I am looking to get hearing aids for my grandmother, but I was wondering, are there any traveling audiologists that will come to her? Or does she need to go to a audiologist’s office with a sound proof booth?

A good audiologist testing at home should check the level of sound with a sound meter to see if the levels are appropriate. He or she should then either test with insert earphones which when properly inserted provide a good level of noise reduction or with headphones with audiocups which I use for home visits. Doing this should ensure a similar result in either environment. 

A potential advantage of testing at home is that on a subsequent fitting appointment any TV streaming device can be set up for the patient. In additions any phones that stream sound directly to the hearing aids can be installed. This simplifies the process for the patient & ensures the best hearing can be achieved in the patient's own real world environment

I hope this helps.

Great question. I think it largely depends on where you are and whether there are any audiologists that provide "home visits" or "home care" in your area. You have a couple of options. 1) Go to Google and search for "{your city} audiology home visits" or something similar. 2) You can also check out the Hearing Tracker listings in your area to see if anyone provides home visits. If you browse to your city and click on the "home-based care" filter on the left side of the screen, you should see audiologists who perform home visits pop up on the map. For example, check out our page for New York hearing aids, and then click on the home-based care filter. You will see a bunch of providers listed on the map. Good luck!

There is a new breed of audiologist out there for just such circumstances.  We are concierge audiologists.  We come to you  (or your grandmother) to avoid transportation issues and long waits in a waiting room.  Cost savings of not having a commercial office are passed along to you in terms of less expensive pricing on hearing aids, etc.  Search the internet to see if there is one in your area.  Good luck and good for you trying to help your Grandma!

That is a possibility and depending where you live, a probability.  I do this for patients in hospice, hospitals or immobile.  I've found that testing with insert earphones in a quiet environment gives me the best results for fitting the hearing instruments.  I hope this helps.

 

There is a demand for home-based services and with good reason, as many who need hearing healthcare aren't ambulatory enough to travel to an audiologisst or dispenser's office.  Care should be taken, however, as care provided in the home may not be as accurate or effective as that provided in a traditional brick-and-mortar office.  As Matthew Pearson indicated previously, the hearing healthcare provider should measure the environment where the test takes place to make sure that ambient noise does not skew or influence the results.  If this were to occur, it could exaggerate the hearing loss and lead to overamplification.  By contrast, most regular offices utilize sound proof booths for testing or otherwise attempt to minimize the effects of ambient noise.  Likewise, the traditional "Best Practices" of hearing healthcare, such as routine follow-up visits in the initial 30 days, the use of real ear probe microphone measures, etc., should also be followed in order to provide the most optimized outcome.  This can be difficult to provide in a mobile manner since it requires additional equipment and can be very cumbersome.  Nevertheles, mobile hearing care can still be effective if done correctly.

I think the easiest way to find this out would be to call a few practices in your area.  We provide this service, but you'd have to look through our website to find it listed.  I doubt it would come up on a Google Search.  I've had people call us that are out of our house call service area who I've directed to practices that I know do house calls in other service areas.   Good luck!

Hello! It is absolutely possible to test your grandmother at home, with the proper portable equipment and in a quiet room. I actually provide home audiology and hearing aid care in the New York City area in addition to my regular office practice, since there are many people in your grandmother's situation. Good luck!!

We are located in South Carolina. From our main office in Lexington, near Columbia, we will utilize our custom built mobile testing unit to see patients in rural areas throughout SC. We also do in home and in office testing and fitting of hearing aids. Our firm, Digital Hearing Outlet is well known in the Nashville area for our high customer satisfaction ratings. Our South Carolina patients will experience the same high level of care combined with the latest technology, both in our main location and in remote situations as well.

 

 

Indeed, in-home service is already built into the Beltone and Miracle-Ear business models at most all of their franchises. However, it may not be available in some cities due to parking and traffic, so you'll need to ask.

Separately, when you combine Roberta's and Matthew's answers, namely "concierge" service and setup of home entertainment systems, mobile/tablet devices, telephones etc… you can create a lucrative business! When you purchase at Best Buy a $6,000 home theater system, you walk over to the Geek Squad desk and arrange for delivery, installation, setup, and "show how it works." CaptionCall has this business model for their wildly successful captioned phone system.

I doubt you are anywhere near Ottawa, ON, Canada but I personally started my clinic on the foundation of doing home visits. I still do home visits and offer them for $90 + mileage. I also don't charge for the visit if hearing aids are purchased. 

You would just have to call local hearing clinics and ask if they offer that service. Also, while those are my fees, I cannot comment on other peoples fees for this service, you just have to pick up the phone and ask. Good Luck!