Improving the Patient Experience with Dr. Sheryl Figliano

Dr. Sheryl Figliano shares easy, yet powerful, ways for hearing health providers to improve patient experiences and drive better business outcomes. One of her tips was a lightbulb moment for many private practitioners attending Starkey’s CEO Circle earlier this year. In this episode, Dave gets the inside scoop, as well as her thoughts on helping patients get on board with new technology, including artificial intelligence in hearing aids.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Mr. Austin 35 years ago taught me that people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. If you don't show excitement with your patients and get excited for them, I mean, how can you not? You are changing their life by them coming in and getting hearing aids. You have to be excited, be excited for them, cheer them on. If you just you know, if you're just getting by and here's your hearing aid and here's how to use your battery, you're gonna get what you give, and you're gonna have a very boring job. People aren't gonna connect with you, people aren't gonna refer to you. You've you've gotta show them excitement.

SPEAKER_02 0:45

Welcome to Starkey Soundbites. I'm your host, Dave Fabry, Starkey's Chief Hearing Health Officer. This spring, Starkey's leadership team met with some of our top partners in Washington, D.C. for the annual CEO Circle Summit. It's an opportunity to talk about important issues that are facing our industry, as well as key trends and opportunities to continue to improve outcomes for patients with hearing loss. Dr. Cheryl Figliano, president and owner of Centers for Hearing Care, was at the meeting, and we asked her today to join us in today's episode to share some of the key takeaways, some of the engagements that she had with other top partners to cut uh to Starkey. And really thinking about it from being inside the beltway, which we were, you don't live inside the beltway, but we had an opportunity to really hear from uh individuals who live inside the beltway and talk about issues facing our collective disciplines. And Cheryl, it's just a pleasure to have you as a first-time guest on this episode of Soundbites.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Well, thank you, Dave. I'm I'm so excited and so honored to be here, truly. And uh it's it's so wonderful that Starkey allows, you know, you to get together with all of your Starkey peers. You mentioned the CEO circle. Um, my audiology practice is so proud to be part of the CEO circle. Uh, it means that we commit a lot of our business to Starkey. We have a lot of trust in Starkey. We are a serious partner, and we see the value of partnering with Starkey. Um, when you just mentioned, you know, one of the key takeaways, sometimes things are so simple and they're right in front of your eyes, but you need a good reminder as to uh how to maybe refresh your business, how to stay current, how to look for new marketing ideas. And one of them was thinking about educating your patients on how to protect their hearing. Many times we are so consumed with what product are we putting on them? How are we going to fit it on them? What's the best, you know, type of product for them? And we don't think about those with normal hearing. And one of the biggest satisfactions I get as an audiologist is when a patient is in that sound room and they have normal hearing. And I get to be the one to tell them your hearing is great. But when I think about it, what happens is I say, Oh, your hearing is great. You know, come back and see us down the road if you ever have any problems. And the opportunity that's missed is to talk with them about now how to protect the hearing that they have.

SPEAKER_02 3:42

Such a great point that you're making. Go on, please. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

It's such a wonderful opportunity just to create a relationship with a patient that doesn't have hearing loss, who knows someone else who does have hearing loss, right? And if you take the time to build that relationship, be known as the expert on helping them protect their hearing, give them the why, tell them about all the wonderful products that are out there. Most people don't even know their custom earplugs, uh, let alone the wonderful Starkey Soundgear devices that we now have. Um, I'm really excited for the new Starkey products coming out through Sound Gear. Uh, I know one of them that we got a sneak peek on uh is a new battery-operated version. It has a lanyard, it has a really sexy kind of look to it, and I can't wait to share it with our patients. But having these products to uh to show them and educate them on is just a wonderful opportunity to build relationships with them. They're gonna go out and tell other people. We were taught at the CEO circle that if you're not out in your community working with law enforcement officers, your first responders, your firemen, uh, even going to places where there are um, you know, kids racing go-karts or even professional racing events, you're missing a wonderful opportunity. So uh we came back from Washington charged up with that. And uh I recently set up a meeting with someone from our skilled trades union. You know, here in in Youngstown, Ohio, we are blue collar, and there are so many skilled trade unions in this area, and I'm now gonna start meeting with them one by one and and educating them on how to protect their hearing and teaching them about the new sound gear devices. Um, we also are going out as a team, our office team, to one of the local racetracks on their busiest race night. And we're gonna talk about sound gear and our practice and our branding. And uh, it was just a wonderful, wonderful part of audiology that I feel my group was missing the boat on. And maybe some of those out there listening might it might spark one of their new ideas as well.

