They don't prioritize keeping appointments in time. We had a 10:30 appointment and were called back only to wait for over 30 minutes before being seen. After getting dilated we waited OVER an hour before the Dr came back. This place just seems like a factory to badger money...not a patient centered eye care practice. Dr also has terrible bedside manner and was very short and fairly rude. We would never come to this Dr again for eye care. read more

I don't usually leave reviews, but I feel like people need to know how horrible this doctor and office is. I live kind of far from this office text me about 30 minutes to get there . My son's Appointment was at 12:30pm. We ended up leaving this office around 2:45 Pm today.My last straw with this doctor was today on 7/10/25. Three weeks prior I called them to put an order in for contact lenses for my 10-year-old son, Which costed me almost $300 , mind you they're just try out contacts . They have you order the real ones after two weeks, which will probably cost another $300. So he ordered them, but when he started going through my son's file, he has no Notes or regulation of ordering these contacts. Okay fine You're a busy man mistakes are made . Now My son has ADHD and he's on autistic, Spectrum. He was only going to be using these Monday ,Wednesday and Friday while he was in MMA training which I was gonna assist, putting them in for the hour he's in training which was a problem for the doctor. He insisted that he learns how to put them in/ take them out himself okay I could teach him how to do this myself. Not the strange lady in the office that had a hard time putting them in my son's eyes in the beginning Not to mention, she's a complete stranger him . Noo he insisted that the lady in the office teaches him as well. Moving forward, this lady is trying to teach my son how to put the contacts in and my son has a mental breakdown. He's crying he saying he can't do it etc. now at this point, I'm leaving. I tell the lady take the throw them away. I'm done.. She insisted that I come back . Like I have time to keep coming back to this office for her to teach my child how to do this . No ma'am, I have a job too. Besides that the contact lens prescription was slightly off which the doctor also insisted was OK. Now he's done this before go with my son's glasses, and I put a lot of trust into his doctor, which I shouldn't have . My son had eye surgery a slight change in prescription can mess with his eye sight even more . No, the other thing about this doctor is he rush his appointments and rushes the eye exams. Which is probably why he's always off by a little with the prescriptions. At this point I'm done with this office. Such a scam for you to pay $300 for something that you're not even gonna be able to bring home. Now I go to the front desk I asked for a copy of my son's records, which the lady didn't even give she gave me a copy of the Contact lenses notes with a copy of the prescription that you can barely see. Then I proceed to ask her to cancel his next appointment and she looks at me and goes who? Now I have an attitude which she has the nerve to get upset about. OK, I'll calm down not my problem. You weren't paying attention in the first place. Now I go to my car realize she gave me the wrong paper. I go back in Ask her clearly for a copy of my son's records. She asked me to go have a seat which I did for 15 more minutes Just for her to call me up and tell me oh we can't give you your records. The printer is broken so you can come back for them. How convenient for them. Luckily, his other doctor has copies of his eyes surgery and I have a copy of his old prescription and new doctors usually do give thorough eye exam read more

Dr. Kaufman has been my eye doctor since I was a toddler. I have had multiple eye surgeries, all performed by him. I've also had other types of operations done at Advocate, where he did my surgeries. My parents have a fond memory of him, I was in pre-op crying my eyes out as a child does. Dr Kaufman came out of no where to see if I was the one crying. I was having an ear surgery which he was not a part of. He must've been at the hospital operating on other patients, but he recognized my cry's and came to check on me. This is a doctor who has seen hundreds of pediatric patients and has multiple patients on his docket at any given moment, and yet he recognized my cry's of all things! He is a very caring and knowledgeable doctor. He took the time to explain my situation to my parents in Spanish and to me in an age appropriate way. I will never be able to thank him enough for all that he's done for my vision. He's truly a great doctor! read more

This place is beyond frustrating. I had a 2:15 appointment. At 3:00, we had yet to see Dr. Kaufman. I had pulled my son out of school early for this appointment. I understand doctor's can run behind, but this is a children's office. No one want to wait around with their child for 45 minutes waiting for a doctor. When I asked the nonprofessional staff how much longer they thought it might be, she said "I don't know. He just started with another patient. Could be 15 minutes. Could be longer." She could have cared less. No apology, no excuse, nothing. It was as if my question was annoying to her. Dr Kaufman could be a great doctor, but we will never know because we walked out and won't be back. I would encourage any parent to avoid this place going forward. There are plenty of other pediatric optometrist that are a bit more professional and respectful of your time. read more

