Question
I work with an audiologist who is 76 years old and has a severe high frequency loss bilaterally. Every time we run a speech discrimination test on a patient for hearing aid evaluation, he miscalculates the scores because he did not hear the patients' respond correctly. I've compared my scores with his scores and there is a big difference. I've tried telling him of the difference but he would just brush it off. What can be done to correct this problem? He's got hearing aids but wouldn't wear them during hearing aid evaluation testing.
Answer
I guess I got this question as I seem to be an old guy. Who's really the expert on this kind of a question? On one hand, I would congratulate this person as he still is working and still has an interest in audiology and the hearing impaired after all these years of practice. On the other, he is significantly compromising patient care and needs to face some reality issues.
This seems like an acceptance problem, the kind of thing that all his professional life he has asked patients to accommodate and he cannot seem to do it himself. This person needs to be sat down by someone he respects (a peer colleague possibly) and told that he has a problem and needs to face it. Sometimes a HINT or a Quick SIN test with and without the instruments can demonstrate these difficulties rather well.
This kind of a problem is new in our field as we are generally a young profession and not that many of us stay around this long. I would liken this problem to a surgeon that gets hand tremors. This does not have the same life threatening consequences, but both are problems that require substantial modification of practice patterns.
Robert Traynor has been in private practice in Greeley, Colorado for over 30 years. During this time he maintained academic positions at the University of Northern Colorado and Colorado State University. Currently, he teaches the Business and Professional Issues in Hearing Healthcare course for the University of Florida Working Professional Doctor of Audiology Program and Hearing Aid Technologies for Pennsylvanian School of Optometry. Additionally, he is Senior International Audiology Consultant for Bernafon A/G, Bern, Switzerland.
Robert M. Traynor, EdD, MBA
CEO and a practicing audiologist at Audiology Associates, Inc.
Robert M. Traynor, Ed.D., MBA is the CEO and a practicing audiologist at Audiology Associates, Inc., in Greeley and Johnstown, Colorado with particular emphasis in amplification and operative monitoring, as well as offering all general audiological services to patients of all ages. Dr. Traynor holds degrees from the University of Northern Colorado (BA, 1972, MA 1973, Ed.D., 1975), conducted Post Doctoral Study at Northwestern University in 1984 and studied business at the University of Phoenix (MBA, 2006). He taught Audiology at the University of Northern Colorado (1973-1982), University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (1976-77) and Colorado State University (1982-1993). Dr. Traynor serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Florida, the University of Colorado, and the University of Northern Colorado. For 17 years he was a consultant to a major hearing instrument manufacturer holding the title of Senior International Audiology Consultant traveling all over the world providing academic audiological and product orientation for distributors and staff. A clinician and practice manager for over 35 years, Dr. Traynor has lectured on most aspects of the field of Audiology in over 40 countries. Dr. Traynor is the co-author of Strategic Practice Management, an audiology business management textbook, used in most universities to train audiologists in practice management.
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