SPEAKER_02 6:24

I think you just dove right into the deep end on this. And I'm so appreciative that that was one of your take homes from the CEO uh circle meeting. And I think it really is, it rings true because we're really good as professionals at patching people up after they've acquired a hearing loss. We know that adoption rates uh are lower than we would like, raising awareness for the importance of protecting hearing before it occurs. On the one hand, from the manufacturer side, you say you must be crazy to want to do that because we're um we're losing potential customers if we're allowing them to torture their ears and cause noise-induced hearing loss. But at the same time, there's plenty of work for all of us to go around. And it's a great opportunity for you to establish a relationship with someone who may be at risk for noise-induced hearing loss. And I think too often we forget about going back to the origin story of why it is that they're in the chair to begin with. They they probably have raised their hand and someone in their circle, their family, their colleagues, their friends, maybe themselves, they've noticed that they're having some difficulty. And even though audiometrically they may have normal hearing thresholds, I've said many times, the audiogram is a blunt instrument and that they're there with you at that point in time probably means they have some risk factors or some inkling that they're already having difficulty, but in the absence of measurable hearing loss. As you mentioned, Soundgear is a great opener to discuss the need for hearing protection and then looking at what types of situations are they in.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

You know, one other thing, if I could um add to this, is NASCAR has one of the biggest sports followings, you know, in our country of any. I mean, it rivals football. William Swalich, who is I've heard that last name somewhere before.

SPEAKER_02 8:30

I can't exactly remember where.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

You know, he is so up and coming in NASCAR. And, you know, I'm one of his biggest fans, uh, not only because he's an amazing young man, but because he is advocating now for protecting your hearing and for hearing aids, and certainly for the brand that that I choose to dispense. Um, when patients come in and they see William's pictures, you know who the NASCAR fans are and who who aren't. And the NASCAR fans, they want to talk NASCAR. And now we've got an opening for a relationship and something that we have in common. So uh for those of you out there who haven't started following William, the the Starkey name is gonna be bigger and better than ever because every time that car goes around the track, we see that Starkey name, we see sound gear, and people are gonna know what it is. So Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:28

You and I both have followed William since he was just a toddler. And uh, and it really is fun to see him blossom, blossoming into this uh race car driver that he is with a purpose because you see corporate sponsorship sometimes, and sometimes they just don't make sense. But this one really does, not only because you say the fan base, it can be a really noisy sport, but people can still enjoy it while wearing hearing protection and watch these amazing athletes race around the track at uh 150 miles an hour and up. Right. What other take-home uh ideas or or uh things did you have from the CEO circle experience?

