Scheduling your First Appointment

Each patient has his or her own specific situation, but in general, this is a good guide for what you can expect if calling BNA for the first time:

• A warm greeting!
• We’ll ask you to give us a brief idea of why you’re calling and what you’re seeking to accomplish.
• We’ll ask for basic information (name, address, phone number, email address, etc.)
• We’ll ask for information regarding your insurance & primary care physician (since some insurance policies require authorization prior to service).
• Finally, we’ll seek to schedule an appointment on a day and time that works best for you.

Once you’ve scheduled your first appointment, you’ll receive a packet in the mail (or we can email you a PDF) which contains some general hearing-related material you may find helpful, as well as an appointment card and patient information forms that we ask you to complete before arriving at your appointment. If you do this paperwork in advance, we should be able to see you at your scheduled time and spend that time focused solely on getting to know you and your hearing journey (rather than losing precious minutes to paperwork!).

We also suggest that you consider inviting your spouse and/or family members to join you at the appointment. In our experience, good hearing is a crucial factor in your closest relationships, so the input and support of loved ones can be extremely beneficial when taking this important step. As for the appointment itself, here’s what you can expect:

• A warm greeting!
• Your audiologist will review your paperwork and ask you to walk us through a comprehensive general medical history.
• We’ll ask detailed questions regarding hearing in various environments to better understand your situation.
• We’ll ask you to prioritize your personal hearing challenges (the top 2-4 areas in which you would like to see an improvement).
• We’ll then perform a routine otoscopy, which is a painless, simple technique of looking in your ears for complications, obstructions, or infections.
• Then we’ll move to the testing phase, which starts with the standard “listen for the beeps” evaluations that you might remember from grade school.
• To determine your ability to recognize speech sounds, you will be asked to repeat single word lists as well as single sentences in background noise. Your comfort & tolerance levels with specific tones & speech will then be determined.
• Simple tests to determine the status of your eardrum & middle ear anatomy may also be conducted if there is concern.
• Once the initial, simple tests are completed, your audiologist will provide, in easy-to-understand language, a thorough explanation of your results and how they relate to the top 2-4 goals you expressed earlier.
• At this point, we’ll determine whether further evaluation or referral to another provider is necessary, but if not, then we will likely transition to a new presentation of our hearing technology and how it can assist you. We have samples on-hand to illustrate size and color, and will always explain our recommendations in the context of your goals. We’re also committed to working within your budget, and we will explain the changes you can expect if you choose a device other than what we recommend.