The vendor is required to provide mobile audiometric testing and evaluation services throughout the state.
- Administer audiometric test.
- The test shall be a pure tone (frequency), air conduction, hearing threshold examination with test frequencies of 500, 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 6000, 8000 hertz.
- The employee is tested each year to monitor their hearing and to take corrective action if the tests indicate the employee is starting to lose their hearing.
- All testing work shall be conducted in accordance with occupational safety and health administration (OSHA) occupational noise exposure standard 29 cfr 1910.95.
- Audiometric tests shall be performed by a licensed or certified audiologist, otolaryngologist, other physician or a technician who is certified by the council of accreditation in occupational noise exposure; or who has satisfactorily demonstrated competence in administrating audiometric examinations, obtaining valid audiograms, and properly using, maintaining, checking calibration and proper functioning of the audiometers being used.
- The technician shall be able to provide clear testing instructions to all department employees.
- A technician who performs audiometric tests must be responsible to an audiologist, otolaryngologist or physician.
- The contractor shall have an audiologist, otolaryngologist or physician on staff to review the audiograms to determine if there is a need for further treatment of testing.
- Recommend those individuals who incur a standard threshold shift (loss of ability) or reportable hearing loss to seek professional help.
- After initial employee audiometric baseline test, classify and report each employee's annual audiogram, adjusted for age, indicating:
• There is no significant change;
• There is no standard threshold shift;
• There is a threshold shift requiring a report on the osha 300 log as defined by osha; or
• The employee was referred for medical or audiological evaluation.
- Maintain records of all employees' test results including an electronic back-up copy.
- Reporting requirements
• Provide daily, the sign-in sheet at the close of each business day. the form shall be electronically transmitted to the department.
• All reports shall be in a format compatible with the HearTrak software, including the ability to export data to excel.
• Inclusive audio metric report by unit number to include, but not limited to, the department's name, unit number, employee's name, employee identification number (EIN), job title, work location, date tested and evaluated, name of examiner, employee's hearing classification.
• A report by employee name, employee identification number (EIN) and unit number referred for audiometric evaluation.
• A summary report showing number of tests, referrals, changes in baseline and threshold shifts with allowances for the contribution of aging (PREBYCUSIS).
• Testing for ambient noise must be conducted periodically to ensure the ambient noise level is within the ANSI standard s3.1-1960 for octave band sound levels.
• Provide annually, the date of the last acoustic or exhaustive calibration of the audiometer(s) used.