Auditing occupational audiometric testing – a pilot study

Concept Safety Systems cc P O Box 8497, Edenglen, 1613 e-mail: [email protected] ABSTRACT Uncontrolled exposure to noise in the occupational setting may cause occupational noise induced hearing loss (NIHL). In South Africa, once an exposed worker has shifted 10 percentage points from his baseline audiometric reading he is eligible for compensation.1 Pure tone air conduction (PTAC) audiometric screening tests are performed in the occupational setting to monitor the effects of noise on the worker. If the testing is not correctly implemented a true reflection of the worker’s hearing is not established. This may lead to wasted expense through sending workers for unnecessary diagnostic testing and missing the detection of early shifts in hearing thresholds, and consequently failing to prevent NIHL. This paper reports the results of a study to develop an audit tool to evaluate the quality of PTAC audiometric testing conducted in the occupational setting. An audit tool was developed based on South African legislation and recognised standards for this method of testing.2,3 The tool measured recognised practice requirements for the following five key areas in testing; legislated requirements, technical specifications for equipment and testing environment, client controls, prescribed testing procedure and recording of results. The quality of PTAC testing implemented by ten audiometrists in the greater KwaZulu-Natal area of South Africa was assessed using the audit tool. The testing was conducted in the workplace using a convenience sample. The average audit score was 70.8%. These results suggest that the study should be implemented on a larger scale to determine whether there is a trend in this poor quality of testing. The findings can then be used to improve areas of weakness in the testing programme with the objective of improving the quality of PTAC testing in the occupational setting. Auditing occupational audiometric testing – a pilot study