Helping our patients hear better is one of the most important things we do as hearing healthcare providers. Since the majority of patients that have hearing loss have sensory loss, we often have to convince patients to spend money to get the Help they need. The first step is to start tracking how well we accomplish that task.
The first step in tracking is to determine your definition of a candidate and then stick by that definition for every patient. For instance, one definition of candidacy may be any patient that has thresholds more than 25dB at two or more frequencies. Another may be any patient that has hearing aids that are more than four years old. Or perhaps, a patient is a candidate if they have a conductive loss and have decided not to pursue surgical options. There are many possible definitions. The most important part is that you create a definition and don’t deviate from it.
After you have created the definition, tracking is simple – Your Help Rate is determined by comparing the number of patients that are candidates versus the number that you convince to get Help in the form of hearing aids. I will caution you not to include patients that are getting Free hearing aids as you really don’t have to convince them to do anything and including patients getting aids for free will skew the Help Rate to make you think you are convincing more patients than you actually are.
I am sad to report that less than 50% Help rate is standard in this industry. We have a goal of 80% Help Rate in my practice. The most important part of tracking is that it provides a metric for how well we are actually doing our jobs of convincing patients to get Help for a problem.
Start today – Track your Help Rate and then set a goal to improve it. You will be amazed how improving your Help Rate can have a positive impact on business!