Not a patient of his, but I have known him as a teacher and as a colleague. I know of no more knowledgeable pediatric ophthalmologist in Chicago. Always takes excellent care of my patients, whenever necessary. Highly recommended. read more

We were referred to Dr Kaufman when our son started to develop a lazy eye. We initially scheduled with Lurie Children's but they were booking 10+ weeks out and we luckily got into Dr. Kaufman within a week. We were somewhat hesitant because of reviews but we knew going in that his style may not suit everyone and we were prepared. While he wasn't as warm and fuzzy as some of the pediatrician staff we've encountered in our 18 month olds life, he was perfectly professional and we felt very good about the visit and his diagnosis. We were also grateful for the convenience of the retail store (Aardvark) on-site as our son needed glasses. read more

Very bad experience my baby's pediatrician send us here for evaluation & check up. I gotta say the staff and place look ok but the old eye doctor who saw us was very aggressive at the time he put my baby's eye drops pulling down her eye lid very hard , he seems very annoyed & not being patient at all . Very unprofessional never going back I was so unhappy after the visit . His fingers marks he left my baby's lower eyelids is unacceptable smh . read more

Lawrence M Kaufman, MD PHD - His finger marks - Ophthalmologists Near Me - Chicago, Illinois

It's my first and last time here. The receptionist was extremely rude rolled her eyes at my general questions. The nurse was in the back gossiping with another nurse/receptionist they obviously didn't care I was I hearing distance from all the negative talking they wore about the doctor. Super uncomfortable environment read more

I took my 6 year old son to see Dr. Kauffman by referral of our pediatrician. He knew his stuff, no doubt, but he was so cold. So rude. What happened to good bedside manner? Honestly, he reminded me of a person with Aspergers. He sprayed a chemical into my child's eye without any explanation, and when my son (shocked and scared) whined that it burned, he told my child to "stop acting." Absolutely unacceptable. Is he knowledgeable? Yes. It's he an expert on eye disorders? Most certainly. But why must we choose between skill and demeanor? We should demand both. My child deserves BOTH. And so does yours. read more

Let me start by saying that I read all of the reviews here and I was so close to cancelling my appointment. I'm glad I didn't. I took my 2 yr old in to see Dr Kaufman by a referral of my pediatrician. She developed a very rare condition in the muscle of one eye due to a virus she had. But I wouldn't have ever known this because it just appears as if it is simple lazy eye. We waited less than 10 min in his waiting room before seeing him. We saw Dr Kaufman right away and he DID explain everything he was doing or what he was about to do. He was very gentle to her and kept calling her "sweetie" Now I did prepare my child for the appointment since she never had her eyes checked before. Even though she is young you could still talk to your kids and make them understand that doctors are there to help them and to not hurt them. It is never the Dr's obligation to entertain our kids or to do our job as parents anyway. When he diagnosed that it wasn't lazy eye, he was very concerned that it was caused by an illness and PERSONALLY called a neurologist and had us go straight from his office to UIC's ER. What doctor does that anymore?! Well, Dr Kaufman does. After our visit to the ER (the same day) the office made a follow up call to check on us! He answered all of our questions and he reassured us. All the ladies in his staff were very helpful, patient, and very caring. They were never bothered by ALL my questions. I will definitely recommend Dr Kaufman to anyone! Great doctor and great staff. read more

We are so lucky to have gotten a referral from our primary doctor to see Dr Kaufman after a different ophthalmologist found nothing wrong with his eyes. We knew there was a real problem. He's a great doctor and was excellent with our little boy. We've been very scared about his eyes and now we feel like he's in good hands and we are on the path to fixing his vision and wandering eyes. read more

