BROOKINGS — Hear ye, hear ye! There’s a new outreach clinic opening its doors Wednesday in Brookings that specializes in audiology: Professional Hearing Services.

“We’ve been looking as a clinic at the Brookings area for a number of years and so it kind of just for us came down to timing and the right fit in audiologists,” Angela Arends, director of operations for Watertown-based PHS, said. “We saw that in Dr. Brett King. (She’s) been with us for a few years now, and we felt that it was a good time to move into this area to serve a larger population of people.”

King is quite familiar with the Brookings area as well, having been born and raised in Arlington. She still lives there with her husband, son and the family’s dogs.

“We have a large patient base from the whole northeast part of South Dakota, several of whom drive from several of the smaller towns that would prefer to drive to Brookings versus coming up to Watertown, which is our primary clinic,” she said.

King said the Brookings clinic, which is in Suite 101 at 521 Sixth St. north of First Bank & Trust and can be contacted at 1-800-456-2109, will provide multiple services, including:

• Hearing evaluations for all ages
• Hearing treatment options, including hearing aids, and other surgical options (working in conjunction with area ear, nose and throat physicians)
• Custom hearing protection options for patients who hunt or work with a lot of noise
• Earwax removal services
• Fitting, adjustment and programming of hearing aids and following patients through that process to better hearing

Arends pointed out that Professional Hearing Services has pediatric audiologists as well, a service that’s rare in this part of the state.

“To be able to serve pediatrics without having to travel outside the Brookings area down to Sioux Falls or elsewhere was something that was very important to us,” she said.

A focus on patients and their care are central tenets for King as well.

“I’m looking forward to helping more people, having our services be more accessible to more people — including children and adults, people who may find it harder to travel the long distance to Watertown to receive our services,” she said. “It always comes down to improving lives through better hearing. That’s our mission. And so we’re just extending that in Brookings. That’s what I’m most looking forward to.”

Arends said Professional Hearing Services has great aspirations now that it’s in Brookings, noting that it especially enjoys community involvement.

“We are excited to be able to see how we can contribute to the Brookings community,” she said.

Part of that contribution includes the aforementioned relations with other physicians, along with a commitment to learning and technology.

“I think our patients really appreciate our connection and relationship with their primary care providers and the ear, nose and throat specialists in the region,” Arends said. “We have a very good relationship and built a lot of rapport with those individuals, and so we do work very closely as a clinic with your primary care, with other specialists, to bring you the highest quality of audiology care for your overall health that we can. That is something patients do appreciate.”

She continued, “We work very hard on education and commitment to further learning, so that we are able to offer the latest in technology, with best practices always at the forefront of our minds. We follow all best practices for audiology with continuing education, and patient care is really what our business has been built on — not the devices themselves, but the quality of care that we provide.”

King chimed in as well, reiterating the importance of the bond between physician and patient.

“It’s who you’re seeing and who’s helping you — it’s the patient care,” she said. “Some of the most influential practices that we follow for patient success include the medical evaluation that they undergo for a hearing test. If they do need hearing aids, we perform ‘real ear verification’ of the hearing aids in that patient’s ear to their hearing loss. It’s a very individualized process. That is one of the major practices we follow that ensure their success with hearing treatment.”

Beyond that, King is certainly dedicated to her profession —it’s something that formed and took root years ago, which led her to earning a bachelor’s degree from the University of South Dakota in Vermillion in communication sciences and disorders. King then received a doctorate in audiology from USD.

After that she went to Professional Hearing Services in Watertown, where she finished her schooling as an extern/audiology resident and was hired in May 2022 as a clinical audiologist.

“When you step into Professional Hearing Services, whether it’s in Brookings or Watertown, you are treated like family,” King said. “We always have the patient’s best interest in mind. We care about our patients deeply. You will be treated with respect and kindness, and hope that we can work with you to improve the quality of life for our patients through our services.”

Arends sees a bright future for the clinic in Brookings.

“I believe in this community with the people here and the expertise and the knowledge of Dr. Brett, and also our commitment to patient excellence, that our possibilities in the Brookings area are, honestly, endless.”

— Contact Mondell Keck at mkeck@brookingsregister.com.