Eyecare Associates Of San Francisco

I highly recommend Doctor Kevin Tan. I have visited him four times in the past five months.

Dr. Tan is smart, friendly, and truly cares about his patients.

Dr. Tan is the best. I had an issue with my upper eyelid. He diagnosed it immediately and treated it that day. I had to receive an injection in my eyelid, which is not a pleasant experience, but he made it as comfortable as possible. He answered all my questions in detail and never made me feel like I was burdening him. My issue resolved after his treatment, and I was most pleased with the result. He also recommended an eye solution that has has assisted with another eye issue I was having. I give Dr. Tan the highest recommendation and will definitely use him for all eye exams and treatment in the future.

First experience: Great. no complaints. Eye exam — nice tech — nice doctor on my way.
Follow up (1 month later): Where the issues began. Firstly they call and ask to reschedule. Fine it happens — no complaint. The complaint comes when I show up for my apt. I wait for 20 mins (after I signed in) to then get a call from the receptionist asking if I can make it — while I am sitting IN FRONT OF HER. Then go back with the tech who then does all the stuff I had done a month ago (eye sight, eye pressure etc) basically nothing I needed checked again. Then I am told to wait in the waiting room for the doctor.
45 minutes AFTER my apt time I am still waiting. I politely tell the receptionist that I will have to leave in 15 mins as I have a meeting at work. I am ushered back to a room and told I am the next apt. Then I hear the ophthalmologist leave the room next to me and proceed to spend at least 10 mins talking to sales people who showed up WITHOUT an appointment.
At this point I have to leave — it has been AN HOUR since my apt time. I tell the receptionist and she says «sorry about that — let’s schedule a follow up» Umm no.
I understand the sign you have that says ‘we take our time with our patients so there may be delays’ but if you are making people wait an hour you need to learn to schedule more effectively.
My time is valuable and you clearly don’t appreciate that.

This is going to be a very detailed review on the PRK I got done by Dr. Tan nearly two weeks ago.
I’ve been considering my options for PRK and LASIK for nearly 3 months before I found Dr. Tan. I must have gone to 10 consultations and all have said that I was not a candidate for either procedures because I was so nearsighted (about –14). One opthalmologist said I might be a candidate for PRK but he wasn’t comfortable doing the procedure. I was then told my only option would be a Refractive Lens Exchange which would cost between $ 10,000 and $ 18,000 and had a higher chance of complications.
I was so glad I found Dr. Tan who said I would be a candidate for PRK. This did, however, made me feel a bit uneasy and skeptical. I mean, if 10 other opthalmologists wasn’t going to go near my eyes, why would Dr. Tan? He reassured me that my cornea is thick enough where we can correct a lot of my nearsightedness and still be within the FDA mandates. He made it clear to me that I will more than likely not get to ²⁰⁄₂₀ but would be closer to ²⁰⁄₄₀ or ²⁰⁄₅₀ and I was OK with that. As long as I can function without glasses or contacts, I would be happy. After asking him a battery of questions, I felt comfortable enough to move forward. I was scheduled for a pre-​op appointment and the actual surgery (which is located at a completely separate laser center on California/​Van Ness)
The pre-​op appointment was scheduled two weeks after the initial consultation. I had to stop wearing my contacts for the duration of the two weeks leading up to the pre-​op. It was a very quick appointment, just re-​confirming the measurements that were taken during the consultation. At this point, Dr. Tan offered to give me two prescriptions, one tablet of Valium for the surgery and another for hydrocodone. I opted to fill the prescriptions because of some of the horror stories I read about the recovery post-​op.
My surgery date was set for one week after the pre-​op appointment. I arrived about 20 minutes early and the staff went over my eyedrops and post-​op care. I popped the valium 10 minutes prior to my scheduled surgery time but was surprised that Dr. Tan was 30 minutes late. I was already a bit out of it by the time it was time for the surgery. I was walked into the room and laid down on a bed. The Dr put in a couple numbing eye drops and clamped my right eye open. Then it begins. The scrubbing and then the zapping. The most uncomfortable part of the procedure was having the clamps hold your eyelids open. Everything else was relatively numb and painless. It is a bit unsettling to hear the laser zap and to smell burning flesh. I will say that I was able to see really clearly immediately after the laser but my vision blurred up right after the bandage contact lens was put in. The entire process lasted no more than 15 minutes. I went home and started the routine of eye drops. My vision was very blurry but there was no irritation otherwise.
I went to my follow up next day and everything was going well. Still blurry but no irritation. I was seeing ²⁰⁄₆₀ already only one day after! It wasn’t until that afternoon that things turned to shit. I was very very light sensitive and it felt that someone was rubbing sandpaper on my cornea. The hydrocone and drops did little to nothing so I just tried to sleep as much as I can. Also, the use of an ice eye mask and sleep mask are absolutely necessary. This lasted into the next day as well with little relief. On the third day, things began to calm down. I was able to see a bit clearer and the pain started to subside. After that, the rest was downhill. I went in for a follow up 10 days post-​op and am seeing ²⁰⁄₂₅ out of my right eye and ²⁰⁄₃₀ from my left. Much better than what anyone would have expected! I am excited to see the end result in a few months and am very thanful to Dr. Tan and his staff.
A few more notes…
I mentioned that Dr. Tan was a bit late on the actual procedure day but I didn’t mind because he has otherwise been very punctual with his appointments.
He is also very patient when you ask him all sorts of questions and replies promptly to e-​mails even after hours.
Dr. Tan is just an overall great doctor. Great bedside manner and knowledge without coming off as arrogant.
The procedure itself came out to $ 4500 including follow up appointments. The prescriptions will add a few extra bucks depending on your insurance. (get the generics!) The eyedrops can get pretty expensive but Dr. Tan tried his best to give me a supply of free samples instead of having me go out to fill the costly eyedrops.