SPEAKER_00 10:12

Well, I I think one of the best opportunities we had was to just break up into groups and all share ideas. You know, in today's age, you have to pivot and thrive. As a private practice owner, we'd be so foolish to think that the marketing things that we did 20 years ago are still relevant, right? Anything to do with advertising, even hiring techniques, um talking to employees. The world is such a different place than when I started 35 years ago. And uh sometimes it's just using your Starky peers as a sounding board uh to share ideas. You know, I I want to share something uh with your listeners that has really, really changed my practice. And it it came about during COVID. Uh, and I hope that it it might help some folks out there listening. But we started doing telehealth and uh during COVID, uh we thought, boy, this is the best thing. And we tried to do little video chats with patients, and you know, a just overwhelming. People were just so so uh hung up on trying to have to make their computer work and make their screen come on, and having anxiety about their hearing loss was enough, let alone having to add a layer of technology. So we started telling patients, you know, our our front staff, we call them key employees because they're the they're the key to everything. Uh, some of you may call them PCCs, but we now require two appointments when new private pay patients call in. One is the visit with the provider, and the other is our pre-visit phone call from your provider. And that's how we work it. It's just a pre-visit phone call, a short phone call with the provider, with the doctor, whoever it is in your office. Uh and it's just to get you prepared for your appointment. The provider wants to ask you a few questions about why you're coming in. We want to make sure we have all the equipment ready, uh, little things to make them at ease. And when we call them, uh, we set aside a half an hour block on the schedule. Now, those pre-visit telehealth may not take that long, but here's what it does: A, it starts to build relationships. B, you can figure out are they private pay? Do they have an insurance benefit? Are they third party? Do they have an insurance that you don't work with? I mean, you are weeding out is that person the right fit for your practice? And do you have enough time on the schedule with them, or do you have too much time on the schedule with them down the road? Secondly, um, if you're Medicare providers, that's the perfect time to get all their medications. Their bottles are right there next to them when they're at home. Get your bottles out, give me your milligrams and dosage of you know, whatever medicines you're taking, get those out of the way. And I just start the conversation about hearing, you know, tell me why you've waited so long. Um, oh, your family tells you that. How does that make you feel? Developing the relationship right off the bat with the patient. And by the time they come in, we've created excitement, we've put them at ease, they've already met their provider. Um, by creating that excitement, like, you know, Mrs. Jones, I can't wait to see you. Your appointment is Tuesday at nine o'clock. Do you know how to find us? So we are um reinforcing in uh the directions on how to get there, making sure they know that. And if the telehealth goes correctly, you've created enough excitement that the patient is going to tell you, I can't wait to meet you in person. Our no-show rate because of these pre-visit phone calls is essentially zero. Yeah. Essentially, it's just changed our whole practice. Because, you know, if it's someone that you can't help, you've taken them off the schedule down the road where maybe they wouldn't have shown, or they were gonna come in and it it the point the appointment didn't work. You know, maybe they're um they have Medicaid insurance and you're not a Medicaid provider or something that simple. But have a little checklist to go through on those pre-visit phone calls. Um, in our office, they're mandatory. There aren't many things that are mandatory with my staff, but with private pay patients, these pre-visit phone calls are mandatory because I can't tell you what it does for that next appointment when they actually do come into the office.

SPEAKER_02 15:17

Oh, when you shared that with the others there at the CEO circle, it was sort of an aha moment because I think we all tend to look for that magic bullet in terms of a technology or a feature or some new strategy that's going to really part the waters and open up doors for us. But when you shared that, it was just like a drop the mic moment that it immediately brought down your no-show rates because you were making the appointment in close proximity to when they were going to come to remind them, make sure they had it recorded correctly, everyone was on board. The simple element of that, but then also so much more when you talk about learning a little bit about their engagement style, their insurance, uh, you know, whether they have a third-party uh payer, you're you're really removing a lot of uh barriers and noise, if you will, before the appointment is scheduled. And you're doing so in a manner that is not threatening. You're not tagging telehealth with it, but it is absolutely one of the best uses of telehealth that I've heard. We typically think of telehealth as being something that is done for fine-tuning or problem solving, but this is on the front end, um, leveling, reducing that anxiety, as you said, for many of these patients, understanding their engagement style, whether you've allocated enough appointment time for them or too much appointment time if they're just a cut to the chase kind of patient. And um one question that I have for you, you mentioned that you're typically doing these and each of your providers are doing them, because I'm sure some are thinking, okay, is it valuable for me, if it's my patient, for me to do this pre-appointment, or do you allocate this to front office uh person or you know, uh person that is going to be greeting the patient when they show up? What have you tried both models? And what do you think is the more effective strategy?

