New York Eye and Ear Infirmary – Urgent Care ENT

«Urgent eye care» but no so urgent… You will love this place if you don’t mind waiting 6 (or more) hours to see a doctor, that won’t have anything important to say anyway. This place truly is like being in a 3^rd world country.

Read the reviews carefully. This place really is a nightmare and the model of the progressive left Obamacare healthcare reform utopia. A disaster.
A red tape nightmare. Grumpy workers. Only 1 doctor on shift. Over 5 hours from the time you walk in and register before treatment actually starts for an eye emergency.
Got here on a Saturday evening, only about 4 people ahead and yet the wait is 5+ hrs.

If you have an urgent eye or ear problem, do not under any circumstances go to the «urgent care» facility at New York Eye and Ear Infirmary. There is nothing urgent about this place. Even with symptoms of a detached retina – a medical emergency that can lead to blindness if not treated immediately – I still had to wait almost four hours to see a doctor. And that’s with a nearly empty waiting room. I can only imagine how long I would’ve had to wait on a busy day.
When I finally got to see a doctor, he gave me a fumbling, uncomfortable examination (I’ve had lots of eye exams before, but this is the first one that was painful), and he completely missed the fact that my retina was torn! He said it was fine. Fortunately, I went to another doctor days later; he spotted the tear immediately and sent me to have emergency laser surgery that day.
Then the hospital waited almost 18 months – yes, 18 months – to send me a bill, which turned out to be wrong, of course. They had neglected to submit the claim to my insurance company, meaning that at this point it was too late to file an insurance claim and I was stuck owing the entire amount, plus they overcharged me by several hundred dollars. Twice I phoned to question my bill (by the way, the phone number for billing inquiries operates exactly four hours a day), twice I was told a supervisor would call me back, and twice I waited in vain for a call.
I had been to NYEEI before, and though my previous visits weren’t quite as horrific as this one, nearly everyone there – from the desk clerks to the doctors – seems to treat patients as if they’re an annoyance. To NYEEI’s credit, eventually they agreed to drop the charges. For that they get one star. But it won’t get me to return.

horrible horrible horrible. i’ve been waiting 5hrs in urgent care. my eyes are in red blood red and burning. at this rate my eye balls are gonna fall out.

DO NOT, as I did, make the mistake of going to the Urgent Care clinic (the one that’s open for 24 hours, after the main clinic closes at 4.30pm) unless your matter is truly urgent ie. your eyeball is hanging on a thread.
I was misdirected here by Callan Lorde clinic («We refer tons of people there! You might have to wait 15 mins») for an eye irritation that had been going on for a week. I soon learned this is called a «chronic condition» not an «urgent condition.»
After 3 hours I was still sitting there — having filled out a sheet here, a page there, a rudimentary «read-​the-​chart» — four different bodies — and astoundingly, this was considered a slow day, with only 3 patients in the waiting room at any one time.
The final insult was the doctor telling me exactly what I knew already from past experience, but could not prescribe a single thing because it is against their policy — you are just an emergency patient with no clear follow through, so no prescriptions for you.
She also me, that even if you DID book into the main clinic, the wait is 4 – 9 hours — mine was considered a quick wait.
Seriously, don’t go here unless it’s a true emergency (e.g. you rip your eyeball apart with the corner of a scalding pop tart in a drunken state at 3am).

On Saturday, June 21,2014, I was experiencing discomfort and pain in my eyes and under my eyelids. I recently had had cataract surgery and so I was extremely worried about the condition of my eyes. I then decided that I should be seen by a doctor ASAP and so I went to the New York Eye and Ear — Urgent Care ENT. early Saturday morning .
What a great experience !!! I was taken care of quickly and with kindness, respect and expertise .It was an awesome experience. Thank you ALL at the Urgent Care. Everyone was so wonderful, I almost didn’t want to leave :).
REPORT CARD
: Medical Staff and Other Personnel (There may have been others that helped me, but these are the ones that I can identify .)

Angelika Niepokoj: Patient Registrar A+++
John McNally: Security A+++
Nickie Marsh: NA A+++
John Mendoza: RN A+++
Luna Xu: MD A+++

Thanks soooooo much!!! You all are great!!!
Linda Brown

My regular ENT, who works out of an office near Wall Street, was on vacation, so the receptionist said brightly, «Go to his affiliated hospital, you can go to Urgent Care at the NY Eye and Ear and be seen by a resident. However, I must warn you that it’s going to be a long wait.»
OK. I was cautious about going, given the large number of negative reviews on Unilocal about the service at the «Eye» portion of the Urgent Care clinic. However, being an eternal optimist, I decided to see if the ENT part of it was any better.
I had strep throat so I thought an ENT Urgent Care clinic would be superior to a generic «Urgent Care». Since the clinic was in Manhattan, that coveted and expensive area that only the very rich or very small could live in (You see I was working with the inferiority complex that is the bane of people who live in the outer boroughs), how bad could it be? I thought.
Um, how about DMV meets soup kitchen bad?
The minute I walked through the door, an old lady with a walker welcomed me. Graciously, I held the door open for her stumbling baby boomer self. She scowled, gazed at my open door with hatred and screamed, «JUST GET OUT OF MY WAY.»
Nice. As it turns out, the clinic is housed in an old, run down building that hasn’t seen an upgrade since the 70s. Immediately I smelled the odor of bureaucracy and confusion. The fact that so many people were around to tell me where to go was a bad sign. («OK, fill out this pink slip with your insurance information. Sit there until they call you. OK, go to the window over there to register. Now wait for two hours in the hope of getting someone to see you.»)
Despite the checked boxes on the pink slip, there is no difference between going to the «outpatient clinic», «ENT clinic» or «Urgent Care ENT.» It’s all the same. Most urgent care offices have one sign in sheet, a form for insurance, and that’s it. Here, you’re shuffled around like someone getting a government check. You fill out one form only to get another, and you have to wait again and again. It’s as if they’re trying to get you to see how much you’ll take before you leave, die or give up.
As a result, everybody around me looked depressed and an air of poverty hung over them. By the time I got my turn at the teller window, I was ready to bolt. «The urgent care actually opens at 1 and then other people may have come in ahead of you, and there’s no guarantee you’ll see the doctor,» the woman at the window said.
Enough! I crumpled up the pink slip, left the soup kitchen (I mean the waiting room) and fled back to Queens, to my local urgent care center. In 15 minutes I got examined in a clean and sane office, got some antibiotics, and went home happy.
Now, maybe in my haste I missed being treated by a resident «superstar» but when it comes to feeling sick, I don’t need to have my immune system lowered by more stress than necessary. And not being a Manhattan resident, I felt no tolerance for putting up with local nonsense. Go Queens!