I'd Like to Learn About...

• The Hearing HealthCare Center Staff
• The History of HHCC
• What to Expect from HHCC

Staff Bios

Whitney Swander, Au.D. CCC-A, FAAA, Owner and Doctor of Audiology

Whitney has been with Hearing HealthCare Centers since 2000 as the Director of Audiology. At the time, there were four offices and Whitney traveled between them providing audiological expertise and technical support to other staff members. Eventually she became so busy seeing patients in the Longmont and Boulder locations that she stopped traveling to the Loveland and Fort Collins offices and focused her attention on Longmont and Boulder. After 8 years of seeing the ins and outs of the business, she purchased the Longmont and Boulder offices from the original owner in July 2008. Although seeing patients is the part she loves most, she has transitioned well into adding employee manager, bill-payer, bookkeeper, and advertising coordinator to her job description.

Whitney attended the University of Northern Colorado, earning Bachelor’s degrees in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology in 1998. She went on to immediately earn her Master’s degree in Audiology in 2000. One month before purchasing Hearing HealthCare Centers, she completed her Doctorate in Audiology from the Arizona School of Health Sciences. She is an active member of the American Academy of Audiology, the Academy of Doctors of Audiology, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, and the Colorado Academy of Audiology.

A Minnesota native, Whitney has been a Colorado resident for many years. Her family has roots in Colorado dating back well over 100 years, so you could say Colorado is in her blood. Whitney is married and lives in Longmont with her husband, Jeff, and their three adorable dogs Sam, Joe and Baby Rae. Jeff is also self-employed with his own construction company, JAS Construction. She and her husband are very active at Rocky Mountain Christian Church. When they have any spare time, they like to spend time with friends, ride their mountain bikes around, and take their spoiled dogs for walks.

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Kimberly Deffenbaugh, BS, BCHIS, Hearing Instrument Specialist & Audiology Assistant

Kimberly began her career at Hearing HealthCare Centers in 2004. She began working with HHCC shortly after graduating from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a Bachelor’s degree in Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences as well as Psychology. During her first stint with Hearing HealthCare Centers she expanded on her education with hands-on experience that can only be gained on the job. She performed basic hearing aid services such as cleanings and in-office repairs. In 2006 she decided to move closer to her family in Indiana.

The call of the hearing impaired must have been strong because when Whitney was preparing to take over as owner of the business and asked Kimberly to come back and join HHCC again, she moved back to Colorado in July 2008. If you ask Whitney, she will tell you Kimberly is her right-hand. Kimberly has learned much more about hearing testing and hearing aids during her return to Hearing HealthCare Centers. She studied hard and earned her Board Certification in Hearing Instrument Sciences in September 2009.

Kimberly lives in the Boulder area and is planning on pursuing her Doctorate degree. She is an avid movie watcher, likes to scrapbook and is a music enthusiast. For kicks, ask her what is currently playing on her iPod.

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Amy Ribble, Senior Patient Care Coordinator

Amy is the Senior Patient Care Coordinator at Hearing HealthCare Centers. She has been with Hearing HealthCare Centers since 2003. She began her position when the original owner of the Longmont/Boulder office still owned offices in Loveland and Fort Collins. She continued at the Loveland office even after it changed ownership, and she joined the Longmont office in 2005. Amy has many hats including insurance billing, vendor relations, and general go-to gal. You may see her covering the front desk in our Longmont office a couple days a week.

Not quite a native, Amy lived in Lyons for many years. She spent a lot of time working with her father at the family business, Bruhns Auction Gallery. She married Russ Ribble in 1998. They live in Milliken with their darling dachshunds, Emily Lu and Shelby Jo. In their spare time they like to spend time with their friends and they make it a priority to take a 2-week RV trip to the Indianapolis Brickyard 400 every summer, stopping in Kansas to see family along the way.

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Joyce Funkenbusch, Patient Care Coordinator

If you call or stop by the Boulder office, you’ll meet Joyce. Joyce has worked at Hearing HealthCare Centers since 2006 as Patient Care Coordinator. Joyce handles all patients scheduling and the overall day-to-day functions of the office. This includes making and confirming appointments, managing patient files and provider schedules and entering data into our patient database among many other things. Everyone who meets Joyce adores her because she has a gift for making people feel welcome and important.

Married for over 30 years, she and her husband, Roger live in Firestone. They are the proud parents of 4 grown children and prouder grandparents to 4 grandchildren and counting. They spend most of their spare time spoiling their grandkids and taking long drives to the mountains. She also likes spending time in her garden, cross-stitching, and listening to country music.

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Sue Sapp, Patient Care Coordinator

Sue is the first face you will see as you enter our Longmont office of Hearing HealthCare Centers. Sue first started here in 2005, working primarily in the Boulder office. She left for awhile to spend time with her family and recently joined us again as the Patient Care Coordinator in Longmont.

Every year, Sue and her mother, a retired audiologist, go to the Navajo Indian Reservation in Monument Valley to perform hearing testing and other services. Sue spent many years working with her mother, Sue Carter, in a private practice, so she knows a lot about Audiology. After nearly two decades working with the hearing impaired, she is working toward completing the Audiology Assistant program from Nova Southeastern University this spring.

