Specialized outpatient clinic for deaf and hard-of-hearing patients in the Netherlands: Lessons learned in an attempt to improve health care.

Rationale, Aims, And Objective: A group of organizations and individuals in the Netherlands collaborated to attempt to improve access to health care and health education for deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) patients in the country. The outcome was the start of a specialized outpatient clinic named PoliDOSH. An independent research group was set up to evaluate the effect of this specialized clinic.

Clinical practice: The approach to the deaf or hard-of-hearing paediatric patient.

Approximately 1 child in 1,000 is deaf or severely hard of hearing from birth, and the prevalence rises to about 1.6 per 1,000 in adolescents. Providing medical care for this group of children poses special challenges for professionals.