Innovation in the Face of Change. Virtual Visits & Audiology. Part 1 of 2.

By James Benson

What started as an approach helping an audiology practice stay in business last spring, has become a beacon for expanded patient engagement and growing sales.

It happened to almost everyone. Patients stopped calling, aware that ‘non-essential’ services were shut down. And, while patients were still suffering, practices were furloughing staff and struggling to get ahold of patients.

“We developed our application, SEngage, to engage patients on behalf of their healthcare providers,” said James Benson, President and Founder of QM2 Solutions. “Before COVID we were using our system to deliver patient experience surveys and build online reputation. Then COVID hit and we needed to do more for our customers.”

QM2 Solutions reached out to Dr. Patricia Ramos to talk about how they could help. Patricia Ramos is the Director of Audiology and Rehabilitative Services at ENT and Allergy Associates of Florida and oversees their audiology division, ENT Hearing Associates of Florida.

ENTAAF and their ENTHAF Audiology division is a large ENT and audiology practice with greater than 25 offices throughout Florida. They were seeing decreasing volumes and were managing locations with decreased in office staffing and providers.

“We came together with QM2 through online meetings on evenings and weekends and laid out a plan for engaging our audiology patients,” Dr. Ramos said.

It was important for ENTHAF to test how virtual visits would work with hearing aid patients. “Would our older demographic respond? I needed to review clinical approaches and measure results. It was all new to our providers and patients,” She said.

ENTHAF launched with a small group of patients. Within the first week, 146 patients-initiated HIPAA compliant asynchronous visits with the practice.

The patient responses were prioritized and fit into the following categories: (1) I’m fine, thanks for giving me a way to connect, (2) I need supplies or batteries, (3) My hearing aids seem broken, (4) I would like to buy new hearing aids, and (5) I have an illness/condition requiring a physician evaluation.

Within three weeks, the practice collected $18,000 through the newly created remote service delivery channels. The provider team scheduled 256 additional follow-up visits between the audiologists and physicians at a direct value of $25,000. Medium term follow-up revenue from the limited program generated $32,000. Overall, ENT Hearing Associates of Florida E-visit program initiated $75,000. And it was just the beginning.

“The results of E-visits were real. We proved that we could improve hearing aid patients’ lives while generating revenue through virtual delivery channels,” Ramos said.

“In that first six weeks we showed that by focusing on the right patient, at the right time, through the right communication channel, our customers would serve more patients and generate significant revenue,” Benson said.

The next two articles will focus on the growth of the program, lessons learned, and the impact of new, approaches to engaging patients.

During the Florida Combined Otolaryngology Meeting in November 2020, I presented an overview on trends in audiology virtual visits. Check it out on the MedAudPro YouTube Channel HERE!