Ophthalmic Consultants of Boston

I had the best experience at OCB! More specifically, I highly recommend Doctor Rapoza to anyone looking to get Lasik or PRK. While researching doctors, I had two consultations-​one at OCB and another with an office that felt like a factory for eye surgeries. It was an easy decision to choose Dr Rapoza who is extremely thorough and hands on with his patients (the other office the technicians were the only ones doing the eye exams). The staff at OCB is extremely friendly and organized in their process. You see a doctor at every visit and Dr Rapoza himself calls you the night after your surgery. I have already recommended him to 3 friends and will continue to praise the work he did, his wonderful staff and great experience.

Had both eyes done… I went to the offices in Danvers, Waltham, and Boston… They have everything down to a science. EVERYONE was awesome!
I never had pain, redness, anything! The doctor himself called me both times the night of my surgery… I would recommend them to anyone!

My family have been patients for many years.
OCOB has been very professional, and I trust their skill.
Sometimes there is a long wait — yes.
There’s reason for that. The Surgeons are, sadly, frequently needed for people with Emergencies that require an immediate operation to save their sight.
If you are waiting, you should put yourself in the shoes of the person who is, more than likely, under the knife as you sit.
Be thankful that the Surgeons would do the same for you !

I am a retired medical journalist and tough critic of physicians and surgeons, but Dr Bradford Shingleton is simply above criticism. He is world class, an his team is likewise terrific. My cataract surgery took place at 7 am, and I was back home within two hours. There was only minimal discomfort, and by evening I would have been able to go out to dinner or a movie (albeit with one patched eye)! Moreover, all this speed and efficiency is accomplished without making the patient feel that they are just a number. Every single individual I came into contact with — nurses, technicians, anesthesiologist, Dr Shingleton himself — introduced themselves, asked how I was feeling, explained what they were doing, etc. If there is such a thing as a perfect surgical experience, then this was it. Very impressive.

I had an appointment at the Cambridge office recently. The appointment was for 2:15 PM and I arrived a few minutes early. By the time I actually saw the doctor it was 3:40 PM. Most of the time between my arrival and actually seeing the doctor was spent waiting. The actual time with the doctor was less than 5 minutes. While the care itself is excellent, the poor scheduling and lack of respect for the patient’s time is simply unacceptable.

This office is a tale of two cities. If you have a good experience, you are among the lucky few. The rest of us are left sitting in the waiting room for hours on end, two and a half the last time I was there, and that was a short wait according to the less than helpful person at the front desk. For my follow up, they could not squeeze me in for four more months only to then call a week before the appointment and tell me it was going to be rescheduled at a time «more conducive to Dr Ip’s schedule» I called back explaining I had been a patient for years and asked why the sudden change, «it’s not important» was the response I was given.
If you are recognizable in the press, I am sure you will be treated well here, goodness knows I have been kept waiting long enough so some a-​list athlete could get his new contacts in a flash.
The good news is that there are plenty of decent doctors out there in the Boston area that we don’t have to wait around for a convenient time for one of these clowns to grace us with their presence. I

I went to the Beverly office of Opthalmic Consultants of Boston (located in the Cummings Center) after a referral by my Primary Care Physician for diplopia/​esotropia. The staff was very friendly, and I was able to get an appointment that same day (because my doctors office called them). The optometrist i saw was very matter of fact, detailed, and clear. I really felt that she paid attention to my symptoms and concerns. After a foll ow up appointment, I was prescribed fresnel prism lenses, that have helped me compensate for my diplopia a lot! The staff was also very helpful in getting me copies of my exam records, without a hassle. Great place.

I’ve been a patient of OCB for quite a while. I am outraged by a bill I received out of the blue for a fee that you charged for having the Dr. sign the RMV form for senior citizens. This fee should be waived and the signature should be a professional courtesy. If you insist on charging a fee for the signature, then the patient should be informed about a fee prior to signing. It’s bad enough that the state RMV insists that seniors have a signed form and then BRING IT IN IN-​PERSON, OCB’s additional fee is excessive, the fee should be waived and the signature should be a professional courtesy.

