Telehealth Appointments: Get Care From Home During “COVID Times,” Due to Immobility, or Just Plain Convenience

For years, we have been using telehealth appointments to work remotely with patients and their family members, caregivers, and powers of attorney who cannot attend in-person appointments (up to 6 participants), to discuss:

• Medical cases (Tinnitus, Meniere’s disease, sudden hearing loss, balance issues, etc)
• Hearing aid maintenance or feature orientation
• Hearing aid upgrade opportunities
• Insurance questions

Remote Programming Now Available

With the development of new hearing aid technology and manufacturers’ smartphone apps, we are now able to upgrade a patient’s hearing aid prescription remotely (on equipped models) from anywhere in the world.

Once connected to the patient’s hearing aids during the remote session, we are able to review their usage data to see:

• How many hours they have worn their devices on average
• The percentage of time that they have spent in a variety of automatic program settings
• How much time they have spent streaming
• How often they have changed into their manual program settings
• What volume changes they have been making in different listening environments

Using this data we can make programming adjustments to achieve the best possible sound and listening experience for each patient. The best part is we can do all of this in real time as the patient wears their hearing aids, so we can receive immediate feedback and fine-tune accordingly.

Access to remote programming services is initiated during the initial hearing aid fitting or at one of the first in-office follow-up appointments. We ensure the patient downloads the proper application and we review the process with them.

How Telehealth Appointments Work

When a patient and/or a family member would like to schedule a telehealth appointment, this is how it works:

1. Schedule a telehealth appointment online or call your regular Hearing Doctors office and request a “Telehealth Appointment”.
2. You will receive an email with a link to join your appointment.
3. At your appointment time, click the link in the email.
4. Meet with your doctor.
5. Pay by credit card at the conclusion of your appointment if charges apply.

New hearing aid technology is allowing us to remove the barriers for access to high-level audiological care for those who may not have convenient access to it otherwise. You can still receive terrific care even if you are not sitting in the office of your hearing care provider. Learn more about telehealth appointments