The MedRx UltraVac provides hearing care professionals with a powerful tool to clean and repair patient hearing aids. But did you know there are several other ways your UltraVac can benefit your practice?
Whether you already own an UltraVac and want to use it to its fullest potential or are interested in purchasing one for your clinic, take a look at these 6 things you should know about our complete hearing instrument repair and maintenance system.
1. The UltraVac Cleans and Repairs Hearing Instruments
The UltraVac’s primary function is as a hearing aid restoration device. While the patient should do routine hearing aid maintenance at home, older individuals may have trouble seeing closely enough to thoroughly clean their hearing aids. The UltraVac can help you provide them with a deeper clean for their hearing instrument.
Professional cleaning also ensures that your patients get the best performance out of their hearing aids, increasing customer satisfaction down the road.
The UltraVac includes 3 different elements: a drying chamber, vacuum wand, and pressure wand. When used together, these features are powerful enough even to repair some hearing aids by removing obstructions and moisture from receiver tubes, microphone tubes, vents, and battery compartments.
Vacuum Wand
The vacuum wand is essential for extracting wax, dirt, and other debris from hard-to-reach places in your patient’s hearing aids. The small vacuum wand tips come in assorted sizes and are interchangeable for maximum precision. Much easier to manipulate than manual tools, the hearing aid vacuum wand can not only dislodge wax and debris but remove it from the instrument to allow for more efficient cleaning and better time management.
Pressure Wand
Conversely, the pressure wand blows air onto the hearing instrument to displace debris. The pressure wand is a convenient tool to use when even the vacuum wand cannot reach the debris. Once you’ve expelled the obstruction, you can go in with the vacuum wand again or a cloth to wipe it away.
Drying Chamber (Bell Chamber)
While the vacuum and pressure wands allow you to work on the intricacies inside and out of the hearing aid, the drying chamber can extract moisture, dead skin, wax, and other debris from channels inside the hearing instrument. While using the drying chamber, a digital display shows how much suction is applied. In case of interruption during the procedure, the equipment automatically shuts off after 4 minutes.
HEARING CARE PROFESSIONAL CLEANING A HEARING AID WITH THE MEDRX ULTRAVAC
2. The MedRx UltraVac Has Sales and Business Benefits
While the UltraVac makes it easier for you to provide the best care for your patients and their hearing instruments, it also presents unique opportunities to grow your sales and increase retention.
Patients Return for Regular Care
When you offer hearing instrument cleaning and restoration services with the UltraVac, you encourage your patients to return for regular visits. This will help keep your practice in mind, preventing them from going to other clinics for their hearing needs.
A hearing test occurs typically only once a year, but when hearing aid wearers return to you more frequently for cleanings, your clinic remains their top choice for all hearing care needs. They’ll also be more likely to keep up with annual hearing tests and refer new patients to you.
Provide Quick Walk-In Service
Cleaning a hearing aid with the UltraVac is quick and easy. So much so that you can even offer it as a walk-in service.
The UltraVac provides you with the technology and efficiency to offer walk-in cleaning and repairs, which helps you reach new customers by providing a convenient service that other clinics aren’t equipped to handle. The UltraVac is also functionally straightforward, making it quick to learn for clinicians, techs, or patient care coordinators. Anyone can use the UltraVac, offering your clinic more scheduling flexibility and convenience.
Prevent Repairs
Regular maintenance ensures that patient hearing aids continue to perform to manufacturer standards. The more frequent the upkeep, the less likely your patient will neglect their hearing instrument to the point of irreversible damage.
However, sending hearing aids in for repair can take weeks. Letting your patients go without their hearing aids for prolonged periods will most likely cause patient dissatisfaction and even risk customer loyalty.
Always try and repair your patient’s device with the UltraVac before sending it out for repair. You may be surprised to find that the UltraVac can even eliminate the need for manufacturer repairs. It can save you and your patient time and money. Though, you can prevent them in the first place by servicing your patient’s hearing aids regularly and educating your patient about proper hearing aid care.
Encourage Patients to Be Proactive About Hearing Care
Having patients visit your office to have their hearing aids cleaned not only keeps your practice at the forefront of their hearing needs, but also encourages them to be proactive about their hearing health. They can schedule annual exams and get appointment reminders, ensuring that your revenue grows, your schedule remains full, and most importantly; your patients always hear the best they can.
3. The Drying Chamber Wicks Away Moisture
The powerful drying chamber in MedRx’s hearing aid restoration system uses an ambient vacuum to displace moisture and debris from hearing instruments. You can place two ITEs or one BTE with an earmold into the chamber at a time. If there is liquid or debris in the device, the UltraVac will pull it onto the black foam pad where the filter traps it for cleaning.
This way, you can show the patient what hinders their hearing aid’s performance and then clean it from the chamber. The drying chamber’s powerful vacuum suction ensures that all moisture and debris are removed from devices, leaving them clean and dry. Hence its name; the “Drying Chamber.”
THE ULTRAVAC'S DRYING CHAMBER REMOVING MOISTURE
The drying chamber does not expose hearing instruments to hot air, eliminates standing water, or is otherwise fit to dehydrate instruments. This protects the more delicate areas of the hearing aid from heat damage and removes moisture the same way it got into the hearing aid.
4. You Can Use the Vacuum and Pressure Wands Simultaneously
It is also important to note that you can use the vacuum and pressure wands together during cleanings. This dual-wand feature streamlines the procedure and help you get a thorough clean. With the wands working together, you can dislodge and vacuum up obstructions all in the same motion.
Speeding up the cleaning process is not only in the best interest of your patient, but can also give you more availability to provide walk-in services as described above.
ULTRAVAC PRESSURE WAND
5. Ordering Replacement Parts Is Simple
Whether you need to replace a filter or you have misplaced your drying chamber cup after cleaning, MedRx makes it easy to order replacement parts for several different UltraVac elements—including all parts exposed to wax, moisture, or debris.
You can find a full list of available replacement parts on our website.
6. Cleaning the UltraVac Takes Minimal Effort
The MedRx UltraVac may streamline the cleaning of hearing aids but it doesn't stop there. The thoughtful design makes it a breeze to clean your equipment as well.
A regular cleaning for the UltraVac requires no special tools, but can be sanitized using a mild detergent. All elements of the hearing aid cleaning equipment can be individually removed and sanitized or replaced.
Our wands are fitted with filters to avoid the difficulty of cleaning out small tubes, while the drying chamber simply needs to be wiped with an alcohol pad. Take a look at our UltraVac Playlist on YouTube to see a demonstration for replacing the wand filters.
Using the MedRx UltraVac in Your Clinic
At its roots, the UltraVac is a hearing aid restoration device; however, its benefits far surpass basic hearing aid cleaning. From increasing patient retention to streamlining office procedures, UltraVac’s professional hearing aid cleaning system offers an effortless way to add another service to your clinic.
Deciding on how to clean patient hearing aids shouldn't be difficult. Choose MedRx to help your patients hear better. To order replacement parts or purchase the UltraVac for your clinic, give us a call at (888)392-1234!