West Tennesse Eye Care

I’ll start by saying Toyos clinic USED to be good and highly respected. Please save yourself time and find a better ophthalmologist. I went to see Rolando in April for eye pain. He told me I had severe allergies and prescribed me eye drops. Over 2 weeks I continue to have eye pain then eyes became sensitive to light. I called for a f/u appointment. Appointment was about 4 weeks out. Ridiculous. Over that time I started to slowly lose vision in the eye. I called to get a sooner appointment. They moved the appointment up 4 days. During the appointment Dr. Toyos didn’t say much! Really nothing. I was there for 3 hours and he never said the reason for the vision lost. He referred me to Tennessee retina and said that I had an elevated retina. During my retina appointment we concluded that my retina was totally fine. Not elevated at all. The retina doc said that my eye was perfect and dr Toyos basically shoved me in his lap. Retina specialist said I can send to to someone or you can go back to Toyos. Needless to say I went with the retina specialists referral. Stay away from the Toyos clinic.

Toyos is the absolute WORST doctors’ office I have ever dealt with in 65 years! I got a call from them yesterday at 4:00 pm. They said the doctor couldn’t make my appointment for the next day at 8:00 am. This was the FOURTH TIME that they did this to me!! Outrageous! And of course, the doctor doesn’t have any upcoming appointments that would work for me so once again I have to rearrange my life to fit their schedule of not being able to keep their appointments. How can a doctor have their life so disorganized that they have to cancel their own appointments on a regular basis? It’s because their patients don’t matter! Of course this explains why patients have to have such long wait times in the office. It is obviously because I am not the only person who’s having to have their schedules rearranged and appointments rescheduled. The last time I was in there, I had to wait 2 1/2 hours for a 30 second procedure. It can only be because of the fact that they are arranging and rearranging their appointments on a regular basis with their patients. But the worst part of my experience with this clinic is the fact of their dishonest billing practices. I had cataract surgery on both of my eyes. Two months later, I was told that there was a little cloudiness in both of my eyes. This is what the doctor told me and scheduled me for two additional procedures called a “yag”. I didn’t understand it so I asked the nurse. The nurse explained to me that it is normal for there to be a little cloudiness after a cataract surgery so that this is often done to a patient. I was concerned about the cost, and the nurse explained to me that there was no charge because it was all included in the cataract surgery price that I had already paid. She reassured me. I still didn’t quite understand so I called the office the next day and I talked to another lady. She also assured me that this was a normal procedure, most patients did go through this, and that there was no charge for this procedure because it was part of the cataract surgery charge, that I had already paid. A month later I get a bill for $154. Naturally, I called the billing office to inquire and explain to her exactly what I had been told by the nurse and the lady in charge of the phones, that there was no additional cost. The lady in billing said she would check into it and get back with me. I waited 24 hours before calling her back. She said that she was still waiting on an explanation. So I waited ANOTHER 24 hours before calling her back. Obviously, I was not happy that not only had my appointment been canceled and rescheduled, but that she could not get a simple answer to a simple question. She gave me the runaround yet again and told me that the lady that could answer my question had been very busy. I explained to her that it should not take but a few seconds for someone to let her know that there was no charge. Very simple and yet I was getting the runaround. At no point did I curse at her, call her any name, say anything derogatory to this lady. I explained to her that I was upset and that this was unacceptable. I told her I needed an answer and that I wanted the answer now and for her to forward me to someone above her head or someone above the head of whoever lady in the company that they were waiting on to answer my question. I told her I felt like I needed to come up there and speak to them in person and she told me that that might be a good idea to do so, for an answer. At no time did I say anything out of line. I had EVERY right to be frustrated. She hung up on me because she said she didn’t like the fact that I was getting angry with her. A few minutes later, someone else called me and told me that I had better not come up there and hung up on me. So I guess this is their way of dealing with things. Canceling and rescheduling appointments, and being so dishonest with billing patients and just hoping that the patient gets so frustrated by the whole process that they give up, since most of their patients are senior citizens. Mistreating elders, in my personal opinion.

I've been going to Toyos for several years and I'm not sure what has happened but their service and care has significantly decreased. My appt earlier this week was at 4:30. I sat in the waiting room until 5:25 before being called back. The tech who was assigned to me was clearly very new to her role. She repeatedly did things backwards in addition to not providing any communication about what she was attempting to do. She lacked confidence which in turn caused me concern with the calculations/decisions she was making about my eyes. After fiddling with instruments and trying to use tools on me that she wasn't thoroughly trained on, she completed her portion in 20-25 min and told me the Dr would be in shortly. 20 min later, Dr. Melissa Toyos came in and, within 5 min, started trying to sell me on cataract surgery. (I am at the beginning stages - not full blown cataracts.). Since I wouldn't agree to pupil dilation (due to having been there almost 2 hours by that point), she ushered me out to the eyeglass counter and told me to sit in the waiting room. When she walked by a few minutes later, I asked her if we were going to do a contact lens fitting because my old contacts were still sitting in the exam room where I had been instructed to take them out. She responded that she didn't know that. (We had discussed my wearing contacts while I was in the exam room - both with the technician and with the Dr.). Back in the exam room, Dr. Toyos told me another person would come in to help with the contacts. After waiting 10 minutes, the young girl came in and asked me if I knew what my contacts prescription was. I told her that information should be in my record because I got the contacts from them. She said "it's ok. I can get it from the optical shop records." 15 min later I was still waiting on her to come back. At this point, I had been there 2 hours and 20 min and there was no one in sight when I walked out in the hallway. I returned to my exam room and as I put my old contacts back in, Dr. Toyos poked her head in asking if everything was ok. I told her "no, I'm still waiting on someone to bring me contacts. I cannot wait any longer. This is completely unacceptable. I am appalled at the experience I have just had." I collected my things and walked out. Toyos Clinic used to be good but those days are gone. I highly recommend you look elsewhere. There are plenty other doctors in the Memphis area that are more concerned about their patient experience (and respectful of your time.). Choosing a doctor is a choice and clearly Toyos Clinic is no longer the right choice for optical needs.

If you enjoy wasting your time and not being serviced with care, then this is the eye doctor for you. My appointment was scheduled for 3:00p. I arrived and checked in at 2:55p. I was not called back until 4p. I was not seen by the doctor until 4:25p. The exam was awkward to say the least. She was pleasant while also flippant. Very strange. I’ll charge that to her trying to fly through my exam after I mentioned I needed to pick my son up. Because of this information, she flew through the exam barely looked at one eye and called it a day. She did find time to recommended a series of tests and walked me out to the receptionist. There was “No thanks again for your patience”, no “Apologies for your wait”. No eye contact. No smile. Thank God the receptionist had common decency and courtesy to be professional and polite. Never once apologized about the fact that they’ve wasted my precious time. But she did remember to wish me a “Happy Earth Day”….weird. All in all the energy from the staff as she walked me out was just plain weird. Please save yourself time by avoiding this place at all costs.

Doctor & staff were nice, but the wait to go back was 1 hour and approaching 2 hours to get in and out for a basic eye exam. I was on time for my appointment. I have been here a few times over the years and the wait is always a problem.