Advanced Audiology’s Nola Aronson, a Santa Clarita audiologist, is planning to offer house calls for seniors in partnership with a local optometrist.
Aronson and Dr. Alice Sun of Sunshine Optometry are planning to provide both hearing and vision screenings for seniors with mobility issues, right from the comfort of their homes.
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“We forget sometimes the importance of how the eyes and the ears go together,” Aronson said. “We thought we would team up and do the eyes and the ears at the same time for our seniors.”
One reason seniors may want a house call is so that it can be done outside of regular business hours, allowing family members with demanding work schedules to be there for the visit.
“For me, if I have grandparents or parents, I don’t think I’m comfortable sending them on their own to a doctor’s office, and if I’m working 9-5, the only days I’m available is at night or on weekends,” Sun said. “But if we can bring the service to them on off hours … then we can give the seniors a very good exam while their families — your daughters, your kids — are there.”
Portable medical equipment exists in the fields of both audiology and optometry, which can be brought to the patient’s home for a complete hearing and vision screening and exam.
Then if prescription glasses or a hearing aid is necessary, what they need can be brought right to the patient’s home, without them ever having to leave, even if a second visit is needed.
Sun recalled when she first started doing house calls about a year ago and was contacted by a resident who had a mother-in-law with MS.
“Her world now is her living room,” Sun recalled. “He’s called many offices asking for the service and nobody was really offering, and when he found that we offered, he was thrilled. So the very next day at about 7:00, our doctor took everything, went to the house, saw her in her bed in the living room.”
Sun continued, “We made her a pair of glasses that’s good for watching TV, as well as reading her books, which is what she does now, while her grandchild was next to her, while her children were next to her, and then a week later, we delivered that pair of glasses right to her home. She didn’t have to go anywhere, they didn’t have to worry about transporting her anywhere and then none of the kids had to take time off their work.”
Though some people may decide they don’t want an eye exam because they don’t have vision insurance, Sun said that medical insurance will usually cover an eye exam for seniors with a medical diagnosis ranging from allergies to cataracts to dry eyes, and Aronson noted it’s the same with hearing.
“Medicare pays for the hearing test as long as you have a prescription from your doctor,” Aronson said. “We go one step further to make sure that people don’t use that as an excuse, because we feel that hearing is so important to life and your overall wellness.”
