Chris J Gualtieri, MD

My Opthamologist retired and SOLD my file to this guy. After reviewing his qualifications and range of practice, I decided there was NO WAY I was going there. I asked my primary care physician to make a referral, based on my vision issues. This guy was not among those recommended, so I am taking my business elsewhere. That is not the end of the story, however. In order to get my file for my new doctor, I had to PAY this guy $ 25!!! Remember I NEVER saw him, furthermore everything in that file WAS PAID FOR by me or my insurance. This is an outrageous scam. I believe it shows a lack of business ethics.

I scheduled an eye exam with Dr. Gualtieri because I need glasses or contacts. I was nervous about going to the eye doctor because i have a strong reflex to move away from an object coming toward my eye. He was kind, patient and friendly throughout the exam and he has a gentle touch. I thought he was going to rush because most doctors i know tend to. He did not rush and took all the time we needed. He explained my options for contact lenses when i asked about them. I thought he was excellent — friendly, professional, and very encouraging when i told him i was nervous about being there. He suggested we work together as a team and this put me at ease. I highly recommend Dr. Gualtieri; and his front and back office staff are wonderful too.

So grateful for Dr. Gualtieri, he removed a stye in my left eye with no pain. Thank you so much highly recommend this place, the staff is awesome.

It’s always scary trying a new Botox or filler doctor, especially on your whole face. However, Dr. Gualtieri made me feel at ease and the whole experience was truly amazing! Most places use nurse practitioners, but this doctor personally did my treatments, he made my visit very comfortable, and I got all the results I was looking for, plus some.

Another great eye check up! Thank you Dr. Chris for being the best eye doctor… professional, personable and knowledgeable! your staff is amazing! Dr. Chris is the ONLY doctor that I like going to see! Thanks for helping me SEE!!!
I recommend 150%!

Dr. Gualtieri is an exceptional doctor. He is very knowledgable and professional. He always takes his time to explain things to me and answers any questions I have. His staff is very kind and I enjoy talking to them during my appointments. I highly recommend Dr. Gualtieri. Excellent doctor, staff, and service!

Dr Gualtieri has changed my life… I can see again! I had previously been diagnosed with cataracts, but was told I was not ready to have surgery. Even after almost hitting a pedestrian while driving one night, my previous opthamalogist was just going to send me back to the optometrist to tweak my prescription, which I knew was wrong.
I walked out, texted a friend & she suggested Dr Gualtieri. I had posterior sub capsular cataracts & now after surgery I can see almost perfectly-​in fact better than I can ever remember!
He and his staff are great! Many Thanks!

I am a first year medical student, and I spent the last week shadowing and working with Dr. Gualtieri. In additional to being a great physician, he is also a great teacher, communicator, and educator. He devotes plenty of time to each patient and is always willing to explain things to patients to make sure they understand what is going on. I was able to learn a lot about ophthalmology, and it was clear that he is very experienced in what he does. Would go see him for an eye exam, myself!

My husband and I recently had our annual eye exams and feel very blessed to have Dr. Gualtieri as our eye doctor within our approved insurance medical group. He is very easy going and patient with us. We like the way he explains what is going on with our eye issues and he has proven to be very competent and knowledgeable. The free parking in such a busy location and covenience is really a plus for us seniors.

I was rather disappointed by my experience at Dr. Gualtieri’s office. This is an honest account of how it went… To begin, the parking is unclear and I paid $ 5 to park in a garage a block away only to find out that there is validated parking in the building. Free parking is good news except it would’ve been nice if the girl I made my appointment with had let me know this over the phone, especially since she knew I’d never been and wouldn’t have known any better. When I walked into the office the front desk girl (who will remain nameless) looked less than enthused that I was there. I never once saw her smile during my visit, which is sort of a job requirement in my opinion if you’re going to work the front desk of anything. Anyway, I arrived at 10:50 for my 11:00 appointment. For some reason my name was not on the list of my insurance when she looked it up as part of their routine check-​in process. Which, by the way, isn’t checking insurance something they’re supposed to do before the appointment to avoid these exact situations? Just wondering. Rather than attempting to find out why or take any measures to remedy the situation she literally said, «Well we have to leave here at 12:00 so do you want to reschedule after you’ve figured this out?». My eyes had been giving me a lot of trouble with irritation and redness and I had been anxious to see the doctor. Rescheduling was not a favorable option. I suggested I call my insurance to see what the trouble was and to see if there was a chance they could verify my coverage over the phone. I made the call and in about five minutes it was taken care of. Rescheduling was totally unnecessary. Shortly thereafter I was seen by Dr. Gualtieri’s assistant. She was pleasant enough, nothing bad and nothing stellar. My interaction with Dr. Gualtieri was average, also nothing bad and nothing stellar. The feeling I got from him was that this was routine for him, that he was removed, uninterested, and bored. But he addressed my chief complaint and I suppose that’s enough. After my exam was complete I confusedly asked where I needed to go to try frames on for my new glasses. Dr. Gualtieri said they just moved offices and haven’t gotten that end of things up and running yet so I left with an eyeglass prescription and was instructed to go somewhere else for the frames. I guess this is not a problem, but it would’ve been nice to know before coming to the office so that I was prepared to find frames elsewhere. Perla was the check out girl and finally I saw someone who smiles! She was polite and friendly. I felt sort of bad for her that she works in a bummer of an office and is the only one who seems even mildly happy to be there. Overall, it was not a pleasant experience. This is largely because of the front desk girl’s attitude from the start, but the rest of the experience didn’t do anything to redeem it, either. On the plus side I will say it was clean and the décor is nice. There are pictures on the wall that show Dr. Gualtieri performing eye-​related medical care on people in another country. I give him major props for donating his time, money, and skills to help others. I brought a pair of old glasses hoping they could be donated and his assistant said they could and that Dr. Gualtieri was making a stop at the donation bank that day. This must mean he is involved with philanthropy on a regular basis, so that is awesome. The other stuff, however, has room for improvement.

