Baystate Wing Audiologist Recognized with Service and Innovation Award
PALMER — Kirsten Petrarca, an audiologist at Baystate Rehabilitation Care, located at Baystate Wing Hospital, originally chose audiology as a profession when she was in high school after learning American Sign Language to work with the deaf community. As she learned more about the field and became more involved in community-service projects in college, she decided it was the right fit for her because she loved being in a position to work with patients to improve their access to communication.
“My favorite part of audiology is working with patients to find solutions for their communication difficulties, be it helping with good communication strategies and self-advocacy skills or providing hearing technology,” she said.
Recently Petrarca and her co-chairs from Rush University received the Service and Innovation Award from Rush Global Health, a department within Rush University in Chicago; and Community Empowerment, a service organization based in Chicago and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The award’s purpose is to recognize and thank the team for their efforts over the past two years in developing hearing-screening and hearing-aid programs based out of Santo Domingo.
“In addition to the audiology care I provide at Baystate Wing, I work with a group of two other audiologists to coordinate and provide no-cost audiology services to patients in the communities of Peralta, Azua, Villa Verde, and Santo Domingo,” Petrarca explained. “We are all graduates of the Rush University doctor of audiology program. We inherited this program from our professor at Rush University, who first began providing audiology services through Community Empowerment by working closely with an otolaryngology team. My team sends small groups of volunteers — audiologists and Rush AuD students — to the Dominican Republic twice a year for a week at a time. Each trip is comprised of five and a half clinic days, where we see patients of all ages for hearing screenings, hearing tests, hearing-aid fittings, and appropriate follow-up services.
“Over the past two years, we have screened more than 500 patients and provided hearing aids, all donated, to more than 50,” she added. “The Community Empowerment team that we work with is so welcoming; they have become like family to us and our volunteers.”
Providing care for patients of all ages, Baystate Wing Hospital’s Audiology and Hearing Services is located in the Griswold Center, 42 Wright St., Palmer, and offers routine hearing tests, specialized audiological testing, and a comprehensive hearing-aid program providing hearing-aid evaluations, purchases, fittings, adjustments, and cleanings.
“I feel very fortunate to work with the Baystate Audiology team,” Petrarca said. “They work tirelessly to create a positive, supportive work environment that benefits both myself, as an employee, and my patients.”