SPEAKER_00 17:18

Well, when they when they first call in to set up that appointment, they are already having that experience with the front staff. Now, for some of your listeners out there, they may have an inexperienced front staff person. So is that the right person to be doing this first connection with them? Uh, I call it the discovery conversation. Um, each of our providers is who does it. Now, the only time that I would do it for another provider is if they're sick. Um, their schedule is so full, there's no room for a telehealth. Um, maybe the front desk isn't sure where to put that person. You know, like, you know, oh, Mr. Jones, he didn't really want to give me a lot of information and I wasn't sure. And I put him on your schedule. Great, because we we really are weeding out the candidates that aren't supposed to be in our practice for whatever reason, uh, but that do and those that do need to come. We also talk about price. You know, if if the patient says, uh, you know, I know I'm ready for hearing aids, it's time. Great. What have you heard about them? Oh, I've heard they're really expensive. Well, tell me what you've heard. We get that elephant out of the room because many times patients will say to me, Oh, I heard all hearing aids are$12,000. And those are the patients that have so much anxiety before they come in, right? They they tell me, I've been up since three in the morning, I didn't sleep, I couldn't keep food down, I'm so nervous. That's the reality of many of these patients. And when they find out that we have this really nice range to meet their budget and to meet their lifestyle, they're so happy, they're at ease. And when they come in, we've already talked about their budget. So it's it's really a game changer. And then when I open that door to call them back, you know, I say, Oh, you know, Mr. Smith, it's so nice to put a face to a name. You know, I'm the doctor that you spoke with. Come on back, let's get started. Initially, staff said, you know, whoa, this is so time consuming. We have a half an hour appointment for that. And then when they come in, we set aside 90 minutes. I mean, your your private pay patients deserve that. But what we find is their 90-minute appointment is more relaxed, nobody's rushing. You know, the the elephant in the room, as I mentioned, about price is already out of the bag, and you can spend more time talking about which is the right product for them. And everybody is more comfortable. Um, and lastly, another benefit is when you have a new hire, and you know, maybe you have a new team member that isn't so comfortable talking about price or asking the patient, you know, what have you heard? Um, when you don't have to look at them and you're on the phone, you can have a lot more confidence to bring those things up. It's a great way for them to become comfortable doing that because they don't have to look at them. And then when they do come in and meet them face to face, they've established that relationship and now they are more comfortable. So just so many benefits to that.

SPEAKER_02 20:46

Oh, I I think it's such a powerful insight that you shared and that you're sharing again now with our listeners, because I think there's a lot of times you can have people on that provide examples of what works for them, but they're a bigger practice or a smaller. This works no matter whether you're an enormous practice or a single provider office. And putting that effort in, uh, I think streamlines, like you said, most patients, first-time hearing aid users come in with, at best, an approach avoidance conflict that they're grappling with over all of the anxiety, all of the things they've heard. And you're just lessening that anxiety before uh they actually get there and creating that first physical visit with such a different attitude than most of these patients coming in all balled up in knots over all of the unanswered questions. So I think that's so good. You also mentioned that I think you mentioned that you use a checklist, and I think that's important for whether it's a checklist up here or actually one, I think, for certainly people getting used to this. Write it down because then you're recording the answers which you have so that when you do make Make that initial face-to-face interaction. You already have that reference, but I think it probably also streamlines the interaction. You mentioned medications, which can help with whether they're on autotoxic medications or have been, or they're on medications that could uh lead to tinnitus, which may be a presenting symptom. And you can look at that. But if you don't have it on a checklist, you may not remember it.

SPEAKER_00 22:24

Right. Or medications for cognitive decline. Cognitive decline. That's important too. Um, and the last thing on our checklist is who will you be bringing with you?

SPEAKER_01 22:35

Perfect.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

Because we know how important that is too, to have that family member there. And um, you know, many times staff will struggle with, well, what what do I say? Why do I tell them that they have to bring someone with them? And it's so simple. We just say, hearing loss affects the whole family. Someone from your family should be with you. And they, and then they say, Oh, okay, I'll bring someone.

SPEAKER_02 23:01

I think that's so powerful. We know all of the statistics show that um you remove the barrier of the patient saying, Well, I need to speak with my partner or my daughter or my son. Um, but oh, you're also engaging with them because, as you said, it affects the whole family. And um, you can be observing the family member when the patient is responding, because sometimes you see these wonderful interactions that occur because the expectation of the patient is that the family's gonna think less of them if they're proceeding with hearing aids, or they're gonna think they're old. And I've watched some wonderful interactions occur between the family member, a loved one, a friend that they bring with them, because in their head, they're thinking very differently about how the outside world is going to react to them. And you take someone that's important enough that they brought them along because your expectation is to bring in that family member. It just removes more of that barrier and you don't have to say a thing. They're interacting with each other.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

Well, another win is when you're on the phone call with them and you can hear the spouse or son or daughter chiming in from the next room. And I'll say, Who's that? I hear somebody.

