Patient-centered tinnitus management tool: a clinical audit.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the impact of an educational poster describing treatment options available to patients experiencing tinnitus. METHOD: A patient-centered tinnitus management tool (PCTMT) was developed in the form of an educational poster that encouraged patients to decide how they wanted to deal with their tinnitus from the following options: (a) ignore the tinnitus and forget about it, (b) use a sound generator, (c) undertake tinnitus counseling with an expert, or (d) deal with the tinnitus using hearing aids (in the case of tinnitus and hearing loss). Fifty-five patients who were referred to the audiology department of a London hospital from the ENT department for tinnitus counseling were asked to read the PCTMT and to choose the option(s) that suited them the best. RESULTS: Forty-two percent of the patients wished to undertake counseling, 9% decided to try to ignore their tinnitus without help, 26% wanted to deal with their tinnitus with the help of a sound generator, and 24% decided to use hearing aids. CONCLUSIONS: The PCTMT reduced the number of patients who would otherwise have been referred for tinnitus counseling by 58%. This reduced the length of the waiting list and increased the time available for counseling of those patients who wanted it.