Academic clinics are different than other audiology clinics; they serve at least two leaders: patients and students. As one clinic housed amidst a campus of services, it can take extra effort to stand out.
Moreover, in universities, pressures to meet new financial obligations and train more students continue to grow. Academic clinics also face the same increasing challenges as private practices, such as COVID restrictions, increased competition, health care changes and threats of OTC and managed care.
Balancing these external challenges and university pressures are tough enough on their own, let alone with your clinical training obligations.
How is your university clinic navigating these obstacles?
At Fuel, our goal is to help you find a balance between managing a profitable clinic and providing quality academic opportunities for your students.
Clinic Benefits
Universities have a unique competitive advantage. While most practices spend a large budget on external branding and marketing, you have a well-established and trusted brand. Furthermore, many prospective patients may already exist within the university system.
Want to increase new patient flow to meet growing revenue and enrollment targets, establish competitive pricing models and create treatment programs competitive with market trends (managed care, big-box stores or OTC)? Fuel Medical’s team and their select partners are here to provide custom solutions to help you meet your clinic’s potential.
Universities already have a trusted brand in their communities and it’s our job to help leverage that authority within their local market.
Kathleen AndersDigital Marketing Manager
On top of traditional business development services, such as marketing, streamlining operations, physician referrals, financial benchmarking and KPI monitoring, Fuel offers unique services to academic clinics not available elsewhere.
Some unique areas of academic clinic support include:
Cognitive Testing: FDA-cleared technology for patient in-clinic, self-administered testing of cognitive function that will enlighten students about the brain’s role in hearing while resolving patient concerns about cognitive function. According to WHO and the Lancet Commissions, hearing loss’s proactive management can delay or slow the onset or progression of cognitive decline.1 Training students to access cognitive function is critical in preparing them to better serve an aging patient base.
Access Hearing: This unique discount plan for university students, alumni, employees and their families allows you to offer your university colleagues and families low price, high-quality hearing aids to compete with managed care, big box stores and OTCs.
Fuel identifies and vets advanced services and technologies, then offers them to your clinic at a savings to keep your clinic and training environment consistently on the leading edge of audiology.
Rose DuLude, Ph.D., CCC-A, FAAADirector of Audiology
Online Hearing Screening: The sudden shift to practicing online, e.g., telehealth, has created a need to have a reliable online hearing screening for your clinic. Fuel membership allows you to use SHOEBOX online screening at a discount. SHOEBOX is a low-cost way to reach and serve more of the community, recruit more patients for student training and increase revenue with no hard sell tactics or time commitment from your practice.
Student Benefits
Your students are the future of hearing health care.
It is essential to provide a holistic audiological clinic experience.
Fuel’s team is equipped with resources to support all audiology health areas, including hearing loss, hearing aids, cochlear implants, tinnitus, balance, vestibular and cochlear function. While many groups only support your hearing aid initiatives, Fuel values the full spectrum of audiology care.
Fuel’s partnering with your clinic helps bring modern techniques and services to your academic setting that replicate modern and future real-world clinics and environments in which your students will practice.
Uniquely, Fuel provides extensive support and educational opportunities for students, in addition to customized business development advice and direction for the clinic.
Don Nielsen, Ph.D., F-AAAAudiology University Advisor
Business acumen is essential for audiologists growing into leadership positions and who will manage clinics or academic programs. Fuel makes it easy for you to provide business information and skills to students by providing lectures on many business topics such as marketing, finance, KPIs, industry updates and other topics you choose.
Fuel offers a wide range of support and resources to help educate and guide students throughout their academic program.
Some examples of student resources include:
- Preparation for job interviews
- Externship placement
- Post-graduate job placement
- Treatment plan acceptance
- Mapping the patient journey
- Marketing a small business
- Building a physician referral network
Some unique areas of student support:
American Institute of Balance (AIB): Few universities have a full or adjunct faculty with expertise in balance and little or no access to clinical settings with neurodiagnostic equipment. Fuel’s partnership with AIB can make a difference by providing the content, video-demonstrations, live patient-interaction, research papers, video case-studies and tutorials on the business of balance and professional opportunities. AIB is additionally partnering with Fuel to provide you and your students with CEU and Certificate programs and courses.
Cochlear Provider Network: Fuel partners with Cochlear Corporation to identify qualified clinics that will provide cochlear implant maintenance for local patients who reside in their area but were implanted at a center a far distance away. This network is an excellent opportunity to educate students in hands-on cochlear implant programming and maintenance if your clinic qualifies.
With over 40 university partners, including 27 Au.D. program clinics and four undergraduate clinics, Fuel Medical is the premier provider for university audiology clinics. Fuel provides the business development services you require while maintaining your nonprofit goals and education and training missions.
Fuel understands universities and enjoys working with academic programs, faculty, students and staff. To learn more about how Fuel Medical Group can meet your needs, please contact us using the form below.
Ready to collaborate?
[1] World Health Organization, Risk Reduction of Cognitive Decline and Dementia, WHO Guidelines 2019; Dementia prevention, intervention, and care, Lancet, 2017; 390: 2673-734 from https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0140-6736%2820%2930367-6.