The Benefits of an Aural Rehab Program
By AHAA Staff

As we move between the roles of diagnostician, clinician, counselor, dispenser and manager, we need to find better ways to manage our time and be more proficient in our field. In order to grow our practice, we also have a tendency to spend less time counseling our patients and more time trying to properly program their hearing aids.

One solution to this problem would be to add an aural rehab program to your service offerings. A comprehensive rehab program should be designed to reach not only your patients but also their significant others. I recommend setting aside a 2-hour period, once a week, and either training a key employee or hiring an experienced hearing aid wearer to lead the classes.

Our goal is to make the classes more of a support group than a clinical experience. The classes should not only focus on instructing the patient about aural rehab but a considerable amount of time should be spent on educating the spouse, family member, or friend about how to deal with a hearing impaired person.

To encourage utilization of the program, you should add an incentive for the patient such as a free assistive listening device or extended trial periods. While we don’t want to make this a sales presentation, you should take the opportunity during the classes to show and demonstrate various assistive devices and hearing aid maintenance products.

The overall goal of your aural rehab program will be to enhance the patients’ level of satisfaction and reduce the number of returns.

Written by the Staff of the American Hearing Aid Associates.