What is optometric co-management?

Optometric co-management means your own eye doctor and our surgeons share your care around eye surgery. Your optometrist can stay the doctor you see for routine eye care and for most of your visits after surgery; our surgeons perform the surgery itself. It is the way Commonwealth Eye Surgery works with your local eye doctor, and it is why most of your care can happen close to home.

Co-management at a glance

• What it is: Your optometrist and our surgeons share your care around eye surgery.
• Your optometrist: Your routine eye care, the referral when surgery may help, and, if you choose, most of your follow up visits after surgery.
• Our offices: A consultation and exam before any surgery, with one of our doctors.
• Our surgeons: The surgery itself, and any visit that needs the surgeon.
• After surgery: You can go back to your own optometrist for follow up visits or be seen by one of our optometrists. The choice is yours.
• Staying in touch: We keep your optometrist informed about your care, and we are available to you by phone with questions.
• Routine eye exams: Your optometrist, not us. We do not provide routine eye care, so you need a local optometrist.
• Getting to us: For LASIK, you can call us directly. For every other procedure, your optometrist refers you to us.
• Next step: Call Commonwealth Eye Surgery in Louisville at (502) 306-9551.

Who does what in co-management

Your optometrist provides your routine eye care. For many people, that is the eye doctor who checks their vision each year and writes the prescription for their glasses or contact lenses. When that doctor sees a change that surgery might help, such as a cataract, or when you ask about reducing your dependence on glasses and contacts, your optometrist can refer you to us.

Our surgeons are ophthalmologists, medical doctors licensed to practice medicine and perform eye surgery. Before any surgery you have a consultation and exam at one of our offices, where one of our optometrists confirms whether the procedure is right for your eyes and talks through what to expect. On the day of surgery, one of our surgeons performs the procedure.

After surgery, your optometrist can provide most of your follow up visits, close to home. We stay in touch with your optometrist about your care, and we may ask to see you ourselves at certain points. If you would rather come back to us for your follow up visits, you can; the choice is yours.

What a co-managed eye surgery looks like

1. Your eye exam. Your optometrist notices a change, or you ask about your options, and refers you to Commonwealth Eye Surgery.
2. Your consultation with us. An exam at one of our offices confirms whether you are a candidate and which procedure fits how you use your vision day to day.
3. Your surgery. One of our surgeons performs the procedure.
4. Your follow up. Most visits can happen with your own optometrist, or with one of our optometrists if you prefer.

Why we work this way

Commonwealth Eye Surgery is locally and privately owned, and decisions are made within the practice. Co-management is part of that. You keep the eye doctor who knows your eyes and your history, your travel time is kept to a minimum, and your optometrist’s office and ours stay in regular contact about your care. That matters in the weeks after surgery, when a short drive to a doctor who already knows you is easier than a long one.

Where your care happens

Co-management covers the care around your surgery. Consultations and exams take place at either of our offices, every weekday. LASIK and PRK are performed in our offices. Cataract surgery, the EVO ICL, refractive lens exchange, and the Light Adjustable Lens are performed at a surgery center, not in the office; for patients of our Louisville office, that is Dupont Surgery Center in Louisville, a separate surgery facility.

One part of follow up stays with us: light adjustments for the Light Adjustable Lens are done at our Lexington clinic for every Light Adjustable Lens patient, by one of our optometrists.

What co-management covers, and what it does not

• Whether a procedure is right for you. That is decided at your consultation with us.
• Who performs your surgery. Our surgeons perform LASIK, PRK, cataract surgery, EVO ICL, refractive lens exchange, and the Light Adjustable Lens procedure.
• Which visits are with us. The consultation before surgery, the surgery itself, and, for the Light Adjustable Lens, the light adjustments.
• Results. Co-management describes where your care happens. What a procedure can do for your eyes, and its risks and limits, is discussed at your consultation.

Do you need a referral?

For most of what we do, yes. We do not provide routine eye exams, and for cataract surgery, the EVO ICL, refractive lens exchange, and the Light Adjustable Lens we see you on a referral from your optometrist. If you do not have an eye doctor, start with a local optometrist; that doctor examines your eyes and refers you to us when surgery may help.

LASIK is the exception. You can call us directly to schedule a LASIK consultation at either of our offices. In Louisville, consultations are done every weekday at 9780 Ormsby Station Road #200. If you have an optometrist, tell us, so we can keep that doctor informed and your follow up visits can be with them.

Frequently asked questions

What is co-managed eye surgery?

Co-managed eye surgery is surgery where your own optometrist and the surgeon share your care. Your optometrist refers you and can provide most of your follow up visits. Our surgeon performs the procedure. The two offices stay in contact about your care.

Do I need a referral from my optometrist to see you?

For LASIK, you can call us directly to schedule a consultation. For every other procedure, your optometrist refers you to us. Either way, tell us who your eye doctor is, so we can keep that doctor informed.

Who does my follow up visits after surgery?

Most of them can be with your own optometrist, close to home. You can also choose to be seen by one of our optometrists. Light adjustments for the Light Adjustable Lens are done at our Lexington clinic.

Will my optometrist know how my surgery went?

We keep your optometrist informed about your care, including after surgery, so your follow up visits pick up where we left off.

What is the difference between an optometrist and an ophthalmologist?

An ophthalmologist is a medical doctor (MD or DO) who is licensed to practice medicine and perform eye surgery. An optometrist holds a doctor of optometry (OD) degree. Our surgeons are ophthalmologists. At our offices, consultations, exams, and follow up visits are performed by our optometrists, with a surgeon consulting when needed.

Can I keep seeing my optometrist for glasses and contacts after surgery?

Your optometrist stays your eye doctor. Co-management keeps that relationship in place and adds our surgeons for the part of your care that needs surgery.

Schedule a consultation

If you have been told you have a cataract, or you want to ask about reducing your dependence on glasses and contacts, talk with your optometrist and ask for a referral to Commonwealth Eye Surgery. If LASIK is what you have in mind, call us in Louisville at (502) 306-9551 to schedule a consultation. Our Louisville office is at 9780 Ormsby Station Road #200, Louisville, KY 40223, open Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Our Lexington office can be reached at (859) 224-2655.

Keep reading

• Vision correction options
• How co-management works: your optometrist before and after surgery
• LASIK
• Cataract surgery
• Our Doctors
• Our Louisville office

Sources

• American Academy of Ophthalmology, EyeSmart: What Is an Ophthalmologist vs Optometrist? Reviewed by Kendra Denise DeAngelis, MD. Published January 22, 2026. Read October 28, 2026.