We have only been to Dr. Kaufman once. That was a little over 8 years ago. I just happened to see his name on here right now and every single awful feeling I had the day we met him came rushing back. He is an absolutely atrocious. His lack of care, bedside manner, respect, and honestly just plain not being a decent human being makes me write this. I brought my 4 WEEK old child in, because she was in the NICU and there was something not quite normal about her eyes they said. Absolutely scared already, we go in and the staff was as rude as everyone says. They dilate her eyes, she's screaming of course, have us sit in waiting room for eons, then we go in to see him and he looks at her grabs some forces looking eye mechanism and seriously YANKS her eyes open. She is screaming so loud I almost vomited. These stay on their eyes, if you've seen torture movies that hold the peoples eyes open that's it. Not being over dramatic at all, they were metal and pushed against her little eyes so hard, I get sick every time I think of it. That wasn't the end of it. He looks at her for about 2 minutes, takes the torture devices off of her and writes down ONE word on a prescription pad, hands it to me, and says, "She has Aniridia, she's going to go blind, not the walking with a stick blind or probably not braille, but she'll never drive and will need help crossing the street, she probably won't be able to read the signs either. She has cataracts, but there isn't much we can do about that now. Go home and read up about it." Then he left... That was it to him. I was completely numb. That experience at least made me find the best eye doctors out there. I found Dr. Rahmani at Lurie Children's hospital. He was and still is so kind and gentle. He was dumbfounded when I told him about the incident and was trying to make us feel better by saying that the numbing spray should have taken most of the pain away from the eye opening device, Dr. Kaufman used, I told him that they didn't give her any numbing spray, just the dilation drops. I visibly say every muscle in his face tighten before he turned away from me and looked down at his papers and wrote something. Then proceeded to examine and talk to us for an hour, calming our fears some and starting an action plan. Dr. Rahmani has NEVER used those on my child except under anesthesia and still uses the naming spray. He is our hero. He removed one cataract at 5 weeks of age and the other at 8 weeks of age and opened the office in the hospital before a presentation he was giving, just to check her eyes the following day. I know this is a story, but I need any parent to understand the difference between an amazing Doctor and one that needs to retire, actually needs his license stripped from him. P. S. My kiddo is 8 yes old now, Legally Blind and Deaf and she's pretty kick ass. If Dr. Rahmani wasn't there then, I'm not sure what would have happened. There's a very possible chance she will lose a lot more sight, but we have him on our side of the ring and he's the type of Doctor that will stay up at night and scour over everything to fight along side us. Please, stay away from Dr. Kaufman. My apologies for any grammatical /spelling errors, on my phone. Thank you for reading and I hope I've saved at least one family from ever going there. read more

Tried to make an appointment for my son. I tried about 15 times in the past month... I don't remember how many messages I left... The voicemail massage they have recorded is hard to understand, very quiet. Anyways, no point in laving messages... Nobody answers the phone, EVER. Don't bother trying to schedule appointment, find another place, where somebody actually answers the phone. read more

I took my son to see Dr. Kaufman after he failed his vision test at school. I was a little apprehensive about the appointment because of the yelp reviews. However, he was professional, kind, and very effective at getting my three-year-old to comply with everything he needed to do. I am happy I ended up going with Dr. Kaufman. read more

Please, if you must take your young one to an eye exam or anything related, do not go here. I have never met any Doctor, let alone a pediatric specialist, as cold as this Doctor was. His cold indifference and lifeless presence was enough to make me wish I had never set foot into his office. I could continue and write more about this awful experience but quite frankly, I am still in disbelief and quite disgusted. Do your little one and you a favor, find someone who at least seems to enjoy what they are doing. read more

Dr. Kaufman turned a routine pre-kindergarten eye exam into an experience that has left my kid utterly terrified of eye doctors, eye exams, and anything coming near her eyes. At the beginning of the exam, I thought it was odd that someone so cold and unfriendly was a pediatric specialist, but figured he was having an off day. And then Dr. Kaufman told my 5 year old daughter to close her eyes, then open them wide, which she did. When she opened her eyes, he sprayed a solution into them with no warning to her OR me and she started sobbing with fear and pain. Offhandedly, the doctor comments "it make their eyes sting, so it's better not to tell them ahead of time." She sat there sobbing as he just...sat there, waiting for the dilation to take effect. I was in complete shock. I wish I'd read some reviews of him before taking my child to Dr. Kaufman. With hereditary eye problems in the family, my kids are going to need yearly exams, and now the oldest won't even let the pediatrician touch her eyelids for fear he'll hurt her eyes the way the "other doctor" did. read more

OK, so this guy won't win any personality contests, but if you are looking for personality, go watch Arsenio. To recap: We took our daughter to one of those cheery "family" optometrists, who diagnosed our 4 year old for something that just seemed a bit severe. My wife, not liking the explanation (and faced with doing something that could affect our daughter's vision for years, if not her lifetime), immediately got her to Dr. Kaufman, who took about 30 seconds to declare the first diagnosis as absolutely WRONG, and got our daughter the glasses she truly needed. So, if you want to feel good and have the wrong diagnosis, be my guest. If you want a real doctor to look at your kid's eyes and get everything right, this seems to be the place. A big plus is having Aardvark next door for the glasses. read more

