Mobile Hearing Care
comes to region
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July 18, 2011 |
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Dana and
Jackie Fox and two of their four rat
terriers. |
Dana and Jackie Fox and their four rat terriers
moved to their home in Paradise Valley in 2004,
and they brought with them a new business that
goes the extra mile,
Mobile Hearing Care, one that brings their
business, and better hearing, to folks from as
far south as Cocollala and east to Libby.
Licensed to dispense hearing aids in Montana and
Idaho, Dana began his career in 1987 at
Willoughby Hearing Center in Portland, Oregon.
Back then, audiologists were reliant on bulky
audiometers and special sound-proofed booths,
but now days the equipment is less bulky and
easier to transport, though the service he
provides is much more exacting.
"My role was then was limited to hearing
evaluations, fitting the aids, follow up and
service," he said. "Fitting them meant to make
certain that the aids were comfortable to wear
and gave reasonably better hearing. Nowadays,
hearing aid dispensing requires much more of me.
I am in charge of selection, programming and
fine tuning of each instrument I fit. I now use
a laptop computer for hearing evaluations as
well as for programming hearing aids."
Not only is he an accredited expert, Dana, 61,
is like many of the clients whose lives he makes
better; he, too suffers hearing loss and is
reliant on the products he sells. He's a member
of the Bonners Ferry Chamber of Commerce and,
believe it or not, a member of the Sandpoint
Toastmaster's Club.
"As a hearing aid user myself," he said, "I have
a better understanding of what my clients are
experiencing and am further enabled to help them
adjust to their hearing aids."
When he looked at starting his business here,
Dana quickly gave up on the idea of leasing
office space. With the trying economic times,
the overhead didn't make much sense. In
addition, many of the people who most need his
service don't drive and have difficulty getting
around.
Instead, he decided to bring his business to
them, which provides the added benefit of
enabling him to factor in the natural sounds his
clients live with every day.
"Some homes have loud fans, loud refrigerators
or a barking dog," he said. "I can adjust the
software in the hearing aids to make such sounds
tolerable. I have even taken my laptop
programmer with my client into a dining hall
that has a lot of background noise, and adjusted
the programming to reduce the background noise
and enhance speech recognition. I could not do
that in an office."
Dana travels thoughout the region, visiting
Troy, Montana from late morning to after lunch
the first and last Monday of each month at 304
Third Street, at the Senior Center in Bonners
Ferry during the same hours on the last Friday
of each month, and in Sandpoint, again the same
general hours, at Luther Park, 510 Olive Street,
and later those days at the Bridge, 1123 North
Division in Sandpoint, on the second and fourth
Tuesday of each month.
He also makes home visits by appointment, and if
need be, he'll get you started on the way to
better hearing evenings and weekends. If you're
in Montana, you can call (406) 295-4140, in
Bonners Ferry and Idaho, the number is (208)
267-5554. Or you can visit the Mobile Hearing
Care website,
www.mobilehearingcare.com, and email
dana@mobilehearingcare.com. |
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