SPEAKER_01 24:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:15

Oh, it's my daughter. Oh, can can you bring her to the phone? You know, put her on speaker. And now you've got an even better relationship and you know that the son or daughter or loved one that's there is the reason why they're on that phone call.

SPEAKER_02 24:30

They're advocating for them. And now, now then you go to the next stage and bring them in or see that they want to come in with their loved one. So such such valuable insights. But like I said, we're all looking for a magic bullet. And this is something that every practice, no matter how big or how small, can use on a a number of different factors. So I'm uh thank you so much for sharing that with our listening audience today. You know, um, you you mentioned a couple of times now not thinking about marketing in the same way that you have before. And there were insights shared for how to deal with that. And and I have to say, you mentioned William Swallich and you mentioned Soundgear, and you're a very active user of social media in your practice. I see you on Facebook, I see you on Twitter, on Instagram. Uh, I don't know if you're on TikTok or not. No, uh not not that one, but but LinkedIn as well. I know you're not overly active on those, but which platforms do you feel are most the ones that feel most at home to you? And how do you use them, not only for your personal use, but for your business, for your practice?

SPEAKER_00 25:41

I feel in my community, uh, and we consider ourselves a community-based organization, uh, Facebook is really where we get the most traffic. I think it's the age of the patient. Uh, and again, also because we are we are hometowns, small town. Uh, you know, I was so excited to be in our local parade yesterday. It's just like something out of a Hallmark movie. And each of our offices, they're all in these same little small towns. And so uh Facebook is something that just resonates and brings in a large majority of our business. What I find is many practices think too hard about what am I gonna do for content? And, you know, my husband, he he gets, I want to say he gets mad at me, but you know what I mean? He doesn't really get mad, but we'll be out somewhere and I'll be like, this is a perfect place for a video. And he's like, really? I'm like, yes, yes, can you tape this? And um, one of the most recent ones I did was just simply being in a parking lot at a local um nursery getting plants. And I thought about a patient that came in who was walking through a parking lot, couldn't hear a car backing up. The car backed up, hit her. She had brain injury, hospitalized. And then after the fact, realized it was because she couldn't hear, and you know, probably what her family realized and came in to get hearing aids and shared that story. So the message was so simple: like, here I am in this parking lot. And if you can't hear these cars, you know, don't be like this person. Come in now. Let's see what your hearing is, get a baseline test, and talk about other dangerous things you might be missing. So simple because you're you're out there. You may not look the best, you know, you may have your weekend clothes on, but patients don't care. I think it makes you more relatable.

SPEAKER_02 27:45

People care less about whether it's a production studio and more about whether the content that they're hearing is interesting and relatable. And does it uh uh provide information that they can use and a call to action?

SPEAKER_00 28:00

Well, I I think another thing that really helps our practice is uh what we call layering. That along with uh our direct mail campaign. You know, many times people will say, Oh, direct mail, we stopped doing that. It's dead. Um call the Starkey marketing department and ask them what direct mail we're doing. The marketing department knows what's working and what isn't. And we had one piece we were doing for years, and um Starkey Marketing said, you know what? I think you should try this other one. And I was reluctant. And it's it just it's just bringing in so many new people. Um, and what I find is people will say, when I say, What brought you in? And they'll say, Well, you know, I heard you on the radio and I saw your Facebook post, and then I got this thing in the mail, and I knew it was time to call. So by that layering, patients are hearing it from more than one spot, and then they're gonna pick the phone up.

