What are Audiology Best Practices?

Best practices are a set of standards that are proven by research to result in you hearing your absolute best. At Kalady Audiology, we are committed to providing the highest quality of care and ensure that we are following best practices to maximize the amount of benefit you receive from treating your hearing loss.

To begin with, a comprehensive case history is be taken, and includes a medical history and listening lifestyle needs assessment.  We also determine the need for cerumen (earwax) removal. Once this has been completed, a comprehensive audiologic evaluation will be performed, which minimally includes air/bone conduction (say yes to the beep), word recognition testing, and speech-in-noise testing. Test results are discussed with the client, reviewing, if appropriate, the type and severity of the hearing loss, and whether a medical referral is necessary.  Once determined to be a candidate, the test results, along with the self-reported results from the needs assessment are used to create a plan to address the hearing loss.  This will establish patient-specific goals and set realistic expectations.

This information is used to determine proper selection of the correct hearing devices.  Once the hearing aids are selected, we will perform a test box measure. This is a quality control measure to ensure the devices are meeting manufacturer specifications and functioning as they should. Real-Ear measurements are performed to verify that the programming of your hearing aids aligns with the prescription of your hearing loss (Is what we have programmed through the software what the hearing aids are delivering to your ears?).  Sometimes hearing aids alone are not enough to address all the needs of the patient, especially in noisy environments or when the speaker is a considerable distance away. Hearing aid accessories, such as remote microphones, can be used to improve the signal-to-noise ratio and provide significantly better speech understanding in complex listening environments.

Dr Kalady will review insertion/removal of the devices, proper care and maintenance, and how to use possible options, such as volume controls and/or additional programs.  It is also very important for us to set realistic expectations of what hearing aids can accomplish, and what you can do to contribute to a successful fitting. Proper counseling is an important component to treatment to ensure that you and your primary communication partner(s) develop appropriate strategies to maximize the assistance received from hearing aids. This will be accomplished with an Aural Rehabilitation program provided to you by Dr Kalady.  During your trial, you will have regularly scheduled follow-up visits to check the datalogging, programming, and re administer aided speech in noise testing and post fitting questionnaires to gather outcome measures.  This establishes success of the plan and whether patient established goals have been met.

Scheduled maintenance and annual hearing testing will ensure continued success for years to come.