Overall this place has been a hassle. Since going in for a contact lense fitting I have run into several issues. They originally said my insurance would be accepted until I received a $ 200 bill for becoming a new patient, etc. They reduced the bill slightly but never delivered a revised receipt for the service. Also it seems like they are short staffed half the time. I ordered two boxes of lenses from the optical office and only one came in. Waited an hour on hold for a rep. I recommend looking around for other options before deciding on this place.
Pro’s: Location
Cons: See above

I went to their Cambridge office on Mt Auburn Street. The treatment I received was super. I ‘d like to single out Dr. Judge, and her assistant who gave me various eye tests. They were both calm, patient, and not hurried. And I wasn’t kept waiting long in the waiting room.

After seeing the high reviews, I was excited to go to this place. I work at MGH and therefore was relieved at its proximity to my office. Unfortunately I cannot recommend this place, and I feel it would be remiss of me to not offer this review to others interested.
First: I had my first appointment and I had to wait around 45 minutes to be seen for a routine contact lens appointment. The receptionist had a very wooden personality and made me wonder if she was a cylon (and I have never seen Battlestar Gallactica). The doctor seemed like a good guy, but was a bit odd, kept saying things like «Yeah, I get ya» or «That makes sense» to the extent that it was awkward as if he was just flipping through responses that had little to do with what I was talking about. That’s fine, honestly– it really didn’t affect my opinion. What took place after the appointment is really what I want to talk about.
First, this place is a do-​everything eye place. That means that if you are like me, just getting a prescription renewed (not even changed) so you can buy more contacts, then good luck. I had to wait behind a very angry woman who bought glasses, then had eye surgery, and then wanted new glasses for free because she had the surgery. I felt bad for the receptionist– it was terrible. Mainly because there were 4 or so other senior citizens who did not have to have a job to get back to. One even cut me. «No big deal,» I thought, there are 3 receptionists. Well 1 was doing paperwork and couldn’t be bothered, except to chime in with the woman arguing with the first receptionist. The other woman, Ms. Wooden, knew that all she had to do was pick up my prescription from the printer tray and take my $ 15 copayment. Instead, I had no idea what she was doing– but certainly not a customer first attitude. Even that’s fine. Not a 5 star review, but I will get over it.
I left, and emailed the place twice or thrice over a 2 week time trying to order contacts from their shop. I got a response after the third saying they would forward the information to the optical department. Almost a week later I got a voicemail from another woman. I had to start completely over (they don’t take notes?). Fine. So instead of spending all my working hours trying to get into contact with these guys, I decided to walk in. I come in the office after explaining my insurance and what I want, blah blah blah. Still, had to start over and explain.
She told me the cost. No– clearly forgot again about my insurance. Put in some numbers and gave me another cost (too high). No. I told her my plan, she said she would check with Davis and get back to me.
She didn’t. Okay, 2 star review. 2 days ago I ordered my contacts from
because clearly these people did not want my business. So I get a voicemail yesterday saying that my 1800contacts order was cancelled because my prescription apparently expired. Okay, 1 star. Today is 13 September, my appointment was 13 August. You couldn’t figure that out? Honestly, this could not have been more routine and ended up being VERY annoying. I do not recommend.
UPDATE!!! About 3 weeks after I order my contacts from 1800contacts, I get a call from the office saying that my contact order is in. Okay? So then I get a letter about a week and a half later from my insurance saying that they will not reimburse me because my allowance has already been used. By who, you ask? These jerks. So now they provide terrible service and then assume I will buy from them after they basically forget about me or bother contacting me. Can I give 0 stars now?