Never made a review ever before but this was just tooo much.. appointment time 2:20pm, we arrived at 2-2:05pm. Waited for more than hour before we got called. Dr saw us for 10 mins, sprayed something and told us to wait for 30 mins which seems like FOREVER! Almost 2 hrs to be exact. Asked the receptionist, Dr only said to wait for 30 mins and weve been waiting for more than an hour, she rudely answered "Others have appointments, you have to wait". Urrrgh! Really? She really said that when we werent even called after an hour of our appointment time. Dr seems decent but in a hurry. NEVER COMING BACK! read more

There was a follow up for my kid who is like six month old, Dr is super rude he don't have a manners how how to interact with patient and when we enter into the room we waited for more than like a 30 minutes after 30 minutes the doctor showed up and as soon as he came he didn't greeted saying hi hello nothing. and without informing us in a rude manner she just spray into my six month old baby eyes, and then he said he will be back after 20 to 30 minutes but we waited like more than then hour after an hour my wife went to the receptionist and ask her when the doctor gonna show up? Later after 15 mins Dr showed up as soon as he entered he just asked a few details and he follow up his procedure, and that's it you know the thing is that the doctor should need to be professional and he would need to interact with the kids to gain the trust of the kids but this doctor is super rude super annoying I really hate the doctor we didn't schedule the appointment with him our hospital has a scheduled appointment for our baby so I strongly recommend You guys to don't visit this doctor, in future I will cancel all my appointments with this Doc. 0 star for this dumb Arrogant Doc. read more

My daughter has been going to him since she was a baby and she's now in grade school. While Dr. Kauffman is not the warmest with kids, I do feel completely at ease with his knowledge and competence. He deals with tiny little measurements in tiny little corneas and he was absolutely correct about the condition and growth changes in my daughters strabismus. I recommend him for more acute conditions, not for getting a standard eye exam that an optometrist can achieve. He is professional and I don't see how someone could be disgusted with accuracy. His office is always full with children who need more scientific attention to non-standard eye problems. Plus Aardvark Eyewear, connected to his office, has a huge selection of kids eyewear. This is such a relief because after 5 years of choosing glasses, we are always finding plenty of frame options. read more

My Preemie with Stage 2 ROP came here shortly after being discharged from the NICU. The office staff were really nice and warm..... BUT Dr Kaufman was NOT to say the least. He was very rude and completely cold. He had my 5 lb baby on the edge of an exam chair screaming her head off while having this exam done. I had never hear her cry that way before, and when I asked if she was okay, he told his receptionist (who was holding my baby down by her legs) that he told me to leave the room and I chose otherwise? Heck yes I did, this is my child, she just may be another number to you, another chance to bill insurance, but she is the world to me. I left that day and never returned. GET A BETTER BEDSIDE MANNER JERK! read more

Excellent service.Extremely professional and through. I had my eyes examined and refracted.Staff was very friendly also.A++ .

Excelente! First appointment I felt very much at ease having the Dr. take care of my 4 yr old. Eye condition. Very prompt and doesn't take you in circles. Straight to the point and not like some places let's try this and that. Very professional! read more

Dr. Kaufman is a very skilled and excellent physician. I am an adult with strabismus, amblyopia, and a huge prescription difference between eyes. I'm a very complicated case to say the least, and I have been to many different ophthalmologist/optometrists. Dr. Kaufman put me in prism lenses and spent a lot of time with me on the exam. My vision is clearer than ever before. My attention is longer, colors are more vivid, I can see at a greater distance, and objects have greater depth. I'm am so grateful to him. I just accepted that my vision would be less than adequate due to my congenital eye disorders until I saw Dr. Kaufman. I never thought I could see so well. I highly recommend him. read more

Very happy with Dr. Kaufman! When I saw the bad yelp reviews I was a little nervous taking my 3 yr old to Dr Kaufman but went because he was recommended as a good eye doctor by our primary doctor. I don't understand what these other reviews were talking about! We couldn't be more satisfied with Dr. Kaufman and his staff. He was very professional, respectful, thorough and gentle with our son. Before flashing a light or spraying the chemical he let us and our son know. He is direct and to the point. We were relieved our son had no problems and will not need to go again anytime soon. But we would definitely go there again next time our son needs a check up and would highly recommend Dr. Kaufman and his practice. read more

