Specialty
ENT, multi-physician
Locations
2 · Princeton & Freehold, NJ
Practice size
3 ENTs · 4 mid-levels
Partnered
March 2023
+5×
Annual profit growth in year one, compared to the practice's self-run audiology line the prior year.
70%
Reduction in audiology overhead across the partner practices.
$0
Hearing-aid inventory remaining on the practice's balance sheet.
"This model is genius. You have tapped into the Achilles heel of every ENT practice in the nation — the audiologist. The combination of a lack of trained audiologists, the dramatic increase in length of training, the escalation in salaries, and continued pressure on reimbursement has turned what was once a profitable aspect of an ENT practice into a money-losing, frustrating venture."
Dr Chetan Shah · Founder, Princeton Eye & Ear
A two-location ENT group serving central New Jersey from Princeton and Freehold. Three ENTs, four mid-levels, and five audiologists running a full hearing center on both sites. The clinical work was strong; the audiology P&L was not. Pre-partnership annual profit on the audiology line: $56,759.
Beginning March 2023, Virsono took over the operational running of the hearing centers — inventory, billing, scheduling, recruiting, training, supplier relationships, and re-engagement campaigns. The clinical workflow stayed the same. The ENTs and mid-levels stayed. The audiology FTE dropped from 5.0 to 1.5 because the remaining audiologists no longer had to do the twelve non-clinical jobs.
Onboarding
~6 weeks
From signed agreement to first patient seen under the Virsono workflow.
First outreach result
~24% capture
Of the tested-not-treated patients contacted in the first re-engagement campaign.
| Annual | Before | After Virsono |
|---|---|---|
| Audiology FTE on staff | 5.0 | 1.5 |
| Annual audiology profit to practice | $56,759 | $216,628 |
| 4Q23-annualized run rate | — | $325,778 |
| Audiology overhead | baseline | –70% |
| Hearing-aid inventory on balance sheet | carried | $0 |
The audiologists who stayed were the biggest beneficiaries. As one Princeton Eye & Ear audiologist put it: "Initially I was apprehensive about moving to the Virsono Hearing Center partnership. One year later, my income is the highest it has ever been. Before Virsono, I was doing many jobs in the practice that did not generate any revenue. Now with Virsono, I am only doing two jobs — diagnostic testing and hearing aid fittings — and both always generate revenue for the practice."
Start the patient re-engagement campaigns earlier. The tested-not-treated patient pool is larger than most practices realize, and the first outreach in month four returned more volume than projected.
Continued growth in 2024 with the same staffing footprint, ongoing expansion of the medical-treatment-of-hearing-loss framework, and exploration of a third location.
