Hearing Aid Management
On this page
The Hearing Aid Management addon records what was fitted to whom. Each fitting holds the aid, the serial number, the ear, how it was set up, the programming notes, the trial dates and the service history. From those records the addon tells you which aids are out on trial and which patients are due a service check.
It is for the audiologist who fits the aids and for the front desk who calls patients back in.
Switching it on
Hearing Aid Management is a premium addon, so it has to be in your licence first.
- Buy it with Buy this addon on its card on Admin → Addons. When the order is confirmed, the key comes down by itself at the next licence check; Collect purchases now under License → Addon keys fetches it at once. The addon is normally switched on as it arrives.
- A key you got some other way goes in the Addon key box under License → Addon keys. Paste it and press Add the key.
- If its card on Admin → Addons still says Disabled, press Enable.
Where to find it
The addon's pages sit under Patients & Clinic in the sidebar: Fittings, Trials and Service Due. Its settings open from Admin → Addons → Settings. The permissions, in the Hearing aids group under Roles & Permissions, are See fittings and the service history and Record fittings, trials and services.
Recording a fitting
Press + Record a fitting on Fittings, or Record a fitting on the Hearing aids tab of a patient's file (see Patients).
The first card:
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Patient | Start typing a name, ID or phone number and pick the patient. Required. |
| Status | On trial, Sold and fitted, Returned, Replaced or No longer used. |
| Hearing aid | A product from your catalogue that carries serial numbers, or not from the catalogue. |
| Serial number | One of the serial numbers on file for that product. |
| Which ear | Right, Left or Both. |
| Fitted on | The date of the fitting. |
| Trial from, Trial until | Only for a trial. Left blank, the trial starts on the fitting date and runs for the number of days in the settings. |
| Fitted by | The member of staff who fitted it. |
| From which hearing test | Appears when the patient has hearing tests in Audiology. Links the fitting to the audiogram it was based on. |
| Branch | When you run more than one branch. |
The second card, How it was set up:
- Mould / shell, Receiver, Dome and Battery, for example Soft full shell, M, Open 8mm and 312.
- Accessories given: charger, cleaning kit, drying box.
- Real-ear measurement: switch it on if you verified the fitting with REM.
- Programming notes: the programmes set, gain adjustments, the feedback manager and what the patient said.
- Other notes.
Press Record the fitting. The fitting gets a reference such as HA-2026-00001.
When a fitting is saved as Sold and fitted, its first service check is set for the number of months in the settings, counted from the fitting date.
The fitting page
Open on any list shows the whole record, with a service due badge when the check is due. Print gives a clean copy for the paper file.
While the aid is on trial, two buttons decide what happens next:
- They kept it: the fitting becomes Sold and the first service check is set from today. Record the sale on the till as well; see E-Commerce & POS.
- They returned it: the fitting becomes Returned. If the unit is fit to sell again, put it back into stock.
Edit changes any field, and Delete this fitting at the bottom removes a record entered by mistake.
Service history
The Service history card records every visit after the fitting:
- Date.
- What was done: Routine check, Clean, Re-programmed, Repair, New mould, Receiver changed or Battery / charger.
- Charge, if you charged for it.
- Next due: left blank, it is set the number of months in the settings from this visit.
- What the patient said / what you found, What you did and Parts used (wax guard, dome, tubing).
Press Record the service. The message tells you when the next one is due, and the fitting moves off the Service Due list until then.
Trials and services due
Trials lists every aid out on trial, the one ending soonest first. Service Due lists sold aids due a check within the next fourteen days; dates already past are highlighted.
On both lists, Call in opens WhatsApp with a ready message: on Trials it asks how they are finding the hearing aid; on Service Due it says the aid is due its free service check.
The day after a trial ends, the cron job sends a Trial has ended notification to the staff, with the patient's phone number. The cron job must be set up for this; see The cron job.
The dashboard shows an On trial card with the number of aids out with patients, and a Service due card with the number of patients to call in.
What the patient sees
In their account on your website, a Your hearing aids panel lists each aid with its ear, the fitting date and the next service date, or Service due once it has passed, and reminds them to ring you to book a service and bring the aid and its box.
Settings
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| How long a trial runs (days) | The trial length used when Trial until is left blank. 14 by default. |
| Next service check due after (months) | The gap between service checks. 6 by default. 0 sets no next date. |
| Free service visits included | 0 means every service visit is free. Leave it there unless you charge. |
A typical fitting
- The audiologist tests the patient in Audiology and recommends an aid.
- Record a fitting with the status On trial, the serial number and the set-up. The trial runs for 14 days.
- The day after the trial ends, the staff get a notification. Ring the patient, or use Call in.
- The patient keeps the aid: press They kept it and ring up the sale at the till.
- Six months later the patient appears on Service Due. Call them in, clean the aid and record the service.
Tips
- Always choose the serial number. It ties the fitting to the warranty card (Warranty) and to any repair job (Repair Lab).
- Write the programming notes as if for a colleague. The next person who adjusts the aid will read them.
- Mould details are useful again when the patient needs a new one; see Earmould Lab.