The Magic Ears Club kicked off its existence with a first ever Halloween Party on October 29, 2011 where over 15 kids from elementary to high school ages who wear hearing aids co-mingled and played games while their parents talked amongst each other their experiences. Prizes and free hearing aid goodies were also distributed.
Dr. Catie Chalmers, audiologist with Fauquier ENT who founded the Magic Ears Club, stated that the purpose of the club is to help parents, as well as their hard-of-hearing children, connect, share, and provide support for each other.
Being a member of this unique club means being able to participate in practice-sponsored parties as well as meeting new friends who also have “magic ears” (aka, hearing aids).
Furthermore, members can participate over the internet in either open or closed forums hosted by Fauquier ENT where members can ask questions or provide other meaningful support to each other wherever and whenever they wish.
The open forum is through Facebook which is open to all who support our goals whereas the closed forum is hosted through Yahoo Groups and limited to ONLY those individuals who are patients of Fauquier ENT.
Due to popular demand, our office now participates with Chase Health Advance. This plan is for those patients without insurance coverage or to help pay for uncovered procedures/services. Flexible payment options are offered only if total charges exceed $1000 (cost can be as low as $48 per month over 24 months). Depending on the promotion offered by Chase Health Advance, there may even be no interest charged! Click here to calculate your monthly payments.
Even though our office has been offering hearing tests and hearing aid services in Fauquier County for over a decade, many people are still surprised when they learn they can get hearing tests, hearing aids, ear plugs, and other ear & hearing services in our office. The additional benefit is having a ENT specialist also present in the same office.
Our office has produced a new video on non-sedated ABR/OAE hearing testing. Such testing traditionally required sedation as the patient was required to be absolutely still and quiet in order to obtain accurate test results. However, new technology now enables such testing to be performed without sedation. Furthermore, given the testing can be performed wirelessly, the patient can stand and walk around. Absolute quiet is also no longer necessary and the patient can actively play and even eat while testing is going on.
I read with great interest an article in the New York Times “How Does Your Hospital Room Make You Feel?” regarding how a patient room… how a hospital appears… private rooms… may play just as important a role in where a patient goes for treatment as the clinical expertise of its doctors.
Indeed, amenities are a critical part of the patient experience and possibly even a more valuable component of patient-centered care as reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. A patient’s nonclinical experience inspires clinical productivity, drives improved clinical outcomes, and improves overall patient satisfaction.
Not that such reports are a big surprise. It’s something I think all major non-healthcare corporations have already realized for decades. Just walk into any Abercrombie & Fitch or Toyota car showroom. Such businesses hit all of our senses to the 10th degree… There’s the visual stimulation of models (human or otherwise). Popular music playing in the background to stimulate the ears. Lovely perfume smells in a clothing store or fresh leather in a car showroom to stimulate the nose. And oh yes… freshly baked cookies or candies to bring some zing to the taste buds.
How can you NOT like what you see/hear/taste/smell??? And, buy some things along the way given you have been stimulated into such a good mood?
Indeed, it’s surprising why hospitals weren’t the FIRST institutions to maximize the senses to bring peace to mind/body/soul and… to also provide medical treatment.
SO… it is with great satisfaction that our practice is affiliated with a hospital that subscribes to the importance of these non-clinical factors. Fauquier Hospital has:
• Private patient hospital rooms
• Family and friends can drop by any time, day or middle of the night
• Food that’s actually good
• Patient friendly architectural features including:
built-in sleeping accommodations for family members
carpeted corridors and additional windows
lamps have replaced overhead lighting
halls have been carpeted to keep down noise or are finished in faux wood for a warmer feel
community artwork hangs on the walls
barriers between patients and staff, such as those sliding-glass windows that close nurses off from patients and the public, have been removed
elevators for patients and the public are separate
no constant paging over the intercom system, either; instead, unobtrusive music plays all the time.
• Also, a culture fostering patient care is presented.
For those not in the know, Groupon is a website that offers coupons and other savings on local merchandise and services. Groupon also has recently rejected a takeover bid by Google.
I recently encountered this amazing deal on Groupon offered by an ENT colleague, Dr. Ghaheri:
I wonder if such marketing and medical discount offerings like this will become the future. Clearly, procedures and other types of medical treatments that are not covered by insurance will be applicable.
For example… here are some medical treatments/services I am considering to discount on Groupon:
It seems that the ENT-related videos we have created for medical education and made publicly available on YouTube are rapidly becoming the most viewed in the world! As of October 17, 2010, our YouTube Channel is ranked #14 in “Most Viewed” of All Time under the category “Director” (we make our own videos)! When taking into consideration ALL channels, we are ranked #44. We have had over 101,913,849 views since November 2007 when we uploaded our first video on Trans-Nasal Endoscopy. We now have 43 videos.
Currently, our videos collectively get about 250,000 hits a day. By far, our most popular videos are related to endoscopy (watch below) and gather about 160,000 views a day.
However, even our less popular videos like earwax removal or nosebleed control with cauterization garner about 400 views a day.
Our YouTube Channel also has a large subscriber base (2,457 as of 10/17/2010) from all over the world. Our channel averages about 4 new subscribers a day.
Strangely enough, the United States is not the most common place where our videos are watched from. Not even close! Rather, it’s from Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Russia which round out the top 4. The United States didn’t even make the top 10.
Our office produced our first ENT-related video in November 2007 on Trans-Nasal Endoscopy. At the time, YouTube did not support high definition video and the overall video quality was clearly sub-par with blurry images and pixelation with movement. However, since than, YouTube has added HD quality video support and we have taken the time to re-upload the majority of videos, but in high-definition.
You can browse the full list of refreshed HD videos here.
Watch our very first video upload before HD support as well as with HD support.
A reader informed me that INOVA Health System has developed a free iPhone app called InovaER that provides wait times of all 9 emergency rooms within its health system throughout Northern Virginia. The app was released Aug 4, 2010.
Pretty cool! Hopefully other hospital systems including Fauquier Hospital will join with other regional hospitals (Culpeper, Warren, Prince William, Haymarket) to create a similar program.