SPEAKER_02 29:06

So well, it is that layering or socially informed campaign where they're seeing it in multiple avenues and they're all social. Life is social media, right? Because you know your community so well that it drives them with that call to action and it layers it in so that they're they're feeling like, man, they they already know me and they know what I'm I'm struggling with. And that's, I think, one of the things that I've always been so impressed with you in your practice is how aware you are of your community, of your role in the community, the way that you combine the business with your foundation and all of that. And you've really been such a model for people who want to go into a private practice and the way you just infiltrate and embed in your community so that if people have hearing difficulties uh or if they're worried about uh noise damage, they're gonna find you and they're gonna come to you.

SPEAKER_00 29:58

Well, thank you for that. I mean, our our team loves what they do, and that that's something that shows, you know, Mr. Austin 35 years ago taught me that people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. And if you don't show excitement with your patients and get excited for them, I mean, how can you not? You are changing their life by them coming in and getting hearing aids. You have to be excited, be excited for them, cheer them on. If you just you know, if you're just getting by and here's your hearing aid and here's how to use your battery, you're gonna get what you give and you're gonna have a very boring job. People aren't gonna connect with you, people aren't gonna refer to you. You've you've got to show them excitement. And um, you know, when when when you do show excitement and people truly know that you care, um, it feels good.

SPEAKER_02 31:04

Well, and it's transparent. Like you said, you're 35 years in, I'm 40 years in. And although I don't see nearly as many patients as I used to, I still do because I want that feeling. It's an addicted addiction to want to be working with patients to impact their lives in a positive way. I want to shift with the remaining time that we have to ask a little bit about, you know, trends that you're seeing. Because you are a trendsetter, you're a pacemaker. Um, what about AI and artificial intelligence that you see in the market? Our patients now are the boomer patients who we know want to be more engaged in the process. They're aware of artificial intelligence, but unfortunately, I think AI has become ubiquitous and in many ways a buzzword. How many patients come in saying, you know, do your hearing aids have AI in them? And does it matter to them? Or what are they looking for out of out of you and out of the technology and the collaboration really between the technology and the role of the professional, providing their expertise?

SPEAKER_00 32:11

I can tell you honestly, most patients don't come in talking about that. They don't really seem to care. But it's a missed opportunity if we don't bring it up. True. Right. We have to toot our own horn. You know, um, you know, my my relationship with Starkey goes back so, so many years. And um, I bring that up because, you know, I was there through the uh first CIC hearing aid to what we have now. And, you know, Brandon Sawalic coming on the scene and being the CEO and and getting uh a Chin Bomick on staff has been a game changer. And we have to stay current and relevant and sh and talk with patients about this new technology and create the excitement. Um, you know, most of them, it's hard for them to conceptualize edge mode, but I call it a magic noise button. And I say that it uses, you know, AI, but this is your magic noise button and it's gonna change your life when you're out in noise. Um, many of them just want someone to trust and know that they're using the right product. And so we talk about the newest, latest, greatest why Genesis is number one. But honestly, most of them don't come in talking about AI. Um one thing that I love to do with them is talk about what Bluetooth is. Many of them don't even understand it. I see so many chat rooms where providers say, you know, I hate Bluetooth. Um, it creates so much trouble and so much work, and uh I I think they're just missing the boat.

SPEAKER_02 34:02

They should be grateful for that work in my mind. I'm with you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:07

And um think about all the cognitive, wonderful things that we do with patients because of Bluetooth. And um in their first fitting of their first Bluetooth hearing aids, I teach them what a podcast is. Many of them don't even know that there's free short stories on their phone. They're just they can't even believe it. And I give them homework, we call it homework. And I have a few of my podcasts that are short stories. Um they're perfect for anyone, right? They they don't talk about politics or anything that's gonna upset someone. But I tell them your brain is going to learn better faster when you're listening to something and you can't see the person talking. And it's physical therapy for your ears. And I want you to listen to one story before you come back. By the and I and I queue it up for them because let's face it, many of them aren't going to remember the steps to go into podcasts and find it. So uh many times I'll even text it to them. I'll say, just touch this right here, and you're gonna listen to this short story. They are so excited when they come back. They say, you know, my kids think I'm so with it now. I'm tech savvy. When I go out with my friends, I have new stuff to talk about. Think about that. They have new stuff to talk about. And how important is that cognitively?

