Red Maple Audiology, a private practice located in Central Maine, is seeking a 4th Year Extern with a heart for giving, a dedicated and driven spirit, and a growth mindset for the 2024-2025 academic year. Our location is about one hour north of Portland. Red Maple Audiology opened in 2020 and has experienced steady growth; we have 3 full time Doctors of Audiology and 1 full time Speech-Language Pathologist on our team. We are part of the Entheos Cooperative and have a local non-profit project, Hearing the Call - Red Maple Roots. This externship would provide experience in not only clinical services but also in community engagement and practice management, and provide the opportunity to give back on both a local and international level.

Best-practice care and services are provided to all ages – pediatrics and adults. This includes: diagnostic testing (audiometry, immittance, DPOAEs, ABR); hearing aid services (real ear measures, electroacoustic evaluation, unbundled service models, assistive devices, hearing aid trials); hearing loss/aural rehabilitative options; community and off-site diagnostics, screenings, and hearing aid services (in senior communities and schools); cochlear implant services (evaluations, MAPpings, follow up care); CAPD (testing and intervention); tinnitus evaluations and rehabilitation; Veteran Compensation & Pension (C&P) examinations; Early Intervention providers (IFSP & IEP); Educational Audiology as contracted providers including school hearing screenings, auditory training, RM system fitting and care, IEP/504 attendance and recommendations; Occupational Audiometry including hearing protection, monitoring STS and medical opinion.  We are also in the process of adding vestibular services that will be fully operational by the beginning of the 2024/2025 externship year. Additionally, we are specially trained in cognitive aspects of hearing loss and provide screenings for cognitive decline. We emphasize a patient- and family-centered model of care. We have a very heavy pediatric-based case load, and are the only local provider of Medicaid services. 

Our audiologists, headed by owner, Ashlee Vandiver, Au.D., are passionate about high-quality precepting and that the 4th year is to be used as an educational experience. Extern independence is viewed as a continuum over the year, and we work together to ensure the extern feels confident in all areas of practice throughout their year with us.  The extern will be immersed in the daily needs of the practice including but not limited to: community outreach; social media, and physician marketing; billing, coding, and insurance; administrative tasks (in coordination with our patient care coordinators); and program growth & development.

We will offer a stipend for this position, as well as one (1) all-necessary-expenses paid international mission trip with Hearing the Call during the externship year. 

Goals and Activities:

Diagnostic:
•Determine appropriate test battery for each patient based on their age, ability, and complaints
•Master standard audiometry, including masking, word recognition testing
•Obtain tympanometry, DPOAEs, and audiometry on children with diverse developmental abilities
•Facility with pediatric hearing evaluations including ABR, VRA & CPA
•Perform and interpret immittance, DPOAE & ABR testing
•Organize a best-practice auditory processing test battery & score appropriately
•Interpret results of test battery and identify approximate site of lesion and areas of concern to develop a plan of care and treatment options
•Identify need for further evaluation (both audiology – CI, EP, Vestib, tinnitus, etc. - and non-audiology)
•Be familiar with common chronic diseases and genetic syndromes, and identify ways in which they can cause, affect, or be affected by hearing loss

Amplification/Rehabilitation:
•Develop patient- and family-centered plans of care
•Hearing aid knowledge regarding style, technologies, earmolds, basic repair, and real ear verification
•Select and fit hearing aids such that they are a part of the patient's hearing loss rehabilitation
•Perform hearing aid test measures such as on-ear and test-box verification, measure real ear to coupler differences, and interpret the results of these tests as they may pertain to both amplification and auditory system function
•Manage hearing aid walk-in clinic and/or hearing aid repair drop-offs, if applicable
•Determine candidacy for different rehabilitation options
•Create rehabilitation plan for auditory processing disorders
•Be comfortable with recommendation of and able to program and counsel on use of hearing aid accessories and remote microphone technologies
•Be able to identify and recommend auditory training programs
•Determine need for additional assistive listening technologies
•Speak with confidence about early intervention and educational recommendations and structures; be able to describe the terms and how they relate to our patients: IFSP, IEP, 504, ADA

Community Outreach & Marketing:
•Identify opportunities for participation in community events (fairs, festivals, meetings)
•Aid in planning for and coordination for these events and participate in them. This may require some after-hours and weekend time, extern will know far ahead of time and comp time will be provided during the week
•Aid in coordination and administration of offsite community hearing screenings and services
•Aid in development of website and social media content

Administrative:
•Establish an efficient and effective workflow
•Work in collaboration with all levels of staff, encourage team environment
•Establish report writing skills so that written documentation is accurate, complete but not superfluous, encourages collaboration with other professionals and patients, and is tailored to its specific audience

General:
•Establish trust and rapport with patients
•Counsel patients & families effectively so that they are able to be involved in their own healthcare decision making
•Think critically about the patient as a whole and communicate confidently with other healthcare professionals
•Understand the limits of their scope of knowledge and when to ask questions & consult others
•Demonstrate appropriate opportunities to constructively question current policies and procedures, promote change and development
•Participate in continuing education activities

Billing, Coding, Reimbursement:
•Complete a continuing education course on billing coding, and reimbursement
•Demonstrate confidence in defining and selecting CPT, ICD10, and HCPCS codes
•Be able to find billing rules for major payers (Medicare, Medicaid)
•Assist management with claims preparation and reconciliation as well as patient billing when appropriate

Compliance & Ethics
•Identify situations which may threaten professional ethics
•Act in a way that is always compliant with federal and state laws
•Complete a continuing education course on ethics
•Complete HIPAA training program
•Be able to locate rules & regulations, and scopes of practice for audiologists in different states