Audiology

Audiology Evaluations and Services for Infants, Children and Adults

Franciscan Health provides outpatient audiology services in addition to newborn hearing screenings for all babies born in our facilities. Our audiologists have a high level of experience and expertise with all age populations. Audiology assessments include:

• Comprehensive audiograms
• Speech audiometry
• Tympanometry
• Acoustic reflexes and decay
• Otoacoustic emissions
• Auditory brainstem response testing (ABR)
• Vestibular rehabilitation 

Experts in hearing aid fitting

The Franciscan Health audiology staff will help with the selection and fitting of hearing aids. Patients considered candidates for hearing aids will meet with our licensed audiology staff to determine the hearing aid model best suited for their hearing loss and listening needs. Patients will receive a 30 working day trial period. In a confusing market of hearing aid technology, we strive to fit our patients with high-quality instruments to improve their quality of life. Our audiology staff takes pride in the mastery of several excellent hearing aid manufacturers which offer entry level to high end digital circuitry.

Additional audiology aids available from Franciscan Health:

• Custom ear molds for hearing aids, swimming, ear protection, and musician earplugs
• Hearing aid repairs
• Assistive listening devices, which can be used with or without hearing aids or cochlear implants, help to reduce the amount of listening effort needed in challenging environments such as poor room acoustics/reverberation, competing noise in the environment or across large distances between the listener and the sound source.

Specialty audiology services for infants and children

• Diagnostic testing facilities for infants and children
• Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR), sedated and non-sedated
• Comprehensive hearing assessments for infants and children
• Tympanometry
• Otoacoustic Emissions (OAE) - An OAE test involves placing a microphone into a baby's ears to detect emissions from the cochlea.
• Universal Newborn Hearing Screening - Performed on every newborn prior to discharge. Results are reported to pediatricians and the Illinois or Indiana State Department of Health. Those who do not pass are referred for comprehensive follow-up testing.
• Custom swim molds - Recommended in summer for children prone to ear infections or who have PE tubes.
• Digital hearing aids and follow-up - All levels of digital hearing aids from the leading manufacturers, including programming and repairs.
• FM systems - Recommended for children who wear hearing aids. These devices help school-aged children to hear in classroom settings by improving the signal-to-noise ratio and enhancing the teacher's voice, no matter where the teacher is in the room.
• Assistive listening devices - For children who wear hearing aids, these devices include amplifiers that may be at ear level, or play in a band or orchestra.