Great service by Carmen.
She is outstanding, helped me track down a hard to find sunglasses frame quickly — contacted the manufacturer and follow-​up with me right away. That’s what I call service. Thank you!

For a few months I had been thinking about LASIK in the back of my mind. I’ve worn glasses my entire life (²⁰⁄₂₀₀ vision), tried contacts but could never get the habit of putting them on and taking them off, plus they’d bother me after extended use. I wasn’t really planning to take action with regard to LASIK, just wondered if it was for me or not. I recently went to visit Dr. Kevin Tan for an annual exam and he casually mentioned LASIK as a option for me to consider, and helped me appreciate the cost-​benefit of it. Basically, the earlier I get LASIK the less I’m spending on multiple pairs of glasses each year or two which will eventually add up to the cost of LASIK, and then some.
I explored the option with Dr. Tan in the office and continued the conversation over e-​mail. He was more than happy to respond and very timely. He helped address all of my concerns, medical and financial. The greatest realization I had to face was when I get older (older than ⁴⁰⁄₄₅) I’d have to wear glasses again. Turns out that’s just a fact of life for everyone and I’d eventually have to wear bi-​focals if I didn’t get LASIK. After preparing myself for it, I scheduled the operation. I strongly recommend taking something for anxiety before the operation, it was very helpful though I was still quite a bit anxious during the operation. If I hadn’t taken anything I probably would have freaked out just for the fact that someone was operating on my eye.
All in all the operation was over in probably less than 10 minutes and after resting for a few hours I could notice my vision was already better than without glasses, and it seemed to progressively get better through the night. I e-​mailed Dr. Tan that night with some questions about eye maintenance and making sure I understood the recovery protocol. He responded within minutes! After my checkup the very next day I discovered I now have ²⁰⁄₁₅ vision, better than with glasses!
Dr. Tan was great the entire process from beginning to end. I’m really glad I chose him as my doctor for LASIK. He also works out of two offices, one near Stonestown Mall and the other near the financial district, both were convenient to me at different times.
Good luck with your decision to do LASIK or not and which doctor to choose, but I didn’t go wrong.

The one thing that I really like about Dr. Kevin Tan is that he actually cares about my eyes and takes the time to address my concerns.
I just moved to SF and it was hard for me to find an ophthalmologist to help me with my dry eyes. I stumbled across Dr. Kevin Tan through my insurance network. I saw Dr. Tan and he helped my eyes so much by adding plugs.
His office is located in Union Square so it was an easy walk for me before work (parking can be a little hard but I think there is a parking garage next to the building). I was really nervous before my appointment but Dr. Tan was very patient and explained every step of the process with me.
I feel very comfortable and I am glad to have found a eye doctor who I can trust. I have been back regularly to check on my eyes and I would recommend anyone to stop by his office.

