KNOW HOW | Improving the Patient Experience

By Dawn Hulthen Koncsol

This article is a part of the November/December 2018, Volume 30, Number 6, Audiology Today issue.

Audiology, as a profession, is ever changing, growing, and evolving. Once again, with the upcoming over-the-counter hearing aid definition and Merit-Based Incentive Payment System, we all are trying to look in our crystal balls to see what the future holds. Audiologists have been the patient’s best option for the best patient care. We are, after all, part of the health-care industry.

We must focus now on how to provide the best patient experience, the most patient-centered care to ensure success.

We must make sure we have equipped ourselves with all of the tools, data, and information that we have available. We must look at how to make our clinics run the most efficiently. We must use all the resources under our control to keep our profession relevant and our practices successful.

Success can be difficult when trying to deliver top-notch audiology services with the highest standard of clinical care, awhile at the same time providing financially stable solutions for a practice to remain strong and present for years to come. The ultimate question is: “How do we provide that exceptional patient experience and keep the doors open?” Even seasoned audiologists will admit that practice management is a challenging topic. Working analytics and applying real-world numbers to optimize clinical patient care can feel like you’ve entered another profession entirely.

Time, equipment, resources, and staffing will be the major issues we contend with as we try to achieve a successful balance. We ask questions, such as: What is enough time for a diagnostic assessment or a hearing aid evaluation and fitting? How can we see a substantial number of patients and give the time for counseling and services we feel is appropriate? How do we have the most recent equipment with all the features when reimbursement for testing can be so very poor? How do we have enough staffing to manage patient care? Who are the most appropriate staff members for audiology services? Lastly, how do we have the best products at the most reasonable cost to provide multiple solutions to patients? We review these very real questions daily in our practice as we look into the crystal ball for the future.