I have never written a review until now, but just had to after my experience today. I will say that the procedure I went in for was hopefully well taken care of and technically went well for what it was. I had a small fleshy bump burned off my lower eyelid. When I had my consultation with Dr. Gualtieri, he was pleasant, confident, kind and slightly cocky, but that can be a good thing in a surgeon. This morning however, he was very cold, matter of fact and had a horrible bedside manner. Basically a jerk. It wouldn’t hurt to be a little empathetic with a patient who is nervous about having something burned off their eyelid! Maybe it’s old hat to him, but he’s got to realize that it’s not an everyday thing for most people. He wasn’t very professional in manner or in dress, he had a huge hole in the elbow of his dress shirt… really!?! Will not be going back.

I was having a problem w my eye that was starting to scare me. I went to another Dr and there was no improvement and my experience at his office was unpleasant to say the least. Dr Gualtieri was MUCH greater relief. My experience was positive and he put me at ease. I paid cash and only paid 65 $ including the visit and the 2 different drops he gave me there to take home.

I came in as a new patient recently, and I was very satisfied with the level of professionalism and service I received. I will definitely be coming back and will recommend this office to others.

I went to see Dr. Gualtieri for the very first time last week for a problem I was concerned about — fortunately the problem turned out not to be serious. Dr. Gualtieri had a very reassuring, easy, supportive manner that helped me relax. He is thorough, personable and I believe he truly does care about providing the very best in optical medicine. He even made a follow up call to make sure I had received a fax of a prescription I requested — amazing in itself. His staff is very professional, helpful and pleasant as well. I’m so glad I found Dr. Gualtieri.

I have been getting my yearly eye checks for about 9 years now with Dr. G. His front receptionist, Bobbie is straight to the point and does not offer much chit chat. However I have finally cracked her shell and make her smile when I come in. Lisa who works the back office is very friendly. This past visit I was on time and everyone else was running 30 to 45 minutes late. So she took me before the others. That says a lot in my book. Dr. G has a very dry sense of humor and also is straight to the point. He tells you what he is about to do in a monotone voice, don’t take it personally… just a dry type of guy. Also there is FREE valet parking!!! Coolio.

It’s been a while since the other reviews (in 2008) so here is an update on the service. This was my first visit. The building was poorly kept up, dirty elevator and hallway, smoke alarm dinging to get the battery changed. The reception was not «friendly» and the assistant who came to get me did no introduction, just turned around and led me down the hall. I had to ask for her name. I had to ask for her to check my glasses and eyes for any needed updates. She seemed surprised, which seemed strange to me. The Dr was very preoccupied, went thru any information with a sing songy kind of mocking voice. When I commented that he sounded really bored he said «yeah, well I do this 10 times a day.» He dilated my eyes, did tests, again bored telling me what’s what. Then he left and told me to see his asst. She had to go to another room to get a bag for my drops and a pamphlet. When she got back I asked if I could get my eyes undilated. She commented that you couldn’t even see the iris my pupils were so big. I never had to ask for that before. There was no suggestion that I wait a while before driving or that I should wear sunglasses. Very weird. Going outside I couldn’t even see with my sunglasses. All in all this was the most unsatisfactory opthamologist visit ever. He was pretty … unusual.

Dr. G is a great eye doctor. He performed lasik surgery perfectly on my eyes and removed my moms cateracts with no problems whatsoever. Very laid back personality and is willing to listen to any concerns/​questions you have. The receptionist can be somewhat rough, but you only deal with her for like 2 – 3 minutes. His assistant, Vinny, is really nice but somewhat goofy. Overall, the best eye doctor I’ve ever had and seeing as I wore glasses from the time I was 5 til I had the surgery at age 22, I’ve had my fair share of experiences.

Earlier this summer, as recommended by my father, I called to schedule an eye exam for contacts prescription with Dr. Gualtieri.
Over the phone, the receptionist wasn’t very friendly or helpful. When I came in for my appointment, I had waited for a very extended period of time, something like 20 minutes until I was taken in. The assistant was a little nicer.
Then Dr. Gaultieri showed up and performed the basic lens tests on me. He offered me a trial set of contacts to try on, and then dissappeared. I waited not knowing what to do next or where to go.
Eventually some other doctor asked if I needed help. I told him I wasn’t sure but that Dr. Gualtieri was supposedly helping me. They hunted him down and he finally turned up a few minutes later. That was basically the jist of my appointment.
Sometime later in Austin, I had been swimming in a river and a contact popped out which never happens to me (I surf). I called them and ended up having to leave a message only to have my call returned couple days later.
I explained to him my issue and told him I think the fit might be too loose. There was a long almost awkward silence and then he asked, «What do you want me to do about it?**» and, «Sometimes I get miscommunications with my customers and then I am to blame.»
:a w k w a r d:
So, I asked him to switch me to my previous brand and placed an order of contacts through him. But needless to say, I will not be returning to him and wouldn’t necesssarily recommend him myself.
**Let me please state that I have found this response to be at or very near the top of the list of No-No’s in the Customer Service Dept.