Dr. Tan performed cataract surgery on my husband in San Diego in the summer of 2014. When it was time for the second eye to be operated on, Dr. Tan had relocated to San Francisco, so we decided to follow him because he is not only a highly skilled surgeon, he is one of the kindest people that you will ever meet. The results of the second cataract surgery were well worth the trip to the bay area. We have the utmost confidence in Dr. Tan and his staff.

The Opthamologists here are top notch, very transparent, and blunt with your current conditions. I suffered from a Corneal Ulcer due to my contact lenses, and one of my eyes got infected. Immediately, they scheduled an appointment, and I went in.
I ended up screwing up my appointment time, but they worked with me to see me, and immediately provided me antibiotics. They’ve been very responsive on the next steps on repairing my eye, and I am very impressed at their professionalism and transparency.
I will frequent this venue moving forward, even for my optometry visits!

Dr. Gelbart helped me with a particularly bad eye infection, and kept on top of the healing process for a year until I was back to normal.
In the meantime discovered my perfect vision was eventually starting to be less than perfect — ah, the joys of aging! They did a great job with my first glasses ever, and I enjoyed the service and quality of their glasses so much that I’m now ordering my third pair after less than 6 months. Carmen, their optician, is terrific!

I was born with acute nearsightedness, due to an impairment in my retinas and have been seeing ophthalmologists for sixty-​five years, since before my third birthday, including outstanding specialists in Philadelphia, New York, Boston and the Bay Area. have never worked with anyone else as engaged, skilled and caring as Dr. Samuel Gelbart. He performed two impeccable cataract surgeries on my eyes last year, working around the complications of acute keratoconus (a shift in the cornea from rounded to more conical). Preparation for the operations was careful and thorough, recovery was swift and painless; my vision after the surgeries was clear and my acuity was substantially improved. Follow-​up appointments for new contact lenses and sunglasses have been attentive and pleasant and the outcomes excellent. The entire office is outstanding. I recommend them with absolutely no reservations.

Dr Kerman at Eyecare Associates «saved» my right eye when it developed a cateract and I am scheduled with him to operate on my left. I have total confidence in his abilities and trust this doctor 100% with my eyes. The exams are most thorough and the treatments have always been professional, courteous and patient. Highly recommend this praxis!

I went to the best of the best in San Diego; Dr. Kent Blade, and Dr. Mark Smith, for treatment of the idiopathic eye disease Pars Planitus. I had treatment for my eye disorder for 4 years with steroid drops and injections.
Nothing was working, so I decided to take it a whole new level…
I had decided to get a Vitrectomy on both my eyes that was performed by Dr. Mark Smith. It gave my normal eyesight back which was great!
So now to Eyecare Associates. My eye was extremely watery, hurt like hell, and I thought it was my eye disorder; and or an issue from the surgery that I had over 5 years ago???
Heidi the office manager understood what could of been the problem and did not hesitate to get me in right away, and I mean RIGHT AWAY! I got to see the owner Dr. Gelbart who has by far one of the best bedside manners a physician can have!
It turns out I had a scratched cornea and that it wasn’t anything serious except for the horrible intense sandpaper feeling it had when I blinked.
He hooked me up with pharmaceutical eye drop samples so I wouldn’t have to wait at the pharmacy, and put me on a regiment that really worked to heal my eye.
A + to Dr. Gelbart and his staff!

At Eyecare Associates, they do care about what we SEE! I have been a customer and patient there for the past three years. The coordination between the staff and doctors is wonderful and improves each time I visit the office. They have a wide selection of frame styles that will please anyone’s taste. During each visit, I find that the staff and doctors are very pleasant and easy to talk to. They are very helpful in assisting me with frame and lens selections. They always address my questions and concerns as a patient. I would highly recommend their optometric services to anyone!

I have been going to see Dr. Bloomer and have had a pretty good experience… I have been going to see her for over a year now, and she is really considerate of the fact that I’m a student, and therefore is generous with samples, and also of the type of treatment that she recommends. Everytime I come to the office, everyone is very professional and things proceed in a timely mannner. It is also pretty easy to get or change appointments if something comes up..