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A report in The Hearing Review describes how hearing care practices are responding to difficulty hiring audiologists by reorganizing work rather than relying only on recruitment. Examples include delegating routine tasks, training support staff, involving students and using scheduling and technology; the report does not quantify the results or establish that every approach is permitted in every state.
Hearing care practices facing difficulty hiring audiologists are reworking clinic roles and workflows to serve patients with limited staff, according to a report by The Hearing Review. The approaches described include shifting routine support tasks to trained employees, using students and other providers, and organizing appointments to protect clinician time; the report offers practitioner examples, not a measured comparison of outcomes.
Hunter Gerhart, director of audiology at Livingston Hearing Aid Centers, said his organization has had extreme difficulty finding and hiring audiologists. He manages businesses in Texas and several other states and said he assumed other practices across the country faced similar difficulties. The report links staffing pressure with packed schedules, longer waits and potential provider burnout, but gives no national staffing or wait-time figures.
One response is to reserve audiologists for work that requires their clinical expertise. Gerhart said tasks such as Bluetooth pairing and teaching patients how to clean hearing aids can be handled by an audiology assistant. Kira Savin, president of California Hearing Center and Audiology Associates of Westchester, described training assistants to troubleshoot devices, prepare hearing aids before fittings and provide patient education. She said this can leave the audiologist more time for programming and other clinical work.
Staff who are already in the practice may also take on basic support after training. Savin said patient care coordinators can ask triage questions to help distinguish urgent problems from issues that can wait. She also described a receptionist resolving some simple hearing-aid problems, including reconnecting a device to a phone, without booking a longer appointment. The report notes that assistant roles depend on state rules: Savin employs audiology assistants in California but said they are not an option in her New York offices.
How Clinics Can Free Audiologist Time
These approaches matter because they target the gap between patient demand and available clinician hours without assuming recruitment alone can address it quickly. Moving appropriate tasks to trained staff may reserve audiologists’ time for assessments, programming and other work that requires their credentials. That can help practices manage appointment capacity, although the report does not provide data showing how much time or how many additional appointments the methods produce.
The model also depends on boundaries: delegating a task is not the same as transferring clinical responsibility. Practices need to match duties to local licensing rules, staff training and the needs of each patient. Triage can help protect schedules, but the source does not set out a standard protocol for deciding which cases are urgent.
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Different Roles for Different Clinics
The report describes several staffing models rather than a single prescription. In rural areas, Gerhart said his organization has an approximately 50-50 mix of audiologists and hearing instrument specialists. He said the practices he manages focus on adult hearing aids, making the roles similar in that setting. That example should not be taken to mean the professions have the same scope everywhere; licensing and permitted duties vary.
Gerhart also said some employees have moved from patient care coordinator positions into hearing instrument specialist roles after training and licensure. Near universities, clinics may draw on audiology students through internships or externships. Savin argued that students can assist with patient needs while gaining practical experience, though the report provides no figures on student availability or the time clinics must invest in supervision.
The source also identifies block scheduling as a way clinics can structure busy days, but the supplied report text ends before explaining specific scheduling arrangements or results. Technology is named as another area for improving efficiency, without enough detail in the supplied material to assess particular tools.
“I have had extreme difficulty finding audiologists and hiring them.”
— Hunter Gerhart, director of audiology at Livingston Hearing Aid Centers
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Limits of the Reported Evidence
The supplied report does not quantify the scale of the audiologist shortage, patient wait times, appointment capacity or the effects of the staffing approaches. It also does not establish whether these methods reduce burnout or improve patient outcomes. The examples come from two practitioners and their organizations, so they may not apply to clinics with different services, staffing or regulatory requirements.
Details about block scheduling and technology solutions are incomplete in the supplied text. The specific duties assistants or support staff may perform depend on state rules and appropriate training. The report does not provide a full account of those requirements or describe safeguards for each delegated task.
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What Practices May Need to Check
Clinics considering these approaches will need to review state licensing rules, define which tasks require a clinician, and train staff before assigning additional duties. Practices can also track appointment availability, wait times, repeat visits and staff workload to determine whether a workflow change is helping locally; the source does not prescribe a particular measurement system.
Further detail on the scheduling and technology methods mentioned in the report would be needed to assess how they work in practice. The next developments to watch are whether clinics can recruit and retain qualified clinicians and whether task-sharing arrangements produce measurable improvements without compromising care or exceeding staff roles.
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Key Questions
What staffing problem are hearing care practices addressing?
The Hearing Review report describes difficulty recruiting audiologists. Practitioners cited packed schedules and pressure to meet patient demand, but the supplied material includes no national shortage estimate.
What tasks might be delegated from audiologists?
Examples in the report include Bluetooth pairing, basic hearing-aid cleaning instruction, troubleshooting and some patient education. What staff may do depends on training, patient needs and local rules.
Can every practice use audiology assistants?
No. Savin said she employs audiology assistants in California but cannot use them in her New York offices. Permitted roles vary by state.
Does the report show that these strategies improve access?
No outcome data are provided. The report gives practitioner examples and explains how task-sharing may free clinician time, but it does not measure changes in wait times or patient access.
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