We had an excellent experience with Dr. Lawrence and his staff. My two year old daughter developed a "lazy eye" suddenly and I was very concerned due to the sudden onset that this was a sign of something much more serious than a "basic" strabismus. We were not able to get in with Children's for months, so our pediatrician mentioned we might try Dr. Lawrence's practice in the Bucktown area. We were able to get in to see him a in few weeks. The doctor was kind to our daughter (who is definitely all of the terrible twos right now) and he did a good job of explaining what was going on with her eye and answering all of our questions. He also has a store attached to his office that sells glasses which makes everything really easy (our daughter ended up needing glasses to start to try and correct the lazy eye). We also kept our appt at Children's to get a second opinion and they agreed with his diagnosis. As someone who works in healthcare, I can tell you he is a good doctor and he cares about his patients and their families. Also, the staff that works in the store that sells the glasses is AWESOME. They really helped us figure out a good strategy to get our daughter to accept her glasses. They were also really tolerant of her terrible two year old behavior. I thank everyone involved in her care! read more

Dr, K is excellent. Not sure where the rest of you with negative comments are coming from. I have been a patient of Dr. K for over 20 years. I developed a childhood eye problem at 30 years old. I have been under is care the entire time and had surgery done by him. After not seeing him for 9 years, just went to see him a few days ago for a serious retinal probelm. 3 of my 5 children have been patients of Dr. K and I would not allow any other Dr. too handle my children's vision issues/problems. He is completely professional and responsive. Maybe he is not the warm and fuzzy guys that all you negative reviews are looking for, but for expertise and professionalism he is top-notch. If you have kids with serious eye-problems and want the best care go see Dr. K. read more

Dr. Kaufman and Dr. Hair are both very good Doctors. Dr. Hair has a great bedside manner and Dr. Kaufman is a Doctor. If you want your child to be diagnosed properly, then this is the place to go. If you need a Doctor to hold your hand and tell you that you are the best parent in the world, than go somewhere else. My daughter was given the wrong prescription at a chain eye location and I knew that something else was wrong, so I searched and found Dr. Kaufman. We had to patch her left eye to fix her lazy eye and now we are still waiting for her cross-eye to fix itself with her glasses. He is direct and to the point and has never wasted my time. I highly recommend his practice. read more

I had a good experience with Dr. Kaufman and his staff. My son had a blocked tear duct that needed to be evaluated and cleared, and although it was a long process (we had to wait for his eye to dilate to be checked, which took a while) I felt like we got really good care. The surgery was quick and effective, and I felt like he was in really good hands the whole time. Every part of the process was explained in detail so I knew what was happening and why, and my little boy doesn't have a gunky eye anymore! read more

I've been coming here for the past two years for my sons amblyopia. Dr. Kaufman knows what he's doing. He's good at what he does, but apparently his receptionists including the manager are all stupid. Every time I come here I always have an issue with my sons referral. It doesn't fail. I had an appointment today and let me mind you, being a parent we have busy lives and they wouldn't take him after they had already called me and told me that his referral was ok and they wanted to see him sooner before the referral expired. I was furious!!! Then she had the audacity to ask me who scheduled the appointment like I'm suppose to remember their name. I even had a text message to prove that they scheduled the appointment. I'm done with this place!!! I don't recommend it to anyone. Don't do it! I literally wanted to choke one of those receptionist. read more

I'm not a 5 year old, so I cannon attest how a child would perceive a eye exam. I was in my late forties when I saw Dr. Kaufman the first time. I've been wearing glasses all my life, and not a single doctor even suggested to see a specialist or that I had a problem that could be helped. I was going crazy. Dr. Kaufman literally saved me. I found him engaged and thoughtful. He identified the problem that I had and prescribed the right glasses. I can live again. read more

This doctor is very cold and unfriendly. His staff are very rude, customer service is appalling. Also, the waiting room smells like urine and wait times are usually an hour or longer. Will never bring my child back there and definitely would not recommend this office to anyone. read more

The first person that reviewed back in 2008 is right, he isn't one to chat or be overly personable. He is direct, to the point and doesn't give you any fluff. He deals with many different eye issues for children and certainly isn't one to give false hope or make the parents feel good if good results aren't being obtained. Would you prefer a doctor that tells you "like it is" or a doctor that makes you "feel good" and doesn't tell you the negative reality with a lot of serious eye conditions...ultimately resulting in blindness? As a parent, it's a tough pill to swallow when the doctor tells you that your child's eye condition and recovery rests solely in your hands and with genetics. It would be nice to hear, "Good job! Give yourself a pat on the back! You're child is doing great!!" But, that's not his style...he never gives false hope and rarely pays a compliment. If you want a chatty, sweet hearted doctor that gives lollipops to little ones and compliments to parents....then this isn't the doctor for you. If your child has a serious eye condition that needs an expert consultation/ recommendation/ or referral, then he is the doctor for you. read more