ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Dr. Tela Katz, audiologist at the Rochester Hearing and Speech Center, has been in the audiology field for over six years, and she’s noticed a change.

“When I began in this field, [there were] definitely more clinicians at each of our facilities. It was more of a lackadaisical pace in terms of taking time with our patients, which is really important to us, making sure that they feel understood and getting them the care that they need even outside of their appointment time,” said Katz.

What You Need To Know

  • As the need for hearing professionals is expected to grow 10% over the next decade, the shortage of audiologists in the U.S. is worsening
  • The expected growth in the need of audiology is about double what other health care areas will grow in the next 10 years, and the biggest challenge hearing professionals are facing right now is getting patients in for appointments
  • The best thing to do is to be proactive about taking care of your hearing while you have it, taking precaution when listening to music through headphones and using hearing protection when going to concerts or even sports games

But now, a typical day for her: “Go go go. Every second is accounted for, making phone calls in between patients. You could be helping maybe 20-25 patients,” she said.

And she isn’t the only one.

“Everybody is facing the exact same situation right now with the lack of providers. I think you have less students coming out of school with medical degrees in audiology. I think there is also, because of COVID, a lot of people that left the workplace,” said Bob Russell, president and CEO of Rochester Speech and Hearing. 

With fewer providers, it takes patients longer to get into the office and puts more pressure on audiologists to make more time for more patients.

“We’re definitely seeing more than we ever have. You know, maybe a previous day could’ve looked like eight to 10. But now, it could be more like 15,” said Katz.

Making a regular work-week a thing of the past.

“We do this to help people and it just kind of pulls at our heartstrings to have them wait, so we do usually put ourselves aside. Doing more things, staying after hours, maybe doing some things during lunch just so people can get the help that we don’t want them to be waiting for,” Katz said. 

But with the need for hearing specialists expected to continue to grow, specialists don’t expect to slow down any time soon.

“Hearing loss is being affected with people from every demographic, every age group. The largest population nationally is under 30 years of age because you have a lot of people that are wearing earbuds all the time, playing music a little bit too loud,” said Russell.

Meaning all specialists can hope for are more people deciding to join the health care field.

“When I think about younger individuals and what they want to be and what their aspirations are, you know I always joke with my patients that we could use less TikTok stars and more people in health care,” Katz said.