Thanks so much for your response. I am an Advocate in the Patient relations Department at a hospital - so when I get phone calls, most people are calling to complain and are very upset, so they are not always very patient with me asking them to repeat. I also visit patients and usually do better with that because i try to position myself so I can read their lips and I can tell them that I have a hearing loss, but when I am meeting with a family, they are usually emotional and often speak at the same time, I get frustrated as I know I am missing most of what is being said. I am going to look up VOC's - that does sound good! Do you have one at home? Does it plug into your phone? Do you use that at work, also.