New Mexico Hearing Aid and Tinnitus Center

When I was about 55 years old, I started to have problems hearing my wife’s voice at a noisy restaurant. Finally, I went in for a hearing test. It turned out I didn’t have a hearing loss, at least not a clinical one, so I was ushered out the door and told I was just fine. Three or four days later, I had dinner with my wife to celebrate our anniversary and the restaurant got noisy. I couldn’t understand a word she said. It was very frustrating! So, I went out and bought hearing aids. The next time I was tested, they again told me I didn’t need hearing aids, but I insisted they give them to me. I learned how to use my directional microphones to control where the sound was being picked up and I was able to go to a restaurant and successfully understand my wife. It turned out that the owner of the company that I bought the hearing aids from was somebody that I’d known for a while. He said to me, “Mike, you’d be great at this selling hearing aids.” It just so happened that I was open to a possibility of doing something different at that time in my life, so I pursued it and a year later I was a hearing instrument specialist working in a hearing aid company.

I was working with Miracle-Ear, which is a great company that helps a lot of people hear better, but they have restrictions on how much time you spend with your patient. They also have bundled formats, so the only time you make money is when you sell hearing aids and that puts a little pressure on selling to people that maybe can’t afford it or are doing fine. I decided that I wanted more options and being on my own would give me those.

A patient relationship is based on trust, openness, a willingness to go the extra mile and the patient sensing those values. At a very basic level, that happens in my office with availability and transparency. I say, “I need to be able to help you whenever you need it and I will do whatever it takes.” I verbalize that information to the patient. We also do discovery. I tell my stories and I ask for their stories, so our relationship is built on shared experiences. I take time and listen to my patients – that’s really important.

I’ve been a member of the Rotary Club for over 20 years, and their “Service Above Self” motto perfectly describes the whole idea of giving back to the community and to the people around you. As I tell our patients, it’s not all about money. I work in retirement centers giving free inspections of the ear canal, otoscopic inspections, free hearing screenings, and informational seminars. I also do that in retirement communities. These are ways I can give back to my community with my expertise. It’s all about time, talent, and treasuring community.

Strategies that I’ve implemented include explanations, in a format that is easily understood by a lay person, of the relationship between dementia and hearing loss, the relationship between auditory deprivation of the neural pathway resulting in poor word recognition and hearing loss, and the relationship etween my personal experiences with my own hearing loss and what the patient is going through. I can speak to what I was able to do to make a difference in my own life and what they can do about it to make a difference in theirs.

Keeping patient care at the center of what you do and still making a profit – that’s a hard one! With the hearing healthcare industry changing like it is, moving forward and streamlining the ability to give information to a patient that is important. Having information a patient can take with them and read on their own is a possible format that we may have to move to to be able to educate and inform them. This way, the patient can make good decisions and we still have the time needed to do the clinical work.