New Research Initiative Explores How Administrative Tasks Prevent More Direct Patient Care, Drive Clinician Burnout and Attrition, as Staffing Pressures Intensify
We have launched an industry-wide survey examining the staffing shortages and administrative burden that hearing care clinics face. The survey invites clinic owners, practice managers, and audiologists to share where clinician time is being lost to administrative tasks, and what’s driving clinician burnout and attrition during a time of widespread staffing shortages. Auditdata’s survey is building a benchmark the industry currently lacks.
Auditdata’s new survey is collecting data around a critical industry issue. Roughly, 48 million Americans live with hearing loss and most of them are not being treated, while an estimated 75% of U.S. counties face audiology staffing shortages. Yet Auditdata argues that the most immediate constraint isn’t the lack of clinicians. The pressing issue is that practicing audiologists are not operating at full clinical capacity. Ongoing administrative burdens, including documentation, compliance, follow-up, scheduling, and reporting, consume up to an hour of each clinician’s day, time that clinicians could otherwise be spending on direct patient care. These administrative burdens are contributing to long patient wait times and barriers to care, plus fueling the burnout and attrition that are worsening the industry’s staffing shortage.
Auditdata captured the state of the staffing crisis in their recent blog, “America’s Hearing Care Crisis: Why Saving Audiologists’ Time Is Now a Public Health Priority.” Conversations about audiology access typically focus on training pipelines, geographic incentives, and reimbursement policies, which are legitimate levers. But these potential solutions will take years, if not decades, to materialize. The capacity problem is happening now, and needs immediate solutions. Auditdata is providing innovative, AI-powered solutions to relieve clinicians from time-consuming administrative chores, enabling them to spend more time on patient care.
Auditdata’s 2-minute survey asks respondents to rate the severity of staffing pressure in their organizations, identify the biggest drains on clinician time (including documentation, workflows, systems, downtime, scheduling, and insurance), and describe what would most help clinics close the gap. Auditdata plans to publish their findings as an industry benchmark later this year.
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Auditdata’s own data points to the scale of the opportunity. The company’s new AI-powered Notes Assistant reduces documentation time by roughly one hour per clinician per day, the equivalent of one additional patient appointment daily. Applied at scale, across a hearing care enterprise with hundreds of clinicians, it means thousands of additional patient-facing hours per month that are currently spent on paperwork. This expansion of patient access can serve as an immediate fix for the staffing crisis.
On average, seven years pass between when a person first notices hearing difficulties and when they seek professional treatment. These delays are not purely attitudinal. Staffing shortages, access barriers, long wait times, and the perception that getting help is logistically difficult are all contributing factors.
About Auditdata
Since 1992, Auditdata has provided software, hardware, and services that help hearing care providers deliver the best possible care experience. Its connected platform — spanning screening, practice management, audiological testing, and analytics supports multi-location hearing care networks across North America, APAC and Europe, giving clinicians more time for patients and operators the data to scale with confidence.
Media contact: Emma Rytter Skovgaard, Vp of Marketing, www.auditdata.com