Saving 521,000 Patient Visits Through Best Practices

July 5, 2011 - In our study relating hearing aid user success and best practices we found the number of patient visits to adjust the hearing aid were highly correlated with real-world success. In comparing patients who experienced above or below average success with their hearing aids the following was discovered:

• 76% of above average patients were fit in 1-2 visits compared to 40% of below average patients
  
  
• 47% of below average patients required 4-6 visits to fit their hearing aids compared to 7% of above average patients.

So we went back into our MarkeTrak database to determine if best practices were related to patient visits and here is what we found:

• Only one-third of hearing healthcare professionals utilize both verification and validation when fitting hearing aids
  
  
• Systematic utilization of verification and validation would result in:
  
  
  • on average, a reduction of 1.2 visits per hearing aid fitting
    
    
  • saving 521,000 patient visits, valued at $56 million, which could be freed up for more important activities than troubleshooting consumer complaints about their hearing aids.

Our latest MarkeTrak VIII study on reducing patient visits through verification and validation is now available for download.