from what I’ve seen a lot of places do this, so don’t sweat this too much.
4) The surgery is actually in El Cerrito, but so what? Driving an extra 45 minutes so you can have great vision for the next 10 or 20 years sounds like a good trade-​off to me.
The good:
1) I can see! (I have slightly better than ²⁰⁄₂₀ vision). Look at the other people’s reviews who give Dr. Ellis’ office 4 or 5 stars, and you’ll see that everyone is in agreement that the guy knows what he is doing. The only people who gave it low stars are those who just judged the place based on service/​accommodations alone.
2) I believe other people’s story that they had bad service, but to be honest my experience couldn’t have been better, so provided you’re not expecting a lounge-​like experience and can put up with the occasional long wait, I think most people will be fine with the process.
I’ve waited nearly two months after my surgery to review Dr. Ellis’ practice because I wanted to give a well-​informed review that took into consideration how well my vision has improved and the follow-​up visits. As a whole, I feel pretty comfortable suggesting this place to other people, and I would still go there if I had to go through the whole experience again. Anyways, I hope this helps!

I would first off like to say that I did not get the procedure done with this office because of the disorganization and rudeness of my sales/​patient consultant. So, this rating is really based on the lasik consultation rather than the surgery.
I went to their San Francisco office in the marina area which surprisingly has a very big hispanic base. I was in the small waiting area with a few families which got crowded pretty quickly and some were wating in the hallway and sitting on the floor. I saw two doctors (one was an assistant, I think, who did the intial consult) and both were very pleasant. This was a very basic office and did not have all the equipment needed for all the measurements needed for a full lasik evaluation (i had been a few other lasik consults plus they told me they didn’t have a cornea thickness reader).
When I went into the office for my sales consulation (where they go over the results from the doctors and give you pricing etc) she kept me sitting for quite a while as she talked with the pharmacy for pills needed for a different patient. I probably shouldn’t have been in the room but she kept apologizing to me and saying she’ll be done very soon. This went for a good 15 to 20 minutes. I had to pick up reading material on the desk to stay occupied since I began to feel awkward (I was able to finish a small magazine). When she was done and off the phone, the discussion went okay. She wasn’t able to answer some of my questions because she wasn’t familiar with the technical parts of the procedure so she called one of Dr. Ellis’ assistants (who was very knowledgable and explained it to me well). After the call, the sales consultant strongly urged for me to pick a surgery date and offered me discounts of $ 4000 if I were to book, in which I said I wasn’t ready yet. This seemed to make her upset. She then put together a folder of sales info for me and tried to brush me out of her office.
The whole appointment was about 3 ½ hours, much longer than it should be but a lot of it was waiting around.
The reason I am writing this review is because the sales consultant called me today to follow up (almost 4 weeks later) to see if I was still interested in the procedure. The call lasted less than a minute but the conversation was pretty unprofessional and it was hard to hear her over her sneezing into the phone. Once I said I wasn’t interested in doing the procedure with her, she hung up without asking why or a courtesy thank you.
Rating of the doctors would be 4/​5, rating for the office staff/​atmosphere would be a 2, and rating for the consultant –2.

Complete scam! They have an ad on the radio talking about «a study» and a new «technology» for those who have been concerned about Lasik before. I call, sign up and show up for the «evaluation». There is no study really, the technology has been around for a few years (not debating its value) — it is just a ploy to get sales lead in the door. The evaluation session was performed professionally but the «counsel» who was there to talk to me about the study was really a used car salesperson. She was unable to really answer any question other than talk about «her experience» and «how great this technology is». What a shame to resort to used car sales techniques when selling health related services. Scam…

I’m having trouble rating them in terms of stars — I wish I could give 2 ratings, a primary rating for the clinical procedure and the outcome of my vision (great — 5 stars!) and one for the service/​operations (room for improvement — 3 stars).
I’ll start with the LASIK procedure itself, as that’s the most important thing. Ellis Eye was recommended to me by a friend who got LASIK there, and I did my research and saw that Dr. Ellis has done thousands of procedures for years. I was still really nervous, as anyone is when it comes to eyeballs.
I actually got EpiLASIK, because my sight is so bad. It’s more invasive than the most common procedure (LASIK), so I required longer recovery time. I didn’t feel a thing during the procedure. Not to say it wasn’t weird. Fortunately they give you Valium beforehand. Dr. Ellis was really nice during the procedure and always let me know what was happening. I would just say prepare yourself for each step of the procedure and try to visualize it. It will be scary to think about, but better than not having a clue of what to expect.
I had to take 5 days off after EpiLASIK. Again, EpiLASIK is very different from the most common procedure, LASIK, where you can often go back to work the next day. They prepared me on what to expect — I experienced sensitivity to light and blurred vision for weeks. Even after that ordeal, I would do it again.
Two months after my procedure, I found out that my recovery exceeded their expectations — I now have ²⁰⁄₂₀ vision, and they had predicted that they would only get me to ²⁰⁄₃₀. I wore glasses or contacts for 15 years and my vision was worse than –10 in both eyes, so this is a dramatic improvement.
In addition to Dr. Ellis, Dr. Chan and Dr. Delacruz are fantastic — really nice and took great care of me in my pre-​op and post-​op appointments.
The price is comparable to what other places charge.
I will say the business side has room for improvement. For example, after my free consultation in San Francisco, my case manager seemed more like a salesperson and was trying to convince me to get the procedure right before a trip to China. Which of course I didn’t do. After that, she was friendly, helpful and responsive.
Twice I’ve been in the waiting room in San Francisco when they’ve run out of chairs. Patients or their family members were sitting on the floor or standing up, and nothing was done to address it.
The actual procedure was in San Jose, and the office staff was really friendly there.
Bottom line — what matters most (the technology, the physicians, and the outcome on your vision) is great. But you may experience some annoyances during visits. Be sure to do your research and be a proactive patient.

This place was terrible. First of all the location is in Corte Madera not in SF. They just moved to this location and they could not be more disorganized. The female doctor was very nice but she agreed that they did not know what they were doing and she would not work at that location ever again. They did not have all the equipment needed to determine if I was a candidate and they did not tell me this until after they had dilated my eyes. Then after the «exam» they told me that I was a candidate and that the could would be $ 2500 cash or $ 4000 on credit and that the actual surgery center was somewhere in the east bay.
Bottom line is that I would never trust these people. They entice you with local ads and low prices and then they try the bait and switch. Never ever trust this company.

I’ve been thinking about doing LASIK for years now, and that desire only intensified after so many people in my life had great results. I made the mistake of going to Ellis Eye for a consultation based on local advertising. Ugh.
I mean, they were nice enough, but it was so hard sell. It was the longest «sit around and wait» appointment ever, and after I had been there for over an hour and only been spoken to for about 15 minutes, I had to leave (and I still ended up with a parking ticket). When I told them I was leaving a woman ran out to tell me very quickly that I was not a good candidate and I would need the more expensive procedure and I could just write a check now and then they could address my concerns and questions later after we made the appointment. Really? Yeah, I don’t think so.
And hey guess what? It turns out that I’m a great candidate after all and I’m getting it done somewhere else.