Jacoti Lola® deployed at Parkland Hospital, Dallas (TX)

Forty-four patients and three healthcare providers from the ENT and Audiology Clinic of Parkland Hospital in Dallas, TX participated in the field test of Lola over a period of ten weeks. Results convincingly confirmed the benefits of Jacoti Lola® technology for assistive listening usage in a hospital setting.

In a field test at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, TX, healthcare providers in their otolaryngology clinic used iOS devices running Jacoti Lola, an app that provides local-network wireless communication technology in their examination rooms for face-to-face communications with patients.

Each room was equipped with a Wi-Fi router that was dedicated to Lola transmission and reception. Two iPod Touches were set up for each room as speech transmitters (Sender) and one iPod Touch was configured as a receiver (Listener).

Healthcare providers wore a lavalier (lapel) microphone positioned near the mouth. The patient was provided with a Listener equipped with over-the-ear headphones (all devices were fully sanitized before each interaction). Aside from the utilization of the Lola assistive listening system, the hearing health examinations took place according to the clinic’s usual practice. Upon conclusion of the session, a brief survey (Spanish or English version, depending on the patient’s primary language) was administered to measure patient opinions and attitudes regarding the impact of the Lola on communicative efficiency during patient-provider interactions and ease of use of the technology. Forty-four patients handed in their surveys.

The overwhelming majority of patients (88.4% to 90.9%, depending upon the survey item) reported favorable opinions about the efficacy and usability of the smartphone running Lola during patient-provider communications. A markedly higher percentage of patients strongly agreed than disagreed (by a factor of 7 to 10) that the Lola smartphone technology intervention made it easier to hear hospital workers, improved communication in the hospital, and stated that they wanted to use the intervention the next time they went to the hospital.

To summarize the results:

• Nearly 90% felt that the Lola systems enhanced efficacy of provider-patient communicative interactions and increased patient activation.
• Approximately 90% judged Lola’s usability favorably. No users reported issues related to wireless transmission latency.
• Both Spanish-speaking as well as English-speaking patients judged Lola to be efficacious in enhancing patient-provider communicative interactions and patient activation.
• The impact of the intervention was perceived as beneficial, regardless of whether patients reported hearing difficulty.

The findings support the conclusion that patients perceived that Jacoti Lola® wireless communication technology has a beneficial impact on patient-provider communicative interactions and patient activation.

The importance of the Jacoti Lola® assistive listening technology in the healthcare process is underscored in this present, and likely to be long-lasting, COVID environment where the wearing of face masks imposes considerable additional difficulties upon people with hearing loss to understand speech.

Additional details regarding the Lola pilot program can be found in the white paper and Canadian Audiologist article linked to here:

Patient-Provider Healthcare Communication in the Hospital Setting.
A Pilot Quality Improvement Project

By Carol A Silverman, PhD, MPHTheresa V Chan-Leveno, MDElizabeth Frerich, MSN, FNP-CJoseph J Montano, EdD, CCC-ARichel Ruivivar-Khan, FNP-BCAlan K Silverman, M.D.Richard Einhorn.

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