Joseph L. Demer, MD

• Ophthalmologist

"No question Dr Demer is a renowned pediatric ophthalmologist. He's well respect by his peers. My issue, which has been brought up by previous patients, is the insufferable wait times purposely structured by Dr Demer. Appointments are booked two every minutes starting at 7:am. Of course Dr Demer spends what he considers the appropriate amount of time with each patient. As well he should. But, this invariably leads to hours plus to complete an appointment. While the front desk staff might point out in their new patient manual this is acknowledged, in practice no one expects to bring a child in for a medical appointment and for it to take over an hour to get to an examine room and at least another hour before they see the actual Dr and not just a resident or fellow. The easy solution is to stop booking two patients every minutes. But, UCLA being a large research hospital who know what demands or pressure Dr Demer is put under from senior hospital leadership. Regardless, it's unfortunate they place such a large premium on Dr Demer's time and virtually zero worth to the parents and patients who see him."

"To be clear Dr Demer seemed perfectly good. In the ten minutes I spent with him for my son his work seemed thorough and he was personable. However the overall experience was dreadful. After arriving for my am appointment I waited for minutes before asking how much longer? I was told that I should go for a walk and they will call me as it will be at least another hour. When I questioned waiting with a 5 year old for an hour and a half they told me that I should have read the new patient manual which states that appointments can be anytime form an hour to three hours after the appointment time. So it is standard practice for them to expect you to wait up to 3 hours!!! They asked if I would like to see the manager and I said yes. I waited another minutes and she never came. When they finally found a room for my son and I, I waited and additional minutes for a pre examination then as my son eyes were dilated I was told to take a walk for minutes while it takes affect then expect another minutes to see the doctor. After minutes I was given a room and fifteen minutes later the doctor came in saw us and we were out again in minutes. The front of house clearly do not seem to care about the patients nor do they have any intention of keeping the appointment time. If it had not taken me 6 months to get the appointment in the first place I would have found another doctor with a staff who know how to manage a schedule."

"My first experience with Dr. Demer was in . I had esotropia (eye turning in) for years and was referred to Dr. Demer for surgery to correct this. I was willing to make an exception for the hour wait times and unorganized office staff because this first surgery had amazing results. About a year later I noticed the eye beginning to turn inward again SLIGHTLY, only myself and the doctor were able to notice. Dr. Demer suggested another surgery which should have been very minor. I woke up from that surgery with severe alternating exotropia (eye turning out) in both eyes and constant double vision. I was told the eye would correct itself. It only got worse as I healed. Six months later, I had another surgery with Dr. Demer to correct this, which did nothing. I consistently felt a complete lack of empathy from Dr. Demer regarding the way my eyes looked and often felt he disregarded my feelings on the situation, but because of the successful first surgery and his familiarity with my case I wanted to stick with him. After 8 or 9 months of long appointments (wait times were also long with virtual appointments), dealing with often unfriendly and unorganized administrative staff, and thousands of dollars trying to correct this situation, which in my opinion should have never existed, I decided to find new doctor who has since completely corrected my exotropia and double vision. I can no longer recommend Dr. Demer for strabismus surgery candidates."

"I had Dr. Demer as a child and he did the best he could for my lazy eye to correct the muscle in my eyes Now after years I need to see him again to check my sight. One of the best doctors I ever had."

"Just an amazing physician."