An outstanding, exceptional, courteous, and honest practice in the heart of Norwood with ample free parking. But I highly recommend you visit, even if you don’t live in the area or in contiguous towns! Our visit to Norwood Hearing Center far surpasses our expectations in attentiveness and services provided. Paul Barry greeted us at the door. He has a great sense of subtle and light humor to ease the anxiety about testing and he put everyone at ease. His qualifcations are clearly framed on his office walls.
The google search listed NHC as a hearing aid store. Well, that’s not entirely true. He offers hearing aids, but so much more; including educating us on how to install batteries correctly, how to avoid robo calls, and more! He has a child and family friendly waiting, examination and consultation area. He has flexible day, evening and weekend appointment times and home visits are available as well. Who does that now a days?! If the website says ‘closed’, call anyway. He always answers or calls you back in a timely manner. I took mom there because I saw an ad in the Norwood Senior Center newsletter, although she purchased her hearing aides elsewhere. She was having trouble hearing although she wore her hearing aids faithfully. He gave mom a hearing test, checked to make sure moms hearing aides were not broken, he cleaned them, changed the batteries and reprogrammed them to her present loss so she could hear better. No hard sell and actually the purchase of new ones didn’t even come up. He said the ones she has worked perfectly well, they just needed a fine tuning, not replacement. No talk of bells and whistles except the ones mom finally heard when leaving!
NHC is close to Norwood Rec Dept so it’s easy and convenient to drop off and pick up kids and parents in one trip. Paul Barry isn’t constrained by time, doesn’t look at his watch, didn’t rush my mom, is patient and spent 1 ½ hours testing her hearing, and adjusting, cleaning, reprogramming her hearing aids and explaining her hearing loss. Mom said, “He showed real interest in me and in my hearing loss and he made me feel he wanted to do the best for me.” He made mom feel her needs were important and that her concerns were valid. It was raining when we were left and he walked the children and mom out while I went to bring the car in front. Later that afternoon I asked mom, “So what do you think? Can you hear better?” She answered, “You haven’t heard me ask ‘what?’ all afternoon have you?!”
Living with hearing impairment and untreated loss is isolating and is as frustrating for family members who try to communicate as it is for people who are trying to hear. It's exhausting. Mom has trouble with the phone and is frustrated trying to figure out if the person calling is legitimate or a robo sales call. Paul gave her a free phone with free installation for the hard of hearing without need of an internet connection. It has a teleprompter which simultaneously translates the phone call into printed word. The one Paul showed us also can make the font larger so she can read the message without a magnifier or glasses. Now when she gets a spam call she doesn't have to call me and ask if I was the one calling her or not. There is often a silence after you pick up the phone on those calls and for a person who can't hear well, they think the silence is because they can't hear.
I cannot speak more highly of Norwood Hearing Center and Paul Barry. He spent quality time with me on the telephone before I made an appointment for mom. Mom left hearing better then when she came in! He said to feel free to return in a few months if mom felt she needed another adjustment. It was a great day!
Kathy FRASER-HURLEY
Joanne Hartunian
