It's blooming Christmas

Posted Monday September 26, 2022

We had fun getting into the spirit of Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori | Māori Language Week in September, and you may have noticed that staff are speaking more kupu Māori. This is part of Audiology South’s journey to be accessible and serve all peoples in our society, not just through te reo Māori, but also by reaching out and learning how to be available to a wider community and provide care to all ages and stages of life. Our Whānau Matters focus acknowledges that hearing loss affects your whole family, so ask us how we practise family-centred care.

We are also working on a new sustainability project — Go Green. During this year’s ‘away day’ our staff showed great passion for waste management, and our aim now is for the business to reduce its carbon footprint, recycling as much as possible.

As well as making sure materials that come into the clinics are correctly recycled, we are also targeting the packaging of products received from suppliers. The packaging around consumables and hearing aids is a massive space to try to minimise and reduce the supply chain costs. We are working with manufacturers to package and ship supplies and hearing aids in bulk, leaving it to our individual clinics to repackage so there is minimal waste … so watch this space as more Audiology South branded packaging may start to appear.

Technology is also moving in the right direction to help us minimise waste. One area to save precious materials and prevent waste is the use of digital ear scanners. Technology now exists allowing us to take a digital image of the ear canal instead of a physical impression, which can then be emailed directly to the hearing aid company for manufacturing. Audiology South is currently looking at the feasibility of introducing this technology into its network of clinics. It promises to be a great way to reduce waste in the ordering and dispensing supply chains.

Thank you to everyone who answered our customer questionnaire. Carina De Groot was the lucky winner of our ‘thank you’ prize draw, a $200 grocery hamper. In this issue we report on your feedback, as well as explore some new hearing technology features.

Enjoy the read, and if you have any questions or subjects you would like covered in future issues, we would love to hear from you.