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Good questions to ask an audiologist/dispenser?

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Questions…as specific as possible.

Especially the kind one asks to suss them out before having the done, which more or less commits you to that vendor b/c insurance only pays for one, a 2nd one in the same year likely costs hundreds.

What I have so far is:

What brand/model aids do you specialize in??

Assuming the answer is X, Y, Z aid, etc.:
How many pairs of X hearing aids did you fit in the last 6 months??
What version of X fitting software do you use??
How many times a year do you visit with the X rep??
Do you have fitting available, and is it included in the price??

What should be asked about the audiogram testing??

The last one I had was so brief I couldn’t believe it. Did not leave me with a good feeling. That audi is not now being considered.

Thank you, Tom

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Ha well good luck with trying to interrogate any Audiologist with meaningless questions, do your own research on what brand/model you’d like to try, then you could shop around, Costco is the first place to go if possible, if you only have insurance then your stuck with whoever is willing to work with them, you could also consider projects to save all the hassle.

  • What is your philosophy around client care?
  • What is your client satisfaction rate?
  • What audiological best practices do you follow (you can find best practice checklists here10)?
  • Do you have any commercial relationships with specific manufacturers or commercial conflicts of interest?
  • What kind of ongoing support do you provide clients whom you have fit with hearing aids?

I was trying to help establish the fact that since you’re paying (regardless of nation) you have a right to it if you paid for it. Now you can go somewhere else, with test in hand to acquire treatment if needed.

WH

One drawback is that some audis/dispensers insist on doing their own, as if the one done one (1) week ago somewhere else is defective somehow.

Actually: that precise reason. You might have the same thresholds, you might not.

Even from last week, it’s unlikely your sensorineural loss has significantly changed (without other symptoms), but conductive losses can alter in a matter hours.

Also, if I didn’t test you, how do I know the masking was done properly or even if the test met basic environmental conditions.

In reply to @kev716

While true in theory it often does not happen in practice particularly with newer digital data. For example while every audiologist will provide a printout of the and any test results, not many will provide the export file from the fitting software (some will print the report but that is still missing data and the ability to be imported). I’ve also had some test results discarded from raw print out form after being entered in another form to the chart (for example accoustic reflex testing that printed from the machine on a paper roll). US law could use some updates as to records created and not merely whatever the provider decides to distill. HHS is also far too lenient with providing assistance rather than enforcement even if initial fines were modest.

In reply to @tom12010

Most doctors don’t trust the coming from hearing aid clinics. There’s only one chain that is universally trusted in my country and their tests are charged at a 40% premium for this reason. All the surgeons in private practice require new tests if it came from any other retail clinic. Why would a competing audiologist be any different?

I think this applies to most medical areas (as well as most mechanics as well). The reasoning being, why would any doctor, auto mechanic, electrician, etc want to put his/her time, effort and reputation on the line based on someone else’s testing or analysis? When I take my car into a mechanic with a problem, even if I tell him what another shop tested and found out, he/she would want to run the test himself with the equipment that he is familiar with and trusts.

There is variability in how well clinicians perform their jobs. It’s not so much about different chains, but individual clinicians. Not everyone has gone through the same education programme or has the same level of experience. If all of the tests are showing the exact same thing and it makes sense and has been repeated within the past 3 months then the evidence weighs in favour of the tests being accurate if its a pure sensorineural loss. But what we often see happening is a single complete test and then repeated screening tests without a confirmation of all results assuming the first test is correct. I’ve worked alongside a lot of clinicians, many of whom had practiced for decades longer than myself and have found a lot of bad habits or incorrect practice that mean repeating the test is necessary. It’s only when an organisation has strict auditing and enforcecment of internal standards that it can earn trust as an organisation. Most organisations don’t have this. They do the minimum necessary for compliance rather than aiming for excellence.

In reply to @user490

I would still do my own test. It’s not that the other testing is, necessarily, bad quality. It’s a matter that someone comes to me for my professional ability to help them and I am to be responsible for the outcome. The way to do that is to have end-to-end control of the quality. It’s much more efficient for me and the patient to do the test under my control with my procedures and my equipment than to research testing that was done somewhere else, by someone else, with equipment that is not calibrated to my standards or with my methods.

Also, the actual process means I need to enter an . If I’m going to go through the rigmarole of creating a new patient record, I might as well actually build around a legitimate test.

There’s also a time constraint on fitting for best practice. Using someone else’s (bogus or not test) means that you’re putting a false date into your Noah/other DB. That’s improper ethics.

You’ve never paid for an ? the free ones are never a full test and aren’t used for fitting, I’ve never heard of any clinic that doesn’t charge for this service in some way.

In reply to @user490

I wouldn’t say that the majority of tests I see from outside clinics are bad, but rather that I’ve been burned by too many bad tests to take it on faith that the test is good without redoing it. If I know the other clinician then I might accept it. If you came in with a bunch of other tests that all agreed then yes that might also be fine. Alternatively, I might want to recheck at least SOME of a test.

Where I am you see the opposite of what hearing potential mentions–independent audiology clinic tests tend to be more precise than tests. This is in part because ENTs often employ techs, but more because they are looking for whether or not they should cut not how to fit a hearing aid. Surgical decisions are less influenced by small differences in the .

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