Significant health information is missed by about 43% of patients who are 60 or older, as reported by recent studies. Important information, with regards to health care, might be missed because of hearing loss.
Hearing Loss – A Global Epidemic
Hearing loss is a big issue. Worldwide, a third of individuals over the age of 65 have debilitating hearing loss.
But surprisingly, if we go a little deeper we discover that only 30% of those people who have disabling hearing loss have taken measures to improve their situation. This trend isn’t good news for healthcare as we’ll illustrate next.
With Health Care – Communication is Key
Miscommunication is one of the major causes of medical errors, and medical errors are still one of the leading causes of death. A study from Harvard revealed that as many as 37% of severe injuries that resulted from medical errors could have been prevented with better communication. An enhanced ability to communicate important information with patients could save lives.
How Medical Care is Impacted by Hearing Loss
Statistics can be a bit fuzzy and hard to get one’s head around so let’s consider some essential information you could miss when talking to pharmacists, nurses, doctors, and other medical professionals.
Doctors and nurses advise you regarding particular health goals. They may talk about what healthy levels are for things like blood sugar or blood pressure. There are certain things that can harm you if they are not controlled in a way that your health care professional suggests. You may be missing important pieces of advice that would help you manage your condition.
You may be in a situation where your doctor notifies you that you require medical care. You might not get the help that you need because you didn’t fully understand what your doctor was saying.
There might be crucial details about dangerous side effects of medications which your pharmacist is trying to make you aware of. You could end up in the hospital or worse because you thought you heard everything but you didn’t.
Perhaps you receive a warning against doing some dangerous activity from your physical therapist. You might suffer a serious fall because you missed that recommendation.
It’s Particularly Challenging to Communicate Medical Data
Communicating medical data is especially tough because of a little thing known as context. When you miss some piece of information because of your hearing loss, you use context to try to fill in what you missed. Your brain is actually very good at compensating for hearing loss. So good, actually, that it might even make you believe that you heard something you didn’t truly hear.
With medical information something as small as a “don’t” or “not” can entirely alter the meaning of a sentence. A danger zone, goal, or dosage, might be
entirely altered with one missed number.
The slightest detail matters when it comes to medical care. When those small details are missed, it can produce severe medical problems.
Having Your Hearing Loss Addressed
If you have hearing loss, you could be missing essential medical advice. Now is the time to take the correct steps to save your hearing.
