Sansum Clinic's Online Review Report Card

Kirsten J. Wagner, MD is one special person a personality I have never seen in my life , we miss you here in NC Doc :)

The staff here has been wonderful. Although there were issues with a 3rd party surgery center for my procedure, the coordinators are very on top of it and handled everything for me and gave me constant updates.

I have keratoconus and wear hard contact lenses. Very few drs treat my condition.Unfortunately, my dr retired and I had to look for another dr and I am still looking for one.I called almost every office in the Santa Barbara area only to discover that not a single dr treats my condition.After a long search, I was recommended to Dr Kastev by a patient of his who got a corneal transplant through him.When i called to make my appointment, I specially told the receptionist what my condition (keratoconus) was and asked if dr Kastev treated my condition. She told me yes and I made my appointment.(I am full time student and don’t have a lot of income but I been saving to pay for a treatment that would help me see and would eliminate the constant irritation and pain caused by my contact lenses which need to be replaced).Few weeks later, I get a called that I need to be rescheduled and that was fine with me. Until, I was as contacted two additional times to reschedule my appointment and the next available appointment was not until a month from the previous date. It took me three months to finally get an appointment that they would not keep rescheduling.This appointment happened to be the week before finals but I had no choice I had to take what ever they were giving me even thought I had initially made my appointment three months prior to the date I was seen. Then I though that this dr must be really really good because he is always so busy so I figured it was worth the wait, since, he was the only one that treated keratoconus near me.When the day of my appointment finally arrived, I was there very early. Almost enthusiastic, waiting to be seen and finally put and end to my pain.I waited, waited, and waited. I noticed that people who arrived after me and had appointments after mine were called in first. I waited a total of two hours with no update. ( I volunteer as a dr’s assistant and I have never made a patient wait for for long specially without an apology and update, I try to be considerate and respectful to every patient’s time).So I got up and express to the receptionist that I had Finals and I needed to study go to class. I asked how much longer it would take. A few minutes later I got called in.When dr Kastev finally walks in to see me. He looks at my file and says “sorry, I don’t treat keratoconus, let refer you to someone else”. He uses his computer and googles a dr in Los Angeles (not near me) writes the dr’s info in a sticky note and hands me the sticky note. That was it.Just like that, I spent somewhere about $300 in less than five minutes. It was such a bad experience for me that I am fearful to visit other drs because those $300 cost me so much to earn.I spent my last week of school almost starving because of how much I had spent just to be told that he didn’t treat my condition, when I was previously told he did. Not to mention the time I wasted in his waiting room. I could never get that back. It was unfair.To add more to the list, a few days later I get a letter saying that I owed them additional fees or I would be sent to collection. I went in person and I asked why? They said that adding fees is very common because what I had paid in my appointment was only an initial partial payment. At this point I am upset not only for what I was hearing but also because of the horrible costumer service and lack of professionalism. So I asked to speak with someone that could explain why I was getting such threatening note with additional fees that could not be explained by the receptionist.When I spoke that person I explained everything that had happened. She goes inside to speak to who knows who and take 30 mins to come out to tell me that I did not have to pay any additional fees.During this experience I felt neglected and taken advantage of. Me being a underrepresented Latina student, this kind of attention is not uncommon in my life. I guess i fest like if I would have belong to a different socioeconomic and ethnic group my experience would have been a lot different.