Tips for drivers with hearing loss
Posted by jonathan on May 25, 2011 under Hearing Loss | 
Be the First to Comment
She’s Got Legs….
Posted by HearingAids on May 18, 2011 under Hearing Aids | Be the First to Comment
A Customer Service Highlight
By: Suzanne Younker
We all know that successful hearing aid fittings depends on “balance blending” of patient wants/needs/expectations, technology, and our troubleshooting skills. No one can be an expert in all of these areas and that is why the “second opinion” was invented.
Case Study: Patient is long-time user of ITE style HAs, who more recently pursued 2 BTE hearing aids. Over the year, multiple visits pursued for “hurts”, “slips/falls out”, and “can’t hear”. Remedy strategies included multiple changes of tubing length, earmold remakes, and counseling not to take her glasses off too fast. Recently, her daughter contacted Customer Service seeking a return for credit as mother had been continuously complaining and cannot wear them, remarking, “The most painful spot is in back of ear.”
A “second opinion” was arranged for a deliberate and careful observation of the facts, the product, and the physical fit of the hearing aids. Then, a simple act of “heat-bending” the earhooks for a snugger/tighter fit over the pinna resolved most of the problems. Additionally, professional observed that patient’s eye glass legs were very long – twice as long as daughter’s – and recommended shorter/thinner style frame legs. Two weeks later, patient called the professional and wanted to “give him a kiss over the phone”; stating that he finally resolved the 1 ½ years of pain and frustration.
Whether credit is due to “a fresh set of eyes” to review the facts, or, whether psychology is at play, using our own “natural resources”, our colleagues, as teammates in addressing fitting issues can make a huge difference in creating a friend or foe of hearing aids.
CSI: West Palm Beach…
Posted by HearingAids on May 13, 2011 under Hearing Loss | Be the First to Comment
A Customer Service Highlight
By: Suzanne Younker
Occasionally, our patient’s get “robbed” of their amplification benefits due to unexplained, unidentified, chronic malfunction problems that go unresolved. The symptoms of the malfunction cleverly disguise themselves as a component issue, when, in fact, it usually is something entirely different. Some detective work is required to prevent these cases from ending up cold.
Case Study: Patient has severe hearing loss and is a long-time user of monaural In the canal hearing aid. He purchased one in October 2009. In September 2010, one year after favorable results, patient complained that the “volume goes up/down by itself…” There were no leads on the reason for the malfunction; could not be duplicated in the office. From September – November, several “stings” were pursued to replace components, remake with different length canal, and re-plate entirely; the culprit was untraceable. Subsequently, patient became extremely frustrated and requested justice or a refund.
C Interview with Professional on Program Settings: Kneepoints are 69-75dB, dual compression, 16dB VC range, minimum S/N reduction
C Interview with Patient on Specifics of Crime: “I always turn the wheel all the way up and then back down a little to hear well, however, with radio and TV, voices are good, then, volume goes up and go down for seconds and sometimes minutes and I miss the words…Very frustrating!”
C Interview with Siemens Audiologist: Possible issues are battery surges due to high-VC drainage, if need more gain, recommend change receiver to make it “hot” with max gain/output, turn off the input compression, change the VC range to 8dB, make a music program his primary program
Upon reviewing all of the evidence and interviews, the professional pursued the recommendation to change the VC range to 8dB and to change input compression to “off”. Outcome? The programming changes eliminated the “malfunction” and patient is, once again, a content citizen. It seems that with patient’s high volume need and wheel setting, the TV/Radio voices were being compressed causing the softening of the voices. The evidence from the detective work led to the culprit’s arrest. CASE SOLVED!
The Faces of Hear USA
Posted by HearingAids on May 11, 2011 under Hearing Aids | 2 Comments to Read
The company I work for just created this awesome video… check it out!
The Best Mothers Day Present
Posted by HearingAids on May 6, 2011 under Hearing Aids | Be the First to Comment
Doris tells us about how the gift of hearing is going to make this the best mothers day ever!
Binaural Hearing 2 is better than 1
Posted by jonathan on May 5, 2011 under Hearing Aids | Be the First to Comment
