Hear Ye, Hear Ye!  Pennsylvania Ear Institute Celebrates 20 Years of Service and Education   

Several years ago, Richard Schmeltzer was walking through the grocery store with a friend when a man approached them.  

“You need hearing aids,” the man said to Schmeltzer. 

“What?” said Schmeltzer.  

“I’ve been calling out to you, but you haven’t turned around,” said the man, who happened to be a neurologist. He knew Rebecca Blaha, AuD, lead audiologist at the Pennsylvania Ear Institute (PEI), and recommended Schmeltzer to set up an appointment.  

As the clinical teaching facility for the Osborne Doctor of Audiology program at Salus University, Schmeltzer was wary about going to a University-related clinical site. He wasn’t enthused about being in a situation involving students but Dr. Blaha eased his fears. 

“She said I could come to her because she does the work while she’s teaching the students at the same time,” he said. “It worked out fine and it also gave me a little extra confidence in that she’s teaching somebody and she’s not going to do something in front of her students to embarrass herself.” 

  At that initial appointment, Dr. Blaha let Schmeltzer try on several different types of hearing aids and he selected a brand. But for the first several years, he “really didn’t get along” with the hearing aids. 

“I was sort of in denial. I would only put them in part-time,” he said. But Dr. Blaha wouldn’t let Schmeltzer give up. She eventually helped him find hearing aids he found compatible and that really helped him. 

“Dr. Blaha always listens and she’s always helpful,” said Schmeltzer. “Now, I can’t get along without her. I trust her, that’s the bottom line. If my hearing comes back to where it’s perfect, I will still visit her at PEI every nine months.”  

Those are common stories among PEI patients, how they have been treated and taken care of over the past two decades as the clinical facility celebrates its 20th anniversary, part of a larger 25th-anniversary celebration in 2025 for the Osborne Audiology program.  

 How it Started  

As described in the spring issue of the Alumni Magazine, the Doctor of Audiology program, and ultimately PEI, were visions of George S. Osborne, DDS, PhD. 

After the programs were established, the administration — led by Thomas Lewis, OD ‘70, PhD, FAAO, president of PCO and later Salus University from 1989 to 2013, and Anthony Di Stefano, OD ‘73, MEd, MPH, FAAO, FCOptom, who was vice president and dean of PCO and is now vice president emeritus — decided to model the Doctor of Audiology program after the Doctor of Optometry program, incorporating key elements such as clinical training. 

"Dr. Osborne’s vision for PEI was to create a full-service practice where students and clinical faculty could work together to care for patients," explained Dr. Di Stefano. "It took a significant effort to design the facility, recruit the right faculty, and, most importantly, equip it with the latest technology." 

Dr. Di Stefano also emphasized the importance of setting PEI apart from other clinical facilities in the Philadelphia area, noting that part of this effort involved acquiring cutting-edge technology for vestibular and balance testing. 

The Early Years  

If an institution is going to train its students in a clinical profession, it needs patients. And, in the early days of PEI, it was fortunate in that regard to secure help from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), which had a backlog of patients in the Philadelphia region. 

“At the time, the VA had a challenge to decrease the waiting time for patients of all types nationwide,” said Dr. Di Stefano. “This was particularly the case for audiology services with waiting times being rather long, sometimes weeks and maybe months to get an appointment.”  

To address this issue, the VA nationally, and particularly in Philadelphia, started to utilize the private sector for this endeavor. Initially Philadelphia VA patients were referred to PEI on an individual basis, but eventually the demand and the satisfaction with PEI services created an opportunity to expand the relationship between the two entities. The contracts lasted for a few years, and were successful in addressing the backlog. PEI then had to increasingly rely on local and regional referrals and increase external marketing efforts.  

“But we weren’t so much interested in the revenue side as we were in creating educational experiences for our students. But, if you’re going to train in a clinical profession, you need patients,” said Dr. Lewis.  

 The Evolution  

When the director’s position of PEI opened in 2016, it attracted the attention of Lindsay Bondurant, PhD, CCC-A. After earning her master’s in audiology from Vanderbilt University, she was in private practice in Philadelphia for six years before securing her PhD from the University of Texas at Dallas.   

She was drawn to several aspects of the position, including her desire to return to a clinical setting, the opportunity to contribute to the clinical facilities growth, and the chance to work with graduate students.

“When I got here, the program was in great shape,” she said. “We were the biggest Doctor of Audiology program in the country. We had a lot of really bright students coming in, but the clinic, at that time, didn't have enough patient encounters to really give the students the kind of experience we wanted.”  

Hired with the specific goals of expanding the clinical facility, increasing patient encounters, and enhancing the range of services offered, Dr. Bondurant focused on ensuring the best possible experience for incoming and current students. To grow the patient base, she strategically planned to increase the population through the development of community outreach initiatives.

“We did lots and lots of health fairs, hearing screenings, meeting with community leaders, trying to give informational talks at community centers, educate people in our community about what audiology is, what hearing loss is, and what services we provided at PEI,” she said. 

In addition, Dr. Bondurant also continued to reach out to referring physicians, primary care doctors, pediatricians, and Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialists to educate them on the services PEI offered.   

Still, the focus has always remained on the student experience. PEI is the foundational clinical experience for students in the Osborne Audiology program, so in the first semester, students get to observe patient care with experienced audiologists as preceptors. Students then start their clinical rotations in their second semester.   

“Students have the opportunity to start interacting with patients, providing evaluations from a very early time in the program,” said Dr. Bondurant. “So, that helps to build the students' foundational skills in adult diagnostics and adult hearing aids.”  

But that’s not all. In addition to basic adult diagnostics and hearing aids, students also see pediatric patients, conduct vestibular or balance testing, and learn about tinnitus, cerumen removal, auditory processing testing, other specialties within audiology and practice management.  

 Down the Road  

PEI has been in growth mode but what’s in store for the next 20 years and beyond?  

Right now, the physical space and amount of staff needs to grow to continue to serve its patients and incoming students, according to Dr. Bondurant. 

“What I would really like to see is additional clinical space and additional professionals to see patients in the different specialties and to accommodate our current patients,” she said. “What I'm hoping is to continue to grow, as the next frontier for us is to grow our specialty clinics.”