Castillejos Eye Institute

This has become a busy, noisy, DELAYED hub of activity. The appointment for my father was at 10:30. It’s almost noon and we are still here being shuffled around. For the most part the technicians are nice. The first doctor we saw doesn’t have the tact to deal with patients with special needs. My father has Parkinson’s so yes, he needs help keeping steady! Dr. David Castillejos took over — thankfully.
Still, if it wasn’t for the limitations on my Dad’s insurance, I wouldn’t have picked this place for eye care.

This place is the Dmv of eye care.
The second star is because of the front desk friendly service, but when you check in be sure to have a fully charged phone because you are going to be waiting forever between getting seen by the first technician the second waiting room and the actual optometrist, this place is always packed like it was 2 for 1 or something and they’ll find a way of separating your check up and results so you need to keep coming back and paying more deductibles, find a smaller practice is my advice.
Came in at 9:15 for a 9:30 appointment and left at 10:45, the time seen by a professional was probably 15 minutes.

A friend referred this place to me. I had an amazing experience, the staff was beyond polite. Dr. Castillejos took the time to explain my exam and referred me to over to get glasses. Luckily they have an optical in the office. They gave me a fast appointment, they have appointments available on Saturday! Very convenient btw. The optical had a high variety of brands for men and women. I highly recommend this place to anyone.

DO NOT GO TO THIS PLACE!!!
Today I had an appointment at 10am. They had moved to the old Red Lobster restaurant on F street. My appt was for a simple dialation. By 11:15 I was sick of waiting. I went to the receptionist and said there was only 4 doctors on today and not even an apology. I literally counted the waiting room, they had 34 patients. I knew then this place wasn’t for me even if they accepted my insurance. Needless to say I complained with my insurance company, requested for a different doctor, left and was seen right away by Eye Care Optometry in National City. I will never go back or reccomend anyone to go to that place.
Over booking clients and not having adequate staff of doctors and is not only bad business, but ethically wrong.

Absolutely not acceptable.
I had Lasik with David Castillejos and never met him until he was sitting in the surgery chair.
Parking lot is packed, but plenty of options with a little brisk walk.
When you check in there are plenty of people doing something, which is always nice. The women at the front yelling on the phone to patients «I said F as in Frank, Frank I said FRANK!.» Others on cell phones.
Checked in 15 minutes before my appointment and was told they were already an hour and a half behind because they only had three technicians. This is really an unprofessional establishment and would NOT recomend him to anyone at this point.

I have been coming here many times to help my dad out with his appointments for his eyes. He has Medicare and this is the only opthamalogists that he can see in his insurance network.
Working for Kaiser Permanente, I can truly say that this is office is not run very well. LONG wait times for EVERYTHING. I waited 20 minutes on the phone to try to get an appointment. Never got the chance to make the appointment as no one came to the phone. If you’re unfortunate enough to make an appointment, good luck seeing the doctors on the time. It is not uncommon to wait at least 45 minutes to an hour after your scheduled appointment time to be taken into the office. I have wasted many hours in the office just waiting, waiting, and waiting. Typical time spent for an appointment there is 3 – 4 hrs, really.
The staff is ok. Not super friendly and not the least apologetic about the wait. Drs Maria and David are knowledgeable and they do seem sincere about the long wait times. The typical patient they see their is one that is elderly and on Medicare. If you speak Spanish, that’s a plus but you probably won’t get in sooner.

Wonderful staff. Doctors and technicians are very caring and helpful. Castillejos eye institute cares about the well being of their patients. I will definitely recommend them to friends and family.