07/21/2024
Just this week alone I had to tell 3 patients that they were Not cochlear implant candidates.
They were disappointed as they were desperate to hear better then their current situation. They are struggling to hear general conversations. They are now isolated at home not wanting to go out with family and friends. Their life has been changed.
What is surprising is that all 3 patients could be doing significantly better with appropriate hearing aids. They have been burned and are leery to trust that different hearing aids and programming could be better.
I tested all 3 patients with their current hearing aids and then I programmed my clinic hearing aids using research based best practices for prescribing and fitting hearing aids. These are the results from their hearing aids to my clinic hearing aids.
Patient 1:
Outside HAs: 34% speech understanding in noise
My Clinic HAs: 82% speech understanding in noise
Patient 2:
Outside HAs: 58% speech understanding in quiet and 27% in noise
My Clinic HAs: 87% speech understanding in quiet and 79% in noise
Patient 3:
Outside HAs: 47% speech understanding in noise
My Clinic HAs: 74% speech understanding in noise
These scores are very eye opening that even when you buy hearing aids if they are not programmed and fit appropriately based on prescription verification you are wasting time and money. I would be mad to if I was only understanding 34% in conversations with the hearing aids. But now knowing that I could be understanding 82% with better hearing aids. What would you do if this was you?
Now these 3 patients do not want to spend more money on hearing aids because they think it is the hearing aids.
I try to teach my kids this important lesson all the time: when you buy less than, don't expect more than. Know what you are purchasing and if it does not work are you willing to lose that money and start over with better. OR do you start with better quality. For some items it is ok to buy cheap but for some like healthcare, well, it is the choice of the patient.
How as Audiologist do better at educating patients to receive better quality hearing healthcare. There are many Audiologist who do amazing work. We are fighting for patients daily to receive better, to do better, to hear better.
All hearing aids are not the same and these results are just a small sample of what I see every week. If you are going to invest in your hearing healthcare, please do so with the appropriate Audiologist.
