VA Audiology Clinic Selected for a VHA National Systems Redesign Champion Award

September 6, 2011 - The James H. Quillen/Mountain Home, TN Audiology staff has been selected for a National Veterans Health Administration Systems Redesign Champion Award by the Under Secretary for Health. The Audiology staff was selected for improving the efficiency of the Hearing Aid Evaluation Clinic without compromising the effectiveness of service delivery. Prior to January 2010, the Hearing Aid Clinic issued hearing aids in 60 minute appointments that included the evaluation/fitting of the hearing aids and counseling (orientation) with the audiologist. As the Audiology department's patient load increased from 15,117 patients/year to 17,345 patients/year, hearing aid fittings were being scheduled 12-15 weeks after the hearing evaluation. After the VA-TAMMCS (Team-Aim-Map-Measure-Change-Sustain) process, the clinic is issuing hearing aids in 30 minute time slots with the audiologist followed by a 60 minute group orientation conducted by other team members. This resulted in an additional 56 hearing aid fittings per month which decreased the wait time for hearing aids to only 3 weeks after the hearing evaluation. Additionally, the gold standard of using real-ear measures for verification of the accuracy of a hearing aid fitting was maintained and the actual face time with patients increased from 1 hour to 1.5 hours. Winning staff members were invited to attend the 2011 National Systems Redesign Improvement Forum in Las Vegas, NV.