SPEAKER_02 35:39

That's really what they're interested in. Yes, they want to know that they trust that you're selecting the best technology for them and that it has artificial intelligence and deep neural networks, and it makes 80 million adjustments per hour. What they want to do is hear better and they want to be more informed and they want to cognitively function at the best level that they can, even into their 70s, 80s, 90s, if we're fortunate enough.

SPEAKER_00 36:05

And that's what they're most concerned about. You know, in the past, patients were accepting when they would come in and they had hearing loss and they didn't do anything about it, they'd say, Oh, yeah, I'm not ready. Now they're ready. Yeah. They say, When I read that, you know, hearing loss and cognitive decline can go hand in hand, I'm not ignoring my hearing loss anymore. And, you know, by teaching them simple things how to use their Bluetooth, how to use a podcast, uh, it's so healthy for them cognitively. And, you know, here in uh the Midwest, as you know, I talk about winter mites.

SPEAKER_01 36:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:45

You know, you're outside now, you're going to the park and you're listening to music in the park. But come winter time, this is your outlet. This this electronic world is going to be at your fingertips and you're always going to have good stories to listen to.

SPEAKER_02 37:00

Um what's your oldest patient that you fitted with uh Bluetooth technology? I don't want to know, I don't want to violate hip. I don't want to know their names, but how old, if you can think of it, while I'm giving you a little buffer here with my my lead-in, but what's the oldest patient that you fitted with?

SPEAKER_00 37:17

So mine is 96. 96. She also wrote a book. She raises money um for uh a certain mission with the money that her book sells. It's a story about her life. At 96, she uses an iPad and an iPhone, and she knows how to toggle them. It's it's incredible. And she she says they they've changed her life.

SPEAKER_02 37:43

Yeah, our expectations about our patients are often the limiting factor more than the patient themselves. Once they know, and once they know they have a trusted advisor to with the expertise to not only fit the devices but help them on their way. Like I I agree with you when people say, I hate Bluetooth. For me, we should be embracing, yes, always looking to streamline the process as much as possible, make it as seamless as possible for the patient.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

Patients want to feel like they're getting a concierge service, right? We all want that wherever we go. You gotta just spend a little time with them. Um like you said, sometimes, you know, we we prejudge, you know, what that person's capabilities are, and you know, they surprise you.

unknown 38:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:35

And like you said, concierge really means that you're listening to the patient and you're personalizing, customizing solutions to meet their needs, and they trust that you're doing that with their best interest in mind. And I think there's nothing any harder but any simpler than that. I mean, it it's a it's it's easy to say, a lot harder to live. And I appreciate very much that you lead by that example in your community and in your profession. And and you've been a great uh partner to Starkey. And I'm and I'm very grateful that I have the opportunity to be sitting here with you today and consider you a friend.

SPEAKER_00 39:11

Thank you. Thank you. That's a lot, truly.

SPEAKER_02 39:14

Well, I I can't thank you enough. And I knew time would fly by on this, and we're already over what we typically do, but you had so much valuable information. So, Dr. Figliano, I I thank you for appearing on this episode of Soundbites and sharing your insights, not only from the CEO meeting, but from your practice and ways that you uh the thing, again, uh as a as a baby boomer, it becomes easy to sort of say, well, this isn't the way that I've done things before. It's the way I've always done things. But you just have been so facile and willing to be open to looking at new ways of doing things and impacting patients. But fundamental to all of that, as you said, is caring. And so I know you you embody that in your profession and in your practice and then some. So thank you for being with us today and for our listeners. If you enjoyed this episode, please like it, share it with your friends, your colleagues. If you're in the Ohio area, uh, go and see Dr. Figliano and her colleagues as well, because you're gonna be well taken care of. But uh we're grateful uh that you've taken the time to listen to us today. Um, and um uh we encourage you to subscribe so you don't miss a single episode or send us an email at soundbites at Starkey.com if you have ideas for future topics. Cheryl, thank you again. I can't thank you enough and uh look forward to seeing you again very soon.

SPEAKER_00 40:39

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_02 40:40

Take care.