All Vision Centers Aren’t Created Equal
Greeting: John Doe
E-mail Address: john@doe.com
Home Phone: xxx-xxx-xxxx
Comment: Dear Dr. Chynn
Q: I am that skeptical guy that was at your office this Wednesday.
I spoke again with DV and found out that they also use Visx Wavescan Customview laser.
A: Yes, but the same equipment by inferior operators yields an inferior result:)
Q: I realize you do a LASEK procedure which replaces the epithelial tissue back on the eye after the laser correction. DV vision does only PRK which does not attempt to put back my epithelial layer.
A: I performed my last PRK over a decade ago, just to show you how out of date this procedure is. I am willing to go on record stating that any MD performing a PRK in 2009 is basically out-of-date, as any surgeon who is a true refractive specialist (and completed a Refractive Fellowship) is NOT performing PRKs anymore, but Advanced Surface Ablations (LASEK or epiLASEK).
PRK is an archaic procedure compared to LASEK, and results in significantly more pain and inflammation, and this makes the chances of scarring 10x higher. So I would not perform a PRK on my dog (actually, that’s a bad analogy, as I love my dog)!:)
No reflection on the men and woman of the armed forces but Dr. S used to work for the air force and performed many PRK procedures, as those are standard in the military even today.
Just so you’re clear, the military is always rather backward in performing and approving refractive surgery, because it is part of the government, and the as such moves incredibly slowly in terms of approving procedures. Basically, all procedures are used successfully on millions of people for a decade before the military “approves” it. So I would not think of our millitary as any type of “gold standard” or on the “cutting edge” when it comes to refractive (or any other type) of surgical procedure.
Q: What truly is the difference that makes my decision difficult is that the PRK at DV costs $2600 for both eyes. Half of the price, and seemingly no distinction between the surgeons.
A: I beg to differ. Dr. X did not receive degrees from any Ivy League school, as far as I am aware, much less 3 (Dartmouth, Columbia, Harvard).
You also probably don’t know that DV was caught by CBS News TV hidden camera for multiple unethical practices (see the video on my website).
I’m sure they also didn’t tell you that Dr. X is actually a resident of Georgia, and they pay him to fly up 1 day a week to be their “shooter” (their term, not mine) to save $. Because any surgeon is worth a minimum of $250,000 per year, which works out to $50,000 per day. So they just cheap out and use him 1 day a week, so they save $200,000 per year–and can thus charge “rock bottom” prices.
The only problem is that Dr. X will not be performing any of your pre or postop care, will not be doing any of the tests or supervising them that are being used to calculate your treatment, and will not even be in the state, should you have a postop complication. All of this will be done by some “tech” or OD–unlike at my center, where this is all done by me or one of my MDs (who actually went to medical school).
Q: I do value your opinion, and again thank you for the time and education.
Info: –
A: Basically, you get what you pay for. The only way I could match DV’s prices, since we are both in NYC, would be to do some crazy stuff that they (and other centers) in NYC do, like:
- Fire all my MDs and replace them with cheaper ODs or “techs” (one of my secretaries actually quit and got a job as a “tech” at an office across town, meaning that the educational level that I require for my front desk staff is equivalent to what other centers require from the people they stick in a white coat and call a “tech”)
- Not wear gloves in the OR (yes, strange but true), many centers in NYC do not use gloves (I’m not saying DV does this, but I know others do), because they cost $1 each, and it’s much cheaper to just put some hand sterilizer or similar crap on their hands and go operate–we, on the other hand, actually treat our OR like a sterile facility, and use sterile (not cheaper non-sterile gloves). Of course, you the patient are totally unaware of such important distinctions. needless to say, if they skimp on gloves, who knows what they are doing with their sterilizer (we have the most expensive of everything, including our sterilizer, but I could have saved $100,000 and bought the cheapest of everything–since you wouldn’t be able to figure this out, anyway, what difference would it make? I mean, what difference, other than PATIENT SAFETY)
I could list 10 other similar (disturbing) things, but am not so psyched to do so, as that would probably buy me a suit by a competitor, which would be dropped as meritless since i’m telling the truth, but defending even a meritless suit costs the same amount of money
In summary, you can do whatever you want, I’m making plenty of $ now, have done over 13,000 procedures, and am not dying to do 13,001
BUT it does bother me is when people conclude erroneously “well, they’re charging less for the same thing, so I’ll just go to them”
If you want a more painful, risky procedure, with your testing done by non-MDs, and your post-ops done by non-MDs, and your surgery done by a MD who is flying in for the day, in exchange for saving a few hundred $, then I guess that’s your decision
All I can say that if it were my eyes (and I was the 1st LASIK surgeon in NYC to get LASIK himself), I would pay a bit more to have a more advanced technique (10 years more advanced, in fact), the testing used to decide on what numbers to shoot by MDs, and the surgery performed by a surgeon who completed a Refractive Fellowship, and will actually be in the same state afterwards to deal with any potential problems.
Oh, we’re not even more expensive in the end, by the way, because if you refer patients to DV, they’ll give you 2 movie tickets or some such bs, whereas we’ll give you $1000 (if you didn’t receive any other discounts), so you’re surgery will actually be the SAME price by us as by them if you are our average patient (who refers 1 friend), and if you are above average and refer 2, our better safer surgery will be LESS than theirs, and we have actually had people refer enough people to make their surgery FREE
Anyway, this rather long answer is being ccd to my PR people, so hopefully they can get the word out, so people stop making the WRONG choice for LESS SAFE procedures by less qualified MDs, all in a misguided attempt to save $ (which they won’t wind up saving anyway, which is even more sad)
Good luck and Good health, and I wish you the best regardless of where you go.
Yours,
–
Emil William Chynn, MD FACS MBA
Dartmouth + Columbia + Harvard + Emory + NYU-trained
1st surgeon in NYC to have LASIK!
10,000 cases - 100% Legal To Drive!
Member FACS, AAO, ASCRS, MENSA
