Audiology Assistants & Why You Need One

Audiology assistants can help improve our income, productivity and public perception.

Think about this, when you go to the dentist, they are the expert who comes in for the end of your appointment. They check and interpret your x-ray scans, do the final thorough check of your teeth, and they are the ones to perform more complex tasks such as fillings or tooth repairs. The dental hygienist is a highly trained professional, who is typically paid less than the dentist, and provides the more time consuming tasks that don't require a dentist level of education. Without a hygienist, the dentist would be spending the majority of their day taking the x-ray scans and doing routine cleanings, which are likely reimbursed at a lower rate than a filling or root canal treatment.

Why, in audiology, do we typically work alone without assistants? We call the patient back from the waiting room, check their ears, do the testing, do the counseling, do the clean and checks, and spend hours changing wax filters and pairing bluetooth. Having an assistant in your office, can alleviate many of the non-revenue producing tasks, and can improve the image of the audiologist as the expert doctor, rather than the technician (or "hearing aid girl" as many patients so lovingly refer to us).

If you are working in an expanding practice, you may be able to pay your providers a higher salary if they are focusing more of their time an assessments, hearing aid fittings, and revenue generating tasks, rather than clean and checks and paperwork. In Canada, the average audiology assistant earns about 50% of the average audiologist, so if you are expanding, it may be more cost effective to employ an assistant than a second provider, depending on your needs. Listed below are 10 tasks that could potentially be assigned to an audiology assistant. Check your local and state/province rules before employing an assistant, as their scope may be more limited.

1. Routine clean and check appointments

Following up with patients regularly is imperative for the proper function of their hearing devices. However, regular clean and check appointments are not revenue generating (especially if you provide bundled services). You could regularly schedule clean and checks biannually with your assistant, or provide walk-in hours for your assistant to perform cleanings. By keeping patients scheduled back regularly, this provides preventative maintenance, and keeps you front of mind for them when they are considering newer technology.

2. Community hearing screenings

Trained audiology assistants can be used as a community marketing tool. They could provide presentations, clean and checks, and hearing screenings at community events, senior groups or retirement homes.

3. Checking in devices and electroacoustic analysis

Think about all the behind the scenes steps when you order a new devices for a patient, or send in a repair. An assistant can help with ordering, tracking orders, then checking in the devices when they arrive. They could even pre-program devices to ensure firmware is updated and run electroacoustic analysis (EAA) prior to the fitting. If they are not well-versed in EAA, the assistant could just run the testing, and print or save it for the audiologist to check and interpret.

4. Counseling

Think of how much time is spent during a fitting appointment or follow-up with just counseling and instructions. Changing domes, changing wax filters, using push buttons, practicing insertion in the ears, using accessories, and more. The audiologist can program and verify the devices, then an assistant can pick up the second half of the fitting appointment.

5. Aural rehabilitation

Ever wish you had more time in your schedule to provide aural rehabilitation, either one-on-one or group classes? An assistant would be a great person to host these events, appointments or create videos. (Bonus: In Canada, aural rehab is part of the Communicative Disorders Assistant (CDA) curriculum. CDA is a one-year graduate certificate to become an audiology or speech-language pathology assistant)

6. Marketing

Social media marketing, physician marketing, blog posts for SEO optimization, community events, phone marketing or follow up letters. These are marketing tools we know we should be using, but don't always have time for if you're seeing patients all day. Rather than paying an external social media marketing company, sometimes you can find a savvy assistant to help you create more organic and authentic content for your brand.

7. Home visits or virtual visits

With the right training and equipment, an assistant could travel to a patient, then virtually connect with the audiologist to conduct the appointment with a hybrid-telehealth model. Using video chat, video otoscope, portable testing equipment and virtual hearing aid programming. This can save the audiologist clinic time since they don't have to physically travel to the patient.

8. Bluetooth

Need I say more? Bluetooth connectivity has become more and more common with hearing aids. And not to be dramatic, it's sometimes the bane our existence. An assistant could take those appointments for Bluetooth pairing, troubleshooting and instruction. As well as pairing, troubleshooting and counseling for other accessories and assistive devices.

9. Financing and insurance

I recently had laser eye surgery, and prior to the procedure an assistant took me in to a separate office to discuss payment options, plans and financing, and helped facilitate my payment. This helped separate the surgeon from the payment, and provided a private area to have this discussion away from the waiting room desk. Payments, financing and insurance are often time consuming tasks, and an audiologist may not always have time during a typical hearing aid evaluation to dive in to these financial aspects. Assistants can take the time to check client insurance coverage before or during their visit. They could also consult with the client and help them apply for financing. Plus, by having the patient consult with another person, it removes the audiologist from the financial aspect of the decision. Again, this can help the audiologist appear more like the hearing expert they are, rather than a sales person.

10. Jack of all trades

Assisting with pediatric hearing tests, troubleshooting and calibrating equipment, ordering supplies. They could create patient handouts, keep supplies and tools organized, and so much more. Depending on your assistant's role, they may perform tasks similar to a client care coordinator (front desk staff) or an office manager. The lines between these titles are not always clear cut, as it depends on the flow and needs of your practice. In a busy ENT office, your client care coordinator may be tied to the desk and phones and not have time for clean and checks, but in a smaller scale one-clinician practice, the CCC and assistant could be the same person.

Unfortunately, in many settings, audiologists are spreading ourselves too thin and spending time on non-revenue generating tasks, which affects our pay and bottom line. If you want to level up your expertise, patient satisfaction and clinic flow, consider an audiology assistant when planning your business growth!

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Photo by Paico Oficial on Unsplash

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