Dr. Megan Johnson, audiologist and co-founder of Johnson Audiology, accepted the 2019 Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics at the Better Business Bureau’s annual meeting on May 1. The area’s Better Business Bureau serves southeast Tennessee and northwest Georgia.
Johnson Audiology was one of six companies that took home the annual award this year. The six winners were chosen from among more than a dozen businesses who were invited, based on an anonymous nomination, to complete the Torch Award application process.
Johnson Audiology submitted a multi-page narrative along with a host of supporting information, including written and video patient testimonials, samples of educational marketing pieces, employee training manuals, etc. The entry packet was reviewed by a panel of judges made up of business people and educators from the local community.
At the luncheon, which drew more than 500 attendees, Dr. Johnson accepted the award on behalf of the company she co-founded with her husband Derek Johnson in 2009. Johnson Audiology is a Chattanooga-born business with its first location on Gunbarrel Road. Johnson Audiology now has four additional locations: Hixson, Franklin and Murfreesboro in Tennessee and in Cartersville, Ga. In addition to Dr. Johnson and Derek Johnson, who serves as Practice Manager, the company employs eight audiologists and 18 support staff, including patient care coordinators, audiology assistants and insurance and billing specialists.
Standing before the award ceremony attendees, Dr. Johnson commented, “When my husband Derek and I founded Johnson Audiology, we had a vision for our practice. Our mantra was simple: to offer hearing health care services, hearing aid technology and tinnitus therapy to people from all walks life and to do so fairly, professionally, respectfully and ethically. We were also committed to building a strong family of staff members, including highly educated audiologists and friendly and professional patient care coordinators.”
As the company prepares to celebrate its 10th anniversary later this year, Dr. Johnson said, “The Torch Award provides an important touchstone for us. Today’s event offers us that rare opportunity to stop for a moment, take a deep breath, and reflect on where we are and how we got here.”
A 17-year-veteran of the field of audiology, Dr. Johnson also stated, “Early in my university career, I recognized the wide gulf that exists in the field of hearing health in terms of how and by whom care can be delivered to patients and how hearing aid technology is dispensed and marketed to the public. I quickly realized that being ethical and trustworthy and professional really is a choice and that’s the kind of doctor of audiology I wanted to be.”
She concluded by commenting, “Accepting the Torch Award is an affirmation that we are doing things the right way.”
Application packets for all regional Torch Award winners will now be forwarded on by the regional BBB office to the BBB international headquarters in Arlington, Va., where they will be reviewed by a panel of judges. Winners on the international level will be announced later this year.