An Air Force brat, she and her husband Jim have lived in Longmont for 18 years. When she is not working, you are likely to find her knitting. She loves to knit hats, Christmas stockings, and sweaters for her 3 grown children, 5 grandchildren and the 2 grandchildren who have yet to make their appearance.

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HHCC Bio

Hearing HealthCare Centers (HHCC) has been serving the Longmont and Boulder area since 1984 when the original owner, Jim Boggess, opened 4 locations in Longmont, Boulder, Ft. Collins and Loveland. HHCC has always been a small company with a close-knit, loyal staff. In fact, in 2004 it was an employee who purchased the Ft. Collins and Loveland offices. Four years later, Jim decided it was time to retire and stop making a living and start living a life. He sold the remaining 2 offices in Longmont and Boulder to his longtime Director of Audiology, Dr. Whitney Swander.

Dr. Swander came to HHCC in 2000 with a wealth of knowledge and experience having worked at the VA in Denver as well as for a private practice. She welcomed the challenges of maintaining 4 offices in the beginning but was delighted at the opportunity to focus more on the patients in Longmont and Boulder when the other offices were sold in 2004. Dr. Swander became owner of the Longmont and Boulder offices on July 1, 2008. Just like when she began working for HHCC, Dr. Swander immersed herself into the duties and responsibilities of being an owner. The staff worked hard to make the transition as seamless as possible. Hearing

HealthCare Centers is committed to upholding the level of excellence in customer satisfaction and service that our patients have come to expect from us. We believe in educating the public about hearing and hearing loss. It is recommended that people over the age of 50 get a baseline hearing test. We think this is so important that we offer free hearing screenings. The earlier a hearing loss is detected, the easier and more successful a person will be with amplification. For the convenience of our patients, we are open from Monday through Friday from 9 am until 5 pm. We operate by appointment and are always happy to accept new patients. Hearing

HealthCare Centers reputation for superior patient care and satisfaction has earned us multiple awards in both Longmont and Boulder. We are proud to have been awarded the Best Hearing Aid Center from the Times Call’s Best of Longmont poll as well as the Boulder County Gold award in the same category for multiple consecutive years. See our feedback>>

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What to Expect from Us...

During a hearing screening

We recommend that everyone get a baseline hearing screening, especially if you are over 50. Hearing HealthCare Centers offers free hearing screenings to anyone who would like one. A appointment will typically take 20-30 minutes for the screening and to review the results. A screening is a quick way to determine if you have a hearing loss. In some cases, it may be recommended that you come back for a full hearing evaluation. A screening can indicate a loss but an evaluation can determine the type and degree of hearing loss.

During a full hearing evaluation

If you fail a hearing screening or already know you have a hearing loss, it is recommended that you get a full hearing evaluation. Full hearing evaluations are covered under Medicare and most insurance companies. In the case of Medicare patients, a referral from the primary care physician must be obtained by the patient before we can perform a hearing evaluation. A full hearing evaluation is much more extensive then a simple screening. We can determine what type and degree of hearing loss you have. We also perform measurements that ascertain the health of your middle and inner ear. Word recognition and speech testing is also completed during a hearing evaluation. We typically allot 90 minutes for a hearing evaluation to ensure time to perform the tests, discuss the results, answer any questions you may have, and possibly discuss and demonstrate hearing aids.

During a hearing instrumentdemonstration/fitting

After your hearing screening or evaluation, we may recommend a demonstration of hearing aids. A demonstration gives you the opportunity to experience the significant improvement you can achieve with amplification. A demonstration usually takes 30-45 minutes and includes everything from learning how to insert the hearing aids to changing batteries. After you purchase hearing aids If you decide to purchase hearing aids from Hearing HealthCare Centers, you will certainly be taken care of. We offer all of our patients Free Service for the lifetime of your hearing aid(s). We believe that regular professional cleanings of your hearing aids is imperative to their optimum performance. Consistently, patients who have the most difficulties with their hearing aids are the ones who do not take advantage of this service.

Every 4-6 months we will schedule an appointment for you to come in and have your hearing aids cleaned by us. While you are here we will also perform an otoscopic examination of your ears and remove cerumen (wax) if necessary. These appointments give us the opportunity to trouble shoot any issues you may be having with your hearing aids. The last thing we want is for you to be unhappy with your hearing aids when we can easily correct the issue. These appointments usually take 15 minutes.

Every 18-24 months, we like to perform an updated screening to track any changes in your hearing. If your hearing has changed since your last screening or evaluation, we simply make any necessary programming changes. These appointments usually take 30 minutes and include an otoscopic examination and cleaning of your hearing aids.

If you are experiencing any difficulties with your hearing aids, we encourage you to make an appointment to have you hearing aids checked. We do not want you to feel like you have to wait until your next appointment to address any issues you may be having. Service appointments are scheduled for 15-30 minutes depending on the issues you may be having. If you need service on your hearing aids and are unable to make an appointment, we ask that you bring your hearing aid to our office and leave it with us to look at and service. We guarantee that we will contact you within 24 hours with the status of your hearing aid.

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