Assistive Listening Knowledge Base
  • Hospital operational guidance (policy and procedure III-l-15-16)

Assistive devices for patients who are hearing impaired

From https://assistivelisteningknowledgebase.org/evidence/sinai-2025-assistive-devices/ · record checked 13 October 2026

  • Sinai Health Equity & Accessibility Committee
  • Sinai Health

Independent (Sinai Health hospital procedure, issued by its Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Committee and approved by Administration; no separate funding statement)

Summary

A hospital procedure assigns responsibility for signing out, cleaning and returning assistive devices lent to patients, including bedside amplifiers.

Key findings

  • The procedure was effective in December 2006 and reviewed and revised in January 2025; devices are available to inpatient and ambulatory areas, with staff asked to identify patients who need them.
  • Staff sign devices out from Interpreter Services; PocketTalkers are also available through nursing unit clerks on 17 North and South, Emergency and Intensive Care.
  • The requesting unit is responsible for cleaning and returning devices. The policy describes wipeable skins or Virox wipes, referral to Sterilizing and Processing for additional cleaning, and Infection Control advice for special requests.
  • Returned items are signed in. Devices remain hospital property and cannot be lent for discharge or transfer.

Limits

A local operating procedure, not an audit of whether staff follow it or a test of cleaning effectiveness. Only its hospital loan process and bedside amplifier provision are used here; telephone and alerting devices are outside scope. The printed title in the header ends at HEARING; the complete description appears in the procedure text.

Read the original

sinaihealth.ca/media/21976/download

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Cited in

Cite this source

Sinai Health Equity & Accessibility Committee. Assistive devices for patients who are hearing impaired. Sinai Health. January 2025. https://sinaihealth.ca/media/21976/download (accessed 13 October 2026).

The accessed date is when this library last checked the link; use the date you read it. To point readers to this summary instead, link to https://assistivelisteningknowledgebase.org/evidence/sinai-2025-assistive-devices/

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