Time is money.
Those three words sum up why hearing health professionals should utilize hearing aid verification equipment in their practices. By doing so, you will reduce the number of follow-up visits from each patient, increasing cost savings as a result.
Hearing care practitioners should never entirely focus on how much time was spent with a patient on the first visit. Rather, the entire process of properly fitting hearing aids to accommodate a patient’s needs must be considered when evaluating time and costs. If you can reduce the need for those minor adjustment appointments that cramp your schedule, you are doing something right. And, that “something right” must include verification and validation.
According to Sergei Kochkin, PhD, a MarkeTrak VIII study showed that verification and validation in the hearing aid fitting process can reduce follow-up patient visits (1.2 fewer visits) and improve patient satisfaction. So, by introducing verification equipment during a first visit, along with patient questionnaires that validate the results, time-saving benefits are realized in the future. The use of hearing aid verification equipment as part of the fitting process will produce a better first fit, greatly reducing the need for a return visit (or multiple return visits).
MarkeTrak VIII also noted that 76 percent of patients with above-average success were correctly fit in one or two visits. However, the study also noted that when a patient has to return to their hearing health professional’s office more than three times for a fitting issue, their satisfaction with that provider’s products and services diminishes. It can even lead to a patient rejecting their hearing aids or returning them for credit.
By leveraging the verification technology available to you, your practice can experience the best patient outcomes. To accomplish that, you should sit down and create a hearing-aid fitting workflow plan that addresses each patient’s unique issues, includes verification during the initial fitting, and allows for one return fitting adjustment visit, if necessary. With such a plan in place, and with a staff that is knowledgeable and caring, your practice will be utilizing best practices for time saving, as well as strengthening your patients’ perception of the quality and professionalism they receive from you.
In short, any minutes and hours you spend during avoidable, repeat-fitting patient visits are better spent concentrating on improving the quality of care for existing patients, and in implementing your newly established, all-inclusive workflow designed for new patients. Maximizing the use of verification equipment you have on hand will make your practice more cost-efficient, which needs to be your goal. Because as we noted earlier, “time is money.”
Looking to start leveraging hearing aid verification. e3 carries the most renowned systems in the world. Check out our offerings today!
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