Ingalls Memorial Hospital announced recently that noted otolaryngologist and head and neck surgeon Dr. Francis L. Hobson has moved his practice from the Kankakee area and joined the medical staff at Ingalls Memorial Hospital.
Hobson is accepting new patients at Ingalls Family Care Center in Flossmoor and Ingalls Family Care Center in Tinley Park. In addition to full-service ear, nose and throat care, he performs cochlear hearing implants.
“Hearing loss is much more common than you might think,” Hobson said. “Nearly one in five adults in the United States – 48 million – report some degree of hearing loss, and at age 65, one in three is affected.”
South Suburban resident Jackie Medley is among them. But it hasn’t cramped her style. The 88-year-old dynamo volunteers at the Ingalls Infusion Center every week. She also travels, snorkels, kayaks, fishes and walks whenever she can.
Two hearing aids from the Ingalls Audiology Center keep her communicating well with the world around her.
“There’s a stigma to hearing aids,” she explains. “But the hearing aids of today aren’t your grandma’s hearing aids.”
Today’s hearing aids fit discretely in the ear, providing wearers with a much more advanced listening experience, hospital officials said.
“Hearing aid technology has made significant changes over the past several years and continues to evolve,” Hobson said.
Studies show hearing aids help the wearer feel more independent and secure, have a better relationship with family and friends, and improve concentration and mental health.
Although they don’t restore hearing to normal, they improve it significantly, Hobson said. Sounds you may not have heard before – birds singing, door bells ringing and water running – become audible once again.
For Medley, that makes life as enjoyable as it was before she had hearing problems.
“People use glasses for reading, and canes and walkers to move around,” Medley says. “Hearing aids have certainly improved my quality of life, and they can improve yours too.”
Hobson’s Flossmoor office features a full-service audiology and hearing aid clinic. Formerly located at the main hospital campus in Harvey, the Ingalls Audiology Center is staffed by licensed and certified audiologist Mary Lou Dovantzis and offers comprehensive hearing and balance evaluations, hearing aid fitting and services, consultations and a full line of assistive listening equipment.
Specific services include:
- Adult, child and newborn hearing evaluations
- Videonystagmography (VNG) for balance testing
- Tympanometry testing to detect fluid in the middle ear, perforation of the eardrum or wax blocking the ear canal
- Oto-acoustic emissions (OAE) testing to detect a blockage in the outer ear canal, as well as the presence of middle ear fluid and damage to the outer hair cells in the cochlea
- “Real” ear testing for measuring hearing aid effectiveness
- Assistive listening devices, including FM systems/listening systems and amplified phones
- Swim plugs and musician plugs
- Custom hearing protection
- Hearing aid services, including evaluations and consultations, hearing aid dispensing and repairs of all makes and models.
About Dr. Hobson
Hobson has been in professional practice since 2004 and has expertise in all ear, nose and throat disorders; traditional and minimally invasive sinus surgery; balloon sinuplasty; Propel sinus implants; head and neck surgery; allergies and rhinitis; dizziness and hearing loss; and cochlear hearing implants.
He earned his medical degree at UCLA School of Medicine and completed his surgical internship at Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C. He performed his head & neck surgery residency at Martin Luther King/Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles and completed an otolaryngology-neurotology and skull-base fellowship at Fairview University Medical Center in Minneapolis.
He is certified by the American Board of Otolaryngology; is an associate of the American Academy of Otolaryngic Allergy; and a fellow of the American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery.
For more information or a consultation with Dr. Hobson, call 708-798-0200.