by Mark McGowan
A move to the NIU Family Health, Wellness and Literacy Center has finally ended concerns of cramped spaces at the university’s Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic.
The new 26,330-square-foot clinic, which opened earlier this month in the old Monsanto building on Sycamore Road, now enjoys incredible flexibility and sports plenty of room for evaluation, treatment, observation, research, student computer labs and workspaces with Internet access, offices and storage.
Wide hallways, tall ceilings and the smell of new carpet immediately tell visitors, staff and clients that they’re not in the old building on campus. What remains intact, however, is the clinic’s focus on families and the top quality of services.
Four spacious and modern sound suites are in use to test hearing.
An “evoked potentials” room, where newborns come for diagnostic auditory brainstem response testing if they fail initial hearing exams at the hospital, includes a Pack ’n Play or a black leather recliner to boost child-and-parent comfort.
A new service offered at the clinic is the evaluation of dizziness and balance disorders. People experiencing these symptoms can visit the clinic for videonystagmography (VNG), which will help determine if the problems are caused by inner ear dysfunction or a neurological condition. Further care coordination will be available cooperatively with area and university physical therapists. It’s a service currently unavailable in the DeKalb County area.
There are 18 treatment rooms – 10 for individuals, five for small groups and three for large groups – with adjoining observation rooms fitted with two-way mirrors.
Cameras (sometimes four in one room for multiple angles) and microphones broadcast and record sessions; DVDs are made for later analysis by not only the clinical faculty but also the students. Some of the observation rooms are large enough to seat small classes of students; some of the closed-circuit monitors can handle four pictures at one time or picture-in-picture.
One room is set aside for faculty research. Another will house a display of assistive devices, such as visual doorbells. Another will host patients to determine their vocational capabilities.
Clinic Director Anne D. Davidson calls the new space “marvelous and grand.” The sharp surroundings raise client confidence in the services, she adds.
“What’s most rewarding is to see the reaction of our students when they come in and the reaction of our clients. It’s ‘wow.’ That’s the word we hear most frequently,” Davidson says. “This facility also gives a much better reflection of the quality of service. It matches now.”
Opened in 1938, the year-round clinic is housed in NIU’s College of Health and Human Sciences and its School of Allied Health and Communicative Disorders.
The new facilities are expected to double the clientele: Close to 3,500 different people from babies to great-grandparents already take advantage of clinic services each year.
Staff and students from the clinic test the hearing of about 900 newborns each year at Kishwaukee Community Hospital; babies who fail are referred to the evoked potentials room at the clinic. Babies also are referred from hospitals in Aurora, Geneva and Rockford.
Children at St. Mary’s School in Sycamore receive speech and language services, as do the senior citizens of Oak Crest Retirement Center, who also benefit from rehabilitative assistance. Bilingual services are provided in audiology and speech-language pathology.
The clinic serves clients who need hearing aids – from as early as six to eight weeks of age to 106 years of age – and provides digital programming, fittings, cleanings and checks.
Walk-in visitors who want their hearing aids checked or repaired are welcome from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Mondays and 10 to 11:30 a.m. Thursdays. Each of the three hearing aid walk-in rooms has the most recent hearing aid fitting technology in addition to its own telephone to contact with manufacturers if needed.
One storage room is stocked with toys, games and software that helps children relax during their sessions. Materials for adult clients (stroke, traumatic brain injury and other communication problems) are also maintained in the area.
Some of the rooms are also equipped with “little people” furniture. “If that makes the child more comfortable,” Davidson says, “that’s what we’re going to do.”
Another room (one that is always locked) houses patient medical records in fire-protected shelves situated on rollers to maximize space.
Staff also are making plans for a voice clinic. “It’s something we haven’t had before,” she says.
Meanwhile, Davidson is quick to credit “all corners of NIU” for their support in the move. The list includes the college; the school and its chair, Sue Ouellette; the Division of Finance and Facilities; and Media Services.
She’s also proud of the front office staff, which includes Beth McCarroll, Rebecca Radtke, Evy Smith and Marlene Tyne.