I needed to get my eyes checked out by a specialist, so my regular optometrist referred me to Opthalmic Consultants of Boston. It’s difficult to give a holistic review for a doctor’s office, so I’m breaking it down.
Administrative Staff:
The main receptionist deserves a raise. I don’t care what they pay her now; she deserves more for how well she handles all sorts of inquiries and expertly guides incoming patients to where they need to be. The check-​in staff was also great. Overall the front line administrative staff are doing a lot to make patients’ experiences positive.
Doctors:
I saw two doctors during my appointment. Both had excellent «bedside» manners and explained the procedures that they were performing as they conducted those procedures. Some of the equipment that they used on my eyes looked pretty intimidating, so the calm narration of what they were doing/​why they were doing it/​what I could expect to feel was really helpful. I also appreciated that the doctor offered to write up the results of the tests and send it to my regular optometrist; sometimes doctors will just tell you the information and let you bring that info to your regular person (and there’s always something that gets lost in translation).
Office Layout:
The layout is well-​done. Upon entry you arrive at the receptionist’s desk, and can be pointed to the check-​in windows (assuming you are there for an appointment). From the check-​in windows you have only a short walk to your waiting area, and the examination rooms are all within several feet of that waiting area. Finally, a doctor’s office that isn’t a maze! Unlike other offices I’ve visited, patients don’t need to rely on signage to navigate. Also, the décor and lighting seem obviously designed for mental & physical comfort (neutral colors and soft lighting); I really appreciated this after my eyes were dilated.

Ive been going here for years, and have an overall positive experience. Their specialists are great. Many of my family members have had lasik surgery here, and I would rate it as 5 stars. More pricey than some places, but do you really want to pay just anyone to fire lasers on your eye? I don’t.
The only negatives I have are, one time I rescheduled an appointment and it never got put in the system. There seem to be a bunch of confusion, but they fit me in that day. You also have to wait 1 – 3 hours for an appointment. No fun. If you need regular routine care, maybe this isn’t worth the wait. If you want top notch care, or need to see a specialist, this is the place. A close family member of mine was going blind, and she still can see in her 80s, thanks to the care she received here. This is why i keep going, despite the wait. Also the near perfect vision 3 of my relatives have received from lasik performed here.

First of all, I think the review by the disgruntled former OCB employee should be ignored by Unilocalers.
In my experience, Ophthalmic Consultants of Boston has been wonderful. The doctors here are top notch in their field and have a very pleasant, caring demeanor with patients. The support staff… ophthalmic technicians and administrative personnel have been helpful, welcoming, kind, and professional. My experience is you will receive excellent care at OCB… so much nicer and more personal feeling than I’ve had at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and you won’t have to wait months for an appointment. I’ve seen four or five eye specialists here… all were excellent. If you have serious vision problems, this is the place to get your eye care.

I had my first visit here with Dr. Hatton this morning. I called well over a month ago thinking it was going to take awhile to get an appointment since this is usually the case with medical specialists in Boston. When I called they offered me an appointment a week later. I had to wait though because I was having my thyroid removed that week and doubted I would be up for anything let alone an appointment with an ophthalmologist.
I have Graves Disease which in many cases is associated with Graves Eye Disease.
This was a quick and organized visit. When I walked in I was greeted right away and given instructions on how to register my insurance information. I was called in from the waiting room right away and for an 8am appointment I was out of there by 8:30am which is nice since I do have to go to work.
Glad this is where I chose to go. Dr Hatton explained everything to me and made sure I understood how I would be cared for in the future. I feel like I’m in good hands.

Dr. Bonnie Henderson is caring, professional, and delivers great care. I have been coming here for annual checkups for five years and have been completely satisfied in every way. The staff is thorough and professional. A friendly practice that takes good care of its patients.

I went to Ophthalmic Consultants of Boston on Staniford St for an eye appointment, contact lens fitting. I saw Dr. Huntsberry and thought she was great. i have worn contact lenses for the past ten years and this is the first time that I have been properly fitted. I can finally see!
I didn’t have any of the problems that other people wrote about with waiting hours for my appointment. They took me almost immediately after I checked in. the office is clean, the people that work there seem nice.

