The LASIK Vision Institute

Bottom line up front: the Lasik Vision Institute in Virginia Beach corrected my vision to ²⁰⁄₁₅. Even so, I would NEVER recommend them.
Positive things about LVI: The office staff, the techs and the optometrist, are fantastic. They are skilled in their work and genuinely care about their patients. They do a great job and I appreciated each and every one of them. Additionally, the cost of the procedure at LVI is considerably less than 3 other practices in my area that I compared.
Negative things about LVI: They are all about high pressure sales. They do not deliver what they advertise on television. The patient has very little interaction with the surgeon.
Specifics of my experience: I had radial keratotomy in 1989, which makes me somewhat of an unusual patient. My only option for corrective surgery was PRK. At the first visit I had a brief exam by one of the technicians, and met with the business manager, Belinda. At no time during my initial visit did I consult with an Ophthalmologist. Note: their television advertisements clearly state «YOU AND YOUR SURGEON WILL CHOOSE THE BEST OPTION FOR YOU». Belinda has a quota. She needs to «book» a certain number of «eyes» each day to meet profit goals. So, I assume then, that the lengthy discussion she and I had about which surgeon would do my surgery had far more to do with how many patients she had booked on that day, rather than with how well my needs matched the skill of my surgeon. Further, there is pressure to buy the «Lifetime Assurance Plan» and the «Silicone Plugs» — both of which can be had for the low, low price of $ 100 per eye (discounted from $ 400 per eye) if you sign today!
On the day of my surgery, I took the optional valium for relaxation prior to the surgery. I am not a regular valium user, and had no idea how it would affect me. I was absolutely LOOPED by the time I went back for my procedure. This is the first time I have met the surgeon. He doesn’t review the procedure — no «time out» to make sure I am the right patient and we are doing the right surgery, no review of my history, just «get on the table so I can get this s**t done!» Then, apparently, he gave ME (the looped one) my prescription for pain meds. Apparently I stuck it in the pocket of my vest (I have no recall of this). After the very short procedure, I was marched through the assembly line to be dismissed. My husband was with me to drive me home. No one told him anything about what to expect in the next few hours, nor did they mention an Rx that should be filled for pain meds. Once the valium wore off, I was in excruciating pain. I called the office the next morning saying that I was in pain and was having excessive tearing. Tears were pouring out of my eyes like a waterfall. The pain was like nothing I have ever experienced. I made several calls to the office that day, finally, on my last call, a few minutes before their closing time, sweet, Marquita (the tech) said, «aren’t you taking your pain meds?» WHAT PAIN MEDS???, I said! Once we finally realized that the surgeon who, according to Belinda, «likes to hand the pain med Rx to the patient» (WTF?) had given ME the Rx for pain med, my husband found the Rx, and filled it. That provided relief and I was in moderate pain for the next 3 days.
On my first follow up visit with the Optometrist (not the surgeon), Dr Brown, she puts up the eye chart and says «tell me what you see». I can’t see anything. NOT ONE SINGLE LETTER. I’m thinking I have just made the biggest mistake of my life. Dr Brown was very comforting. She explained that «sometimes» PRK takes a while to heal. Eventually, my left eye came around, and I wore a single contact lens in my right. The «Assurance Lifetime Plan» gives you 6 visits post-​surgery for a PRK — I think I used all of them in my first 90 days. At the end of this entire story, I am ²⁰⁄₁₅. BUT I WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND THIS PLACE!!! WHY??? Because despite the amazing staff like Dr Brown and Marquita, the patient is never exposed to the surgeon, and that is just plain dangerous. These are you eyes, people! If you are in your 20’s or 30’s and you need a minor correction, maybe it’s a good fiscal decision. But unless you can be ABSOLUTELY SURE that you will not have a complication, I think it’s worth the 20% more that you will pay to go to a «real» practice. I cannot express the anxiety that I felt for the 90 days from the time of my surgery to the time I was «released» by Dr Brown… it’s simply not worth the amount of money that I saved by going to this place instead of a more reputable, local practice.
I feel extremely fortunate for by the grace of God and some good luck to have had a good outcome. If you are considering this place for your procedure, I will say please choose wisely. There are certainly a few of you who, with limited complications, might breeze by… but is it worth the risk? If I had it to do over again, I’d never go here.

Just had my 6 month exam ²⁰⁄₁₅ vision. Having PRK done was the best decision. The staff is awesome here.

I had LASIK surgery at the LASIK Vision Institute in Virginia Beach and it was well worth it. They helped me finance the surgery and now my vision is sharper than ever before. It’s like going from regular TV to high definition in 10 minutes. I was surprised by the negative reviews that I read. Perhaps the facility those people went to was not as professional, or they did not follow proper post op procedures. Either way, my surgery was a great success and worth every penny!

I did not have a good experience with my Lasik consultation here. When I decided I wanted to get Lasik, I scheduled consultation with three local providers and The Lasik Vision Institute really came in last in all categories.
First, you won’t speak to the surgeon during your consultation because the surgeon is not full time at this location and they fly in for surgery days. This probably would not affect results but it is not as comforting.
The biggest drawback of this practice is that they do not offer «all laser Lasik» where the flap is created by a laser instead of a microkeratome (blade). While other providers have phased out this outdated technology 10+ years ago, it is still in use here.
Lasik Vision institute recommended PRK for me, which is in direct contrast to the opinions of two other local surgeons who said I was an excellent candidate for all laser Lasik. My understanding is that either may work well, and their doctors are typically more comfortable and do more PRK, so that is what they recommend more often. Well, PRK has a significantly longer recovery time than Lasik, so I think that you are simply not getting the best available care if they are basing their recommendations on their personal preferences. They also may have based their recommendation for PRK on my questions, since I pointed out to them that they are using technology that others phased out years ago.
Additionally, the pricing here is somewhat deceptive. They offer a low intro price on their groupon, but that is for the most basic service offerings only and once you get there, the rest of the add-​ons are explained. Adding their custom view technology was approx $ 1000, which other doctors seem to include in the base price. My total cost was within $ 200 of the other doctor’s quotes, so I would not recommend coming here just based on price.
Finally, their corporate office has called me three times since I turned down their service to ask why. The one time I was able to answer my phone I explained the above to them and they simply repeated their script about how they have «the latest Lasik technology» while providing no evidence to back it up and brushing over the fact that they still use a blade to create the flap. The other times they have left me a voicemail asking to return their call and when I do so, there is no way to reach the same person who actually called me, and it just patches through to their hotline as if I was a new patient. Super annoying!
Bottom line is that if you want the best available technology and a recommendation that is not based on personal bias, I would look elsewhere for Lasik.

Apparently my review didn’t count enough for this site to add it to the actual page. I have to make it look more like an angry consumer. Well, glad to say, I got what I paid for here… LVI is good to go in my book. My review is able to be seen with the other hidden reviews down below.

My husband had his eye surgery here, and we really regret the choice! They had to abort the surgery on one eye because the surgeon tore the flap. When he was recovering, she didn’t ven bother to come in to speak with him personally to see if he had any questions, but simply left for the day. The opthamologist was a complete imbecile, and kept talking herself in circles without directly answering our most pressing question — is there permanent damage?! The opthamologist also misdocumented his file at least twice — once by writing down a test he had taken in his file, when he never took the test because they dialated his eyes too early and invalidated the test. Then on another are of the file she wrote down that he wanted the mono-​vision surgery, and in another section circled «no» to monovision — this quack is a malpractice suit waiting to happen. We will see what happens in the follow ups, but now we are not happy campers!!!