Long gone are the days of ear trumpets, carbon hearing aids, vacuum tube hearing aids, transistor hearing aids, body hearing aids, eyeglass hearing aids and the like. These technologies, while innovative at the time, have been replaced many times over with newer, better technology. The same holds true for office management systems for hearing professionals; paper appointment books, online calendars and even desktop email clients are no longer adequate for managing the many facets of patient care. Appointment information, audiograms, programming sessions, chart notes, reports, scanned patient records, hearing aid tracking information — all critical facets to your patient care — must be quickly and readily available to ensure a positive patient experience. With these requirements in mind, let’s review 10 considerations when looking for an office management system for hearing professionals.

Diagnostic reports are a reflection of your practice. Ensuring they mimic your hearing practice’s image from data to customer service is vital. Stop stressing about the usability and cost of a report builder and focus on your customer service. 

It has been said that if you don't like change you're going to like irrelevancy even less. The hearing care industry is in the midst of some exciting changes - some of which bring new opportunities (aging baby boomers) while others can bring cold sweats and sleepless nights (the burgeoning PSAPs market, for example).  New technologies, increased number of choices, the looming big box store threat, and shrinking insurance coverage add to the heartburn.  

So what are hearing professionals to do in light of these challenges?