I had cataract surgery at OCB by Dr Peter Rapoza in the sumer of 2008. Dr Rapoza was a very nice, charming guy whom I felt very comfortable with. My biggest and only complaint about the procedure was the over three and a half hour wait before even being called in for prep. My appt was for 1:30 PM. I didn’t get called in until 4:45 PM. My ride home had already shown up and had to spends those useless hours with me. Needless to say I was furious. Not the kind of mood you want to be in just beofre surgery. I mentioned the long wait as constructive feedback, to Dr Rapoza at my first follow-​up appointment. He laughed it off and dismissed it as a scheduling snafu. No acknowledgement, no apology.
Dr. Rapoza told me upfront, that cataract surgery on someone who is still relatively young, could result in a subsequent blurring of vision. Opaqification of the Posterior Capsule was the official term. The remedy for this would be a simple laser procedure. A couple of zaps and I would be fine.
Fast forward to this past Monday when I was scheduled to have this laser procedure known as a YAG at 2:30 PM in OCB’s Waltham office. I checked in and was brought to the procedure room. And then left there for over an hour. By 3:35 PM I was sick of waiting and headed toward the reception desk to reschedule. Dr Rapoza came thru a door, caught me in the hall and ushered me back to the procedure room. No acknowledgement of the long wait and no apology. Sixty seconds later, the procedure was done and he asked me to sit for ten minutes before I left. I waitd the ten minutes, then went home.
At about 5:15 PM, my eye started to feel scratchy and irrirtated. I guessed this was to be expected. It got progressively worse and worse until the pain was unbearable and my eye was blood red and weeping. When I speak of unbearable pain, take it from someone who has had several episodes of kidney stones. This pain was worse. Conviced that something was wrong, at 5:45 PM, I called OCB’s 800 number and the answering service took my info and said they would page the opthamologist on call. After about 15 minutes, I took two Tylenol, put a cold cloth on my eye and reclined on the sofa to wait for the phone call. I drifted off to sleep and awoke at 7:45 PM, two hours later. The pain was still intense an no one had called me back. The phone was right next to my head. I would have heard it. I even checked my caller ID device. No call had been made. I called the answering service again and explained the situation. They said they would page the doctor again.
A little after 8:00, a woman called me back explaining that she was the OCB doctor on call. I immediately told her that I had called two and a half hours prior. She huffingly explained that she received no prior page. She then went on to tell me that after a laser procedure, «some discomfort isto be expected». I told her that the pain was and had been extreme. Her response was that it was «no big deal» and that I was «fine». She seemed quite put out to have been bothered in this fashion and couldn’t wait to get off the phone. I told her it was unacceptable to not have an emergency call returned. She replied that she had just received the page and «now I’ve called you back». In other words, I’ve covered my ass. I was so angry, I informed her that OCB and Dr Rapoza had just lost a patient and hung up. She never asked me what my symptoms were. Never asked me about the pain or level of pain. Never asked me what the eye lookedlike or how my vision was. Nice.
Much later that night, I sent a very angry email via the OCB website. Two days later, OCB’s Compliance Officer called me offering all manner of emapthy and apologies. She explained that the answering service had been at fault for the first page not being sent to the doctor on call. She also admitted after hearing my version of events, that the woman who called me back had handled my call completley inappropriately, that I was not triaged correctly and that OCB had completely failed me. She wanted me to come back in to hve my eye checked. I declined saying I longer trusted anyone at OCB. She advised me to get checked out elsewhere, which I did. During the course of our conversation, she also informed me that their doctors on call were «fellows» who were only with OCB for a few months at a time. She informed me that this «fellow» (i.e., student, intern, trainee…) would be reported to the attending physician. And that was the end of it. No apology or even a phone call from Dr Rapoza. At OCB, you are nothing but a file number with a revenue value. You are nothing more than the next payment on someone’s yacht. Beware.

