Karen A. Doherty, Ph.D.

"Improving communication for older hospital patents with assistive listening devices"

Hearing in hospitals is difficult for many people, but it is especially challenging for older patients. This is problematic given the importance of the nature of conversations that take place in hospitals, and the fact that approximately 40 percent of the inpatients in hospitals are over 65 years of age (DeFrances, Lucas, Buie, and Golosinskiy, 2008). The purpose of this study is to determine if assistive listening devices (ALD) can be used effectively and independently by older hospital patients to improve hearing.

There are several reasons why ALDs should be made readily available to all older hospital patients. First, a significant number of older individuals have hearing loss.  Specifically, after the age of 60 years one in every three adults will have some degree of hearing loss and after the age of 75 years one in every two adults will have a significant hearing loss (American Academy of Audiology, 2005).  Although many individuals with hearing loss wear hearing aids, it is typical for older hospital patients to leave their hearing aids at home.  This is because hearing aids are very expensive and can get lost or stolen during the patients stay in the hospital. Second, hospitals are noisy and older individuals with and without hearing loss have more difficulty hearing in background noise than younger listeners (Doherty and Desjardins, 2008). Third, physicians and other healthcare workers typically give patients medical information verbally. If doctors and other healthcare workers perceive a patient cannot hear them, they will typically raise their voice to a level that the patient can hear. This level is often loud enough to compromise the patient’s privacy and violate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), which states patients have the right to the protection of the privacy of their identifiable health information. Last, it is important for older patients to be in control of their own healthcare. To do so, they must be able to accurately hear what their physicians and other healthcare providers are recommending as possible treatment options and the risks and benefits associated with each option. If physicians believe their patients cannot understand what they are saying, they may explain important medical information to the patient’s next of kin instead of explaining this information directly to the patient. The results from the present study will provide data on the pattern of use and benefit of using ALDs with older normal-hearing and hearing-impaired hospital patients. This data will be used to support the long-term goal of creating a hospital policy that would require ALDs be made available in the rooms of all older hospital patients.