El Paso, Texas (KFOX14) \u2014 Back-to-school season usually puts the focus on backpacks, supplies and schedules. At Bassett Place, we found another part of getting kids ready that can be easy to overlook: hearing.<\/p>\n
We joined El Paso Children\u2019s Hospital at a back-to-school expo, where its pediatric audiology team brought free hearing screenings directly to local families. The hospital\u2019s mobile clinic was also on-site, giving attendees an opportunity to meet specialists, ask questions and learn more about pediatric services available here in the Borderland.<\/p>\n
Our first conversation was with Amanda Chiao, AuD, PhD, CCC-A, a pediatric hearing and vestibular audiologist with Texas Tech Physicians of El Paso who also practices at El Paso Children\u2019s Hospital. Official hospital information lists Dr. Chiao as part of its Complex Pediatric Otolaryngology team alongside pediatric audiologist Manuel A. Vicente, AuD, CCC-A.<\/p>\n
Dr. Chiao told us the pediatric audiology program had started about four years before our interview and works closely with pediatric ear, nose and throat specialists.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur programs are designed to help diagnose hearing loss,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
That diagnosis is one part of a larger process. Dr. Chiao explained that the team supports children who do not pass their newborn hearing screen, as well as young patients who develop other hearing concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do the wraparound care for children when they fail the newborn hearing screen,\u201d Dr. Chiao said, describing the coordination between medical care, ENT services and audiology intervention.<\/p>\n
This is one of those services that makes more sense once you see how many specialists may be involved. The hospital\u2019s pediatric ENT program lists services that include cochlear implants, bone-anchored hearing aids and sedated auditory brainstem response testing. Its providers also treat hearing loss, balance problems, recurring ear infections and other conditions affecting a child\u2019s ears, nose, throat or airway.<\/p>\n
During our interview, Dr. Chiao described the program as the only pediatric audiology program in El Paso and said the team also serves families from Las Cruces, New Mexico. At the expo, that regional care was brought out of the clinic and into a setting where families were already preparing for the new school year.<\/p>\n
We then stepped outside to visit the mobile clinic and meet Manuel Vicente Hita, AuD, CCC-A. His official El Paso Children\u2019s Hospital provider profile identifies him as a pediatric audiologist who serves patients in both English and Spanish.<\/p>\n
Vicente Hita explained that the hospital uses the mobile clinic to bring screening services into the community. The outreach gives families a chance to connect with the audiology team without first having to navigate a hospital or specialty clinic.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe try to do this at least once a year,\u201d he said. \u201cSo we\u2019ve seen all the way up to about 50 patients during these events.\u201d<\/p>\n
The part that caught us was how practical the setup felt. Parents did not have to arrive knowing the right medical term or which specialist they might need. They could begin with a question, meet the people doing the work and learn where to go for additional care.<\/p>\n
El Paso Children\u2019s Hospital\u2019s pediatric hearing and ENT specialists are based at the Multispecialty Center at 5400 Alameda Avenue. The clinic is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and can be reached at 915-242-8402<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"El Paso, Texas (KFOX14) \u2014 Back-to-school season usually puts the focus on backpacks, supplies and schedules. At Bassett…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":["post-411518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}