This is the Wal Mart of eye care. They are extremely disorganized and you will typically wait 3 – 4 hours for your first appointment with a specialist. They cater to several high-​profile patients, such as members of the Red Sox, the Patriots, and local celebrities. The rest of their patients don’t matter to them. Fill out a Patient Satisfaction Survey– I’m sure these get forwarded directly to the circular file. Complain about the ridiculous parking rates– it’s not like they will do anything about it. They haven’t for 30 years.
The concierge/​front desk area is set up like on off-​track betting parlor. The staff are over-​worked and underpaid, and it’s amazing there are no incidents of employees going postal from having to deal with such dissatisfied patients! Perhaps that’s because they’re just waiting for their retirement benefits to kick in. And that is only if there’s anyone who’s not busy socializing or surfing the web to actually help you. Try to go on a day when the computers are actually working… So far none of the days ending in «Y» have fit this criteria.
You would be better off letting your eye fall out than coming to this office. They spend more on magazine subscriptions than they do implementing useful and efficient methods and technology. Try Mass Eye and Ear Infirmary– they’re right down the street and it’s a lot less like a sweat shop.
There should be an option for zero stars. A dismal black hole would be much more appropriate.
***EDIT: They actually had the gall to attempt to censor my posting here to prevent other people from reading how poorly run and generally wretched the service is! Why would a health care practice stoop so low? Because they are completely apathetic toward the general, middle-​class public. The few doctors who are genuinely compassionate usually end up leaving (including my previous doctor), because there is no room for generosity or kindness in their practice.
Yes, they will schedule an appointment for you if you have money. If you are among the many who have no medical insurance which covers ophthalmic injuries or general care, they do not work with you in the slightest. Their billing department is one of the worst in the field of health care, and I am not the only person who has had continuous problems with their billing. They selectively decide which health practices to follow, and despite scheduling NUMEROUS appointments for people who do not speak English as a native language, they will NOT provide an interpreter! They will, however, get the lowest paid bilingual staff to try to fill in– can you say liability?!
Please, please, PLEASE don’t go here! They are FAR more overpriced than many of the other eye facilities, and you get far less personal care and treatment. There are multiple incidents of lost charts, missing documentation, and just the other day I heard of a technician damaging a cornea SEVERELY because they didn’t know how to take proper measurements of the eye. Thus proving that they are more concerned about their bottom line than the care of their patients. If I wanted this kind of care, I’d stick to pouring battery fluid in my eye!
If you have money and your idea of «top of the line eye care» is spending $ 600 on a pair of Valentino glasses, then you will be in your element. If you are a normal person with bills to pay and an appreciation of your ocular faculties then I implore you to seek alternate sources of eye care.

Ok, I am not reviewing this office so much as I am one of their Dr’s, Peter A Rapoza (
), who used to practice out of Cornea Consultants.
While I’ve mentioned in a few other reviews that I’m not into makeup or the latest hipster bs trends, I’m still kinda vain. When not struggling with contact lenses, I used to wear thick coke bottle glasses, was nearly legally blind, and when I didn’t have my glasses or lenses on, there was a good chance I’d be walking into walls like a drunk person.
Eventually I got sick of it and decided to get LASIK.
Dr. Rapoza was incredibly helpful, knowledgeable, cute, funny, just all around awesome. He’s been doing the procedure forever, and he even turned away one of my friends because he felt that he could not give them ²⁰⁄₂₀ eyesight. To me, that’s awesome, because it’s essentially a cosmetic procedure, and the fact that he turned someone away because he felt he could not give them optimal results coupled with the fact he was concerned that it might make it impossible for them to get surgery later in life when technology had caught up with their specific sight limitations was very ethical… He could’ve easily gotten their eyesight down to a more tolerable level of poor, and made a fast $$$$ off them, but opted not to. I think that speaks a lot for his credibility as a surgeon.
He’s operated on at least 5 other people I know, all of whom have had excellent results.
He’s really just awesome, and if you decide you want LASIK or some other form of eye surgery, I cannot recommend him highly enough.