The Final…Final Word
Soon after leaving “The Hearing Journal,” I came to an agreement with Karl Strom to continue writing in my own style for “The Hearing Review.”
Tag: final word
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Embracing the Technological Revolution in Hearing Care
The future is clouded with unknowns like over-the-counter (OTC) opportunities and advances in implantable devices, but I’m sure that baby-boomer demographics will ensure that there will be plenty of potential hearing aid users who will need our help.
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The Pitfalls of “Locked” Hearing Aids
The question is whether or not it is a good thing to lock the software so that only “authorized” persons can have access to programming the hearing aids.
The Final Word: Making Compromises and Adapting to Change
Dr Van Vliet discusses how hearing care professionals must become agile at adapting to change–in myriad ways–as the hearing healthcare industry and hearing aid marketplace undergo changes.
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The Final Word: Van Vliet’s 5-year Predictions for Hearing Healthcare
In his November 2016 column, Dr Van Vliet makes predictions about the directions hearing care may take over the next 5 years in regard to disruptive technology, practice models, ear impressions, hearing aid batteries, and more.
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The Final Word: How Offhand Remarks Can Guide Patient Treatment
We may be better able to help patients when we listen not only to their direct statements, but also to the offhand remarks they make that can offer insight into their deeper thoughts, which can often guide us on the path to better communication and a better treatment plan.
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The Final Word: Avoiding Distractions on the Path to Hearing Care
Problems may occur when we or the patient focus solely on a particularly attractive new hearing technology. We may forget that technology, while important, is no substitute for clinical expertise and common sense. A blend of expertise, patient participation, and technology will help us stay on track.
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The Final Word: Using Data to Provide Fruitful Outcomes in Hearing Care
Dr Van Vliet discusses the importance of gathering as much data as possible–even where scientific studies are lacking–to help the patient with hearing problems reach the best possible, or most fruitful, outcome.
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The Final Word: Fear Can Motivate You to Be a Better Hearing Healthcare Practitioner
Fear can be a good thing. It can help us sharpen our skills, remain careful and competent when performing procedures, and look beyond protocols to explore other questions we should be asking our patients.
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The Final Word: Where Do You Refer a Disgruntled Patient, and How Do You Do It?
Dr Van Vliet considers how to refer a patient to a new provider without disrupting continuity of care or the bundled fee service model. What do you do for patients who need full service care, have purchased hearing aids under the model, but have relocated, or do not want to return to the original provider?
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The Final Word: To Bundle or Unbundle?
Bundle or unbundle fees for services? Dr Van Vliet argues for taking an eclectic approach. There are times that the simplicity of a bundled fee makes the most sense with certain consumers. Even with the bundled approach, calling out and “itemizing” the services included provides full disclosure of what the consumer is paying for.
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The Final Word: Taking a Lesson from Nature on the Importance of Hearing
Hearing is important, but not necessarily a priority for many of the people we see. If people have gone to the trouble to seek services from us, there is an unspoken message that hearing may be a priority for them, but they may not know it as such. Dennis Van Vliet suggests that, if we can shape our conversation with patients into a discussion of activities in their life that are important to them, it may not be necessary to force the question of how important hearing is to them.
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The Final Word: Matching Our Treatment Recommendations to Our Patients
Dr Van Vliet explains that some patients may have the capability to acquire something off the shelf, and be satisfied with what benefit it provides, while others will always need help. In a world of rapidly advancing technology, we should plan on being available to help those who need it.
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The Final Word: Leading Consumers to a Logical Solution
Dr Van Vliet argues that, even if the hearing marketplace evolves over the next few years to include more PSAPs and basic hearing aids as some are recommending, a consistent, universal message that offers clear logical guidelines would be helpful for consumers.
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The Final Word: Adjusting Our Recommendations to a Changing Technological Landscape
Dr Van Vliet discusses how we are looking at a change in our market that offers products that provide some of the benefits we now can only provide with hearing aids. Do we embrace the new products and build them into our treatment plans, or do we resist change and stick with our old formula?
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The Final Word: Complex Problems; Often-incomplete Solutions
Dr Van Vliet discusses how helping patients achieve better hearing requires a process with many elements: recognizing a problem, learning about it, doing something, and coming to the understanding that solutions are complex and often incomplete.
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The Final Word: Ensuring Benefit from Experience
Dr Van Vliet discusses how our experience and knowledge base is critical to practicing effectively. However, if we do not continue to learn about and adopt new techniques, tools, and products that are appropriate for our practices, we fall behind in our responsibilities.
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The Final Word: A Measure of Success
Dr Van Vliet discusses how we can help patients define what they want. They may only know that they are annoyed by their inability to understand speech in certain environments. If we build an approach that patients see is unique and specific for their needs, it may help shape their perception of the outcome.
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