How to run audiometry and procedures alongside the OPD in an ENT clinic
By the Curogrid team · · 4 minute read
An ENT clinic runs three kinds of work in the same hours: consultations, hearing tests in a quiet room, and short procedures. Keep them from blocking each other with four rules: sort each service by how long it takes and who does it, give hearing tests their own slots, keep the patient's token while they are away for a test, and bill the procedure before the patient leaves.
The OPD stalls when the doctor leaves the consulting room for a twenty-minute procedure with a full room waiting, or when a patient sent for audiometry comes back to find their turn gone.
Sort your services into three kinds
List everything the clinic does and put each service in one of three groups. The group decides where it happens and when.
| Kind of work | Examples | How to schedule it |
|---|---|---|
| Done in the consultation | Examination, a prescription, a short ear clean | In token order, as part of the visit. |
| Done by someone else | Pure tone audiometry, tympanometry | In its own room and its own slots, while the OPD carries on. |
| Needs the doctor and time | Nasal endoscopy, laryngoscopy, foreign body removal | In a fixed procedure block, or between a set number of consultations. |
Which group a service belongs in depends on your rooms and your staff. A clinic with an endoscopy set-up beside the consulting chair will sort differently from one with a separate procedure room.
Give hearing tests their own slots
Book audiometry by time, even if the OPD is walk-in. A hearing test needs a quiet room and a fixed length of time, and only one patient can be tested at once. Keep a few slots open in each session for patients the doctor sends across from that day's OPD, and book the rest ahead. If an audiologist visits on certain days, book test patients to those days and say so at the desk.
Keep the token while the patient is away for a test
A patient sent for a test should come back to the doctor without starting at the back of the line. Decide the rule and tell the desk: the patient keeps the same token, is marked as away, and is called next after the patient who is with the doctor when they return. Tell the patient this before they leave the consulting room, so they do not wait at the desk to be given a new number.
Fix a block for longer procedures
Choose when longer procedures happen and keep to it. Two patterns work:
- A procedure block at a set time, such as the end of the morning OPD, with patients asked to wait or return for it.
- One procedure after a set number of consultations, so the wait for the room rises in small steps.
Urgent cases, such as a foreign body or a nosebleed, cannot wait for a block. Tell the waiting room plainly when one comes in. People accept a delay they can see the reason for.
Get the report into the patient's file the same day
File the audiogram, the tympanometry report and any endoscopy pictures on the day they are made. A hearing test is often compared with one from an earlier visit, and the comparison is possible only if both are in the file, dated, under the right patient. Name one person to do this at the end of each session.
Record the side every time
Write right, left or both on every ear and nose entry: on the order, on the procedure note, on the report and on the prescription. Make it a habit of the form, so that an entry without a side looks unfinished to whoever reads it.
Bill the procedure before the patient leaves
- Tell the patient the charge before the procedure or test, and take consent where the procedure needs it.
- Add the procedure to the visit when it is done, in the room.
- Make one bill at the desk for the consultation and everything added to the visit.
- At the end of the day, compare the procedures recorded with the procedures billed.
The last step is the one that finds the ear clean that was done between two patients and never charged.
How Curogrid does it
Choosing ENT in Curogrid sets up an Audiology department apart from the ENT OPD, and 10 starter services with a price each, including pure tone audiometry at ₹800 and nasal endoscopy at ₹1,500. You change every price. 8 procedures, from ear wash to nasal packing, are added to the visit in one tap. “In the right ear”, “In the left ear” and “In each nostril” are one-tap directions on the prescription. A patient who steps out keeps their token, and one tap brings them back into the line. The audiologist has their own login.
Curogrid does not draw the audiogram: you order the test, bill it, mark it done and attach the report to the patient's file. It does not connect to the endoscope, so you add the saved pictures yourself. Curogrid costs ₹399 a month on Plus or ₹999 on Pro, for the whole clinic, with a 5-day free trial of Pro. Plus includes 6 staff logins.