News Room - Press Releases

News Release
For Immediate Release
For more information, contact:
Lynne Zultanky, MSRT
Director, Corporate Communications and Media Relations
Bon Secours Hampton Roads
Office:  757-889-5411; Pager:  680-3296

Suffolk Va. (January 4, 2007) - Bon Secours Hampton Roads Health System, in partnership with Lakeview Medical Center, announced today the opening of the Mid-Atlantic Hearing & Balance Center.  The center was developed to better serve individuals with hearing losses and dizziness disorders by providing coordinated, comprehensive diagnostics and treatment. 

Hearing and balance disorders affect people at all life stages, from infants to Baby Boomers and senior adults. According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, communication disorders greatly affect education, employment, and the well being of many Americans. However, each day is a challenge for the 1 in 6 Americans who has a communication disability and for their families. According to the same group, approximately 12.5 million Americans over the age of 65 have a dizziness or balance problem that significantly interferes with their lives.  

“It is typical for an individual with a hearing or balance disorder to ignore the symptoms, because they can present gradually,” said L. Frederick Lassen, MD, Lakeview Medical Center neurotologist and medical director for the Mid-Atlantic Hearing & Balance Center. “Older adults often mistakenly assume that hearing loss or dizziness is a natural part of aging. When in fact, many of the causes of hearing and balance disorders are not part of aging and if caught early, can be attributed to medical problem or treated surgically.  Suffering in silence isn’t necessary with the technological advances now available.”  

In addition to meeting a community need, the center offers comprehensive care to overcome a common frustration of patients with hearing or balance disorders.  Instead of traveling from one medical provider to another, without substantial relief of symptoms, patients seeking help at the Mid-Atlantic Hearing & Balance Center can access a full range of hearing and balance therapies.  The center, in collaboration with the patient’s primary care physician, offers many options, from hearing aids and surgical implants to rehabilitation therapy and involvement in FDA trials for balance retraining for patients with a balance disorder.    Diagnostic services, medical therapies, and if necessary, surgical interventions are all coordinated through a patient navigator who works with hearing and balance team.      

“While this program is unique to the western Hampton Roads community, we anticipate serving patients throughout Hampton Roads as well as the Mid-Atlantic region,” said Lassen. “There is a great need to help people with hearing loss to access timely medical assistance in order to restore hearing losses.  In addition, there are a number of techniques, including physical therapy and other balance training methods to help restore balance disorders.”        

Lassen, who retired from the U.S. Navy as a Captain in 2005, is a fellowship-trained neurotologist – one of only a few in the Hampton Roads area and one of approximately 350-400 physicians in this subspecialty nationally. While in the Navy, he pioneered many new and innovative operative procedures for patients with hearing disorders including the first adult and pediatric cochlear implants in a military hospital, the first bone-anchored hearing device (Baha®), and the first implantable middle ear hearing device (Vibrant Soundbridge®) done in the United States after FDA approval. 

            The three main components of the Mid-Atlantic Hearing & Balance Center program are: physician office assessment and diagnosis, outpatient diagnostic testing, and outpatient treatment. Components include:

• Assessment of hearing disorders
• Assessment of balance disorders
• Coordinated care to reduce the fragmentation of services
• A highly qualified and experienced physician to provide direction to the team through a medical directorship relationship
• Surgical procedures performed at Bon Secours Health Center at Harbour View
• Physical therapy services available on the Bon Secours Health Center at Harbour Health Center campus 

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Bon Secours Hampton Roads Health System is a leading health care organization known for providing care for the whole person with grace and clinical distinction. Bon Secours brings together a network of hospitals, primary care practices, ambulatory care sites and continuing care facilities to provide quality health care services to the residents of Hampton Roads. Bon Secours, which employs more than 4,500, includes: Bon Secours DePaul Medical Center, Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center, Mary Immaculate Hospital, Bon Secours Health Center at Harbour View, Bon Secours Maryview Nursing Care Center and St. Francis Nursing Center.