The short version: a large majority of our surgical patients are co-managed — their own optometrist handles the evaluation before surgery and the follow-up visits afterward, and we stay in contact with that doctor throughout. Having surgery at Berg-Feinfield does not mean leaving the optometrist you already see. For patients who aren’t co-managed, we have our own team of ophthalmologists and optometrists in house: Dr. Angineh Almasi, Dr. Selin Auvazian, Dr. Alique Boulgourjian, Dr. Carol Felestian, and Dr. Jane Kim.
If an optometrist sent you to Berg-Feinfield, you probably have a relationship with that doctor going back years. They know your prescription history, they are the one who caught whatever brought you here, and they are who you would call first about your eyes. A referral for surgery is not meant to end that.
It usually doesn’t. Most of our surgical patients are co-managed, which means the optometrist who referred you stays on your case — handling much of the work before the procedure and most of the follow-up afterward, while we perform the surgery and report back. You keep the doctor you already trust, and you don’t drive across Los Angeles for a five-minute check when the person who knows your history is ten minutes from your house.
How co-management works
Co-management is a shared-care arrangement between your optometrist and a surgical practice, and at Berg-Feinfield it’s the usual path rather than the exception. Your optometrist identifies the problem and refers you. We evaluate you surgically, confirm the plan, and perform the procedure. Your optometrist then carries you through recovery, with our surgeons available at any point and records moving in both directions.
Your surgeon owns the surgical decisions and the earliest post-operative checks. From there, the visits that make up most of recovery — confirming the eye is quiet, the pressure is normal, the vision is landing where it should, the drops are being used correctly — happen with the doctor you already know, in the office you already drive to.
It works because nothing is guessed at. Your optometrist knows what we did and why. We know what they’re seeing. If something looks off at any visit, it comes back to us the same day.
For referring optometrists
If you’re an OD looking to co-manage a patient with us, our referral resources and surgeon contacts are on our partnering optometrists page.
What the optometrist on your case actually does
Whether that’s your own optometrist or one of ours, the role is the same — and it’s a bigger share of the outcome than most patients expect.
Before surgery
Most of what determines a good surgical result happens before you ever reach the operating suite. The shape of your cornea is mapped, the length of your eye is measured, the retina and optic nerve are checked, and the tear film is evaluated. Those numbers are what the surgeon plans from.
That workup also catches the things that would quietly ruin a good result. An unstable tear film throws off the measurements used to calculate lens power — which is why dry eye gets treated before surgery rather than after. A cornea thinner or more irregular than expected changes which procedures are appropriate. Early retinal changes can rule out certain lens choices entirely. Finding these things beforehand is the difference between a plan and a guess.
After surgery
Recovery is not a single moment. It’s a sequence of checkpoints — the day after, the first week, the first month, and further out — and each one exists to confirm that healing is going the way it should. Skipping them, or rushing them, is how small problems become large ones.
If you don’t have an optometrist
Not every patient arrives with one. Some come to us directly after researching LASIK or being told they have a cataract. Some have moved, or simply haven’t had a full eye exam in years. For those patients we have five optometrists in house, so the evaluation and the follow-up get the same attention a co-managing doctor would give them.
Each brings a different focus, which means you get matched to the doctor whose training fits what you need.
Carol Felestian, OD
A board-certified optometrist who has cared for our refractive surgery patients since 2008, with a specialization in dry eye treatment. She received her Doctor of Optometry degree with highest honors from the Southern California College of Optometry and speaks English, Farsi, and Spanish.
Alique Boulgourjian, OD
A board-certified optometrist with extensive experience managing patients before and after cataract surgery, LASIK, PRK, EVO ICL, and corneal cross-linking, built over several years inside a multi-specialty surgical practice.
Angineh Almasi, OD
Raised in Burbank, Dr. Almasi has co-managed ophthalmic procedures her entire career and LASIK since 2010. She participated in the CLEK corneal research study at the Jules Stein Eye Institute during her undergraduate years, and is fluent in Armenian and English.
Selin Auvazian, OD
Residency-trained in Primary Care and Ocular Disease at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center, with advanced training in glaucoma, diabetic eye disease, macular degeneration, and low vision rehabilitation.
Jane Kim, OD
A certified fitter of Paragon Corneal Refractive Therapy, orthokeratology, and SynergEyes hybrid lenses — the options for eyes that standard contacts can’t correct comfortably, including keratoconus. She has spent the last decade providing no-cost exams for uninsured youth in Pasadena.
How to get the most out of your visit
- Tell us who your optometrist is at your first call, so we can loop them in from the start
- Bring your current glasses and any contact lenses you wear, plus the boxes or prescription if you have them
- Stop wearing contacts before your evaluation — ask how long, since soft and rigid lenses need different amounts of time for your cornea to return to its natural shape
- Bring a full list of medications, including drops and anything over the counter
- Mention any previous eye surgery, including LASIK, PRK, or RK from decades ago — it changes how measurements are calculated
- Say if your eyes burn, sting, water, or fluctuate through the day; that’s dry eye, and it’s better addressed before surgery than after
- Expect dilation at a full evaluation, and arrange a ride if bright light bothers you
Surgery is a short chapter in a long relationship with your eyes. The point of co-management is that the chapter fits into the rest of the book — and where a patient doesn’t have that continuity already, we provide it.