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A report in The Hearing Review describes how hearing care practices are responding to difficulty hiring audiologists by redistributing routine work, training support staff and considering mixed-provider teams. The strategies are presented as operational approaches; the report does not provide comparative data showing how much they reduce wait times or improve clinic capacity.
Hearing care practices facing difficulty hiring audiologists are trying to make more capacity with existing teams by assigning routine tasks to trained support staff, adjusting provider roles and rethinking clinic schedules, according to a report by The Hearing Review. The approaches matter because clinics say staffing constraints can contribute to packed calendars and longer waits, though the report does not quantify their effects.
Hunter Gerhart, director of audiology at Livingston Hearing Aid Centers, told the publication that he has had extreme difficulty finding and hiring audiologists. He said he assumes other practices are encountering similar challenges. The report describes clinics responding by asking which tasks require an audiologist and which can be handled by other trained team members.
Gerhart cited Bluetooth pairing and instruction on cleaning and maintaining hearing aids as work that may be delegated to an audiology assistant. Kira Savin, who leads California Hearing Center and Audiology Associates of Westchester, said assistants in her California offices can troubleshoot devices, prepare hearing aids before fittings and provide patient education. She said that dividing up a one-hour fitting can leave the clinician more time for programming and other clinical work.
Practices can also train existing front-office employees to handle basic support and triage. Savin said a receptionist can resolve some simple hearing-aid problems, including reconnecting a device to a phone, while patient care coordinators trained to ask appropriate questions can help distinguish urgent issues from routine ones. The report also describes using hearing instrument specialists alongside audiologists, promoting staff into licensed roles, and welcoming students from nearby audiology programs as possible ways to add capacity.
How Clinics Can Free Audiologist Time
When an audiologist’s schedule includes routine troubleshooting or device instruction, those visits can compete with appointments requiring clinical expertise. Delegating appropriate tasks may allow clinicians to focus more of their time on assessment, programming and other work within their professional scope. For patients, a better-organized division of labor could help clinics manage demand, although the report offers examples rather than measured results on appointment availability.
The approaches are not interchangeable everywhere. The report notes that audiology assistants are not an option in New York, where Savin’s practice operates, while she employs them in California. Differences in state rules, clinic services and staffing pools shape which roles can be used. Any redistribution of work depends on training and clear boundaries around which tasks require a licensed clinician.
The staffing question also affects how practices develop and retain employees. Training patient care coordinators, hiring students for supervised clinical experience or supporting staff through the training and licensure process can broaden a clinic’s workforce over time. These steps may help build a more flexible operation, but they do not by themselves resolve the underlying difficulty of recruiting audiologists.
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A Shortage Meets Daily Clinic Demand
The report frames these operational changes as a response to a staffing challenge described by practitioners, rather than as a new policy or a single industry-wide program. Gerhart manages several businesses in Texas and other states and said finding qualified audiologists has been difficult. The publication links that pressure to full schedules, patient waits and potential provider burnout, but supplies no nationwide staffing figures or wait-time measurements.
Its examples focus on adult hearing-aid services, where Gerhart said audiologists and hearing instrument specialists can have essentially similar roles in the practices he manages. That description reflects his clinics’ narrow service scope and should not be taken to mean the professions have identical responsibilities in every setting. Savin’s account, meanwhile, highlights differences in assistant availability across states and how local practice rules affect staffing models.
Students are another potential source of supervised help for practices near university audiology programs. Savin said students arrive with useful training and can assist with clinic work while gaining experience. The report presents this as a mutual benefit, not as a substitute for hiring qualified staff or as a quantified workforce solution.
““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 and Results Still Unmeasured
The report does not establish how widespread the audiologist shortage is, provide national vacancy or wait-time data, or compare clinics using these strategies with those that do not. It also does not quantify whether delegation increases the number of appointments, reduces waits or lowers burnout. The examples are practitioner accounts, not evidence of a measured effect across the sector.
Specific rules for assistants and other staff vary by state, and the source does not detail the regulations governing every task mentioned. Practices would need to determine which duties can be delegated in their jurisdiction and what supervision or training is required. The report also does not provide cost estimates, implementation timelines or details about how scheduling changes perform in different clinic settings.
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More Evidence on Staffing Approaches
The report does not announce a new industry program, policy change or follow-up study. For now, it documents approaches individual practices say they are using: redistributing routine work, training support staff, considering student placements and drawing on mixed-provider teams where appropriate.
Whether those methods improve access will depend on local staffing, regulation and patient needs. Further reporting with data on hiring, appointment waits, clinician workload and patient outcomes would help show which approaches are effective and where they can be applied. Until then, the reported examples offer possible operational responses, not a demonstrated fix for the audiologist shortage.
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Key Questions
What staffing problem does the report describe?
Practitioners interviewed by The Hearing Review described difficulty finding and hiring audiologists. The report links staffing pressure with full schedules and patient waits but does not give national figures.
Which tasks might be delegated?
The examples include Bluetooth pairing, basic hearing-aid troubleshooting, device cleaning instruction and parts of patient education. Whether staff can perform a task depends on training, supervision and local rules.
Can every practice use audiology assistants?
No. The report says assistant availability differs by state: Savin employs assistants in her California offices but said they are not an option in her New York offices. Practices must check the rules that apply to them.
Does the report show these strategies reduce patient waits?
No. It provides practitioner examples and explanations, but no comparative data measuring changes in wait times, appointment volume or staff burnout.
What other sources of help does the report mention?
It describes training front-office staff, supporting employees who pursue hearing instrument specialist licensure, using mixed-provider teams in some practices and hosting students from nearby audiology programs.
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