Helping Patients Hear with ClearCast Grant

LIBERTY, Mo., September 25, 2024- A request from Liberty Hospital’s audiology team is being funded by Liberty Hospital Foundation to help patients who have difficulty hearing while receiving care.  Working with ClearCast, the Foundation will be funding 12 new hearing devices for a $2,500 grant.  ClearCast Personal Assistive Listening Devices are special earphones that the Hospital will be able to give patients who are hard of hearing, that may not have access hearing aids.

Unfortunately, less than 40% of patients who need amplification for adequate communication have hearing aids, over-the-counter devices, or implants*.  Melanie Phillips, Audiologist at Liberty Hospital, helped apply for this grant.  She expands upon the need explaining, “when patients are unable to hear or understand their doctors, nurses and other office/hospital staff there is a great chance that their care will be negatively impacted.  They may not follow through on recommendations or take medications properly. They may respond to questions about their symptoms based on what they thought they heard.”  In an effort to improve patient safety, communication and outcomes, the Foundation is supporting this program under the Patient Assistance Program to keep assistive listening devices on hand in the primary care offices and available for inpatients and at specialty clinics, even for surgical situations.  These will be returned at the end of an appointment, surgery, or upon discharge for other patients to utilize.  The hope is access to an assistive listening device during care will help illuminate a new path forward for more permanent hearing solutions outside of immediate care; audiologists and physicians can help refer patients who enjoyed their experience to getting additional help. 

More about Liberty Hospital’s Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) Clinic

Liberty Hospital has many services to serve patients who have difficulty hearing.  The Hospital works with patients on hearing evaluations, hearing aid evaluations, and also have walk-in clinic days for patients to receive care.

More about ClearCast

The ClearCast PAL™ is designed and engineered in the USA and is an FDA-registered Class 2 Medical Device. Assistive listening devices (ALDs) are designed to help you listen and understand conversations and dialogue in everyday activities.  They are FDA-regulated as medical devices and electronic products.  ALDs can be used to hear better from distances and in background noise.  The listener can adjust the volume of the receiver as needed.

*2022 Audiology MarkeTrak Survey

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