Early Hearing Detection and Intervention-Pediatric Audiology Links to Services EHDI-PALS: Building a National
Winnie Chung1, Kathryn L Beauchaine, Jeff Hoffman
11Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center on Birth Defect and Developmental Disability, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; 2Boys Town National Research Hospital, Omaha, Nebraska, USA; 3National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management, Omaha, Nebraska, USA; 4Minnesota Department of Health, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA; 5American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Rockville, Maryland, USA; and 6 University of Maine, Orono, Maine, USA.
Objectives:
To create a searchable web-based national audiology facility directory using a standardized survey, so parents and providers could identify which facilities had capacity to provide appropriate services based on child's age.
Design:
An Early Hearing Detection and Intervention-Pediatric Audiology Links to Services expert panel was convened to create a survey to collect audiology facility information. Professional practice documents were reviewed, a survey was designed to collect pertinent test protocols of each audiology facility, and a standard of care template was created to cross-check survey answers. Audiology facility information across the United States was collected and compiled into a directory structured and displayed in an interactive website, ehdipals.org.
Results:
Since November 7, 2012, to May 21, 2016, over 1000 facilities have completed the survey and become listed in the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention-Pediatric Audiology Links to Services directory. The site has registered 10,759 unique visitors, 151,981 page views, and 9134 unique searches from consumers. User feedback has been positive overall.
Conclusion:
A searchable, web-based facility directory has proven useful to consumers as a tool to help them differentiate whether a facility was set up to test newborns versus young children. Use of a preprogrammed standard of practice template to cross-check survey answers was also shown to be a practical aid.
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