When Real Life Meets Diabetes: T1DR or Bust! (Part 3)

Kris

Fun Fact: I really enjoy woodworking and construction. My dad was in construction. I guess it’s just a part of me no matter what my job is. There’s an old adage in the construction world: It’s often more difficult and costly to remodel something than it is to start from the ground up. That’s the situation in which Jessica and I found ourselves. It was this strange dichotomy of being grateful for the opportunities provided but wanting something more…different…better. That’s how EDC got its start. One day, we stood there talking to one another, dreaming out loud, and I said something that I will never ever forget, “We could do this” (insert Jessica’s shocked but excited face).

Think of all the people you meet in a given day. Would you want to start a business with most…or ANY of them? Me either! But it was right and I knew it. We knew it. And most of all, those closest to us knew it. We were all certain that it would be difficult, costly and emotionally taxing but that those with type 1 diabetes in our 30+ county reach deserved a certain level of care and commitment. And we were going to be the ones to bring this new level of care. So we did. After toying around with several really bad names, Everyday Diabetes Center was born.

2019 + 2 Years

Kris & Jessica

After seeing our first official patient in the spring of 2019 we began to realize that others were taking notice of EDC. We were different. At least that's what we were continually told. Looking back, though, we are not sure that we knew just HOW different. We established a standard of care where we pulled away from the industry-standard 3 month follow up and moved towards an approach where you were seen when you needed to be. If you needed to come back in a week, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, whenever, you would simply get an appointment. Have we gotten paid for all of these follow ups? No! But again, we often ask what makes us different. Profitability is important because it's what makes us sustainable but it's not the most important aspect of who we are.

So, why else were we different? Well, managing diabetes through the lens of real life is much different than textbook diabetes management. Real life gets messy. We aren’t afraid of messiness. I mean, we’re messy too. We desire to meet patients where they are and help them turn the ashes of their diabetes struggles into something beautiful. We also encourage them to not waste their story. We don’t necessarily like type 1 diabetes but we’re not going to let it drag us down and we’re going to make sure that someone else can benefit from our trials and triumphs alike.

As those in our industry learned what we were doing, we began to hear people say, "You guys should open up locations everywhere!" We eventually realized that we did have something special and unique at EDC. But the biggest realization of all was that we could only be in one place at a time. We were a really good team but there was no way to duplicate ourselves. If we couldn’t open up multiple locations we would need to get creative with how to multiply the vision.

2020 taught our world, especially the healthcare industry, an important life lesson: We didn’t have to fear technology as it related to healthcare. We could use it to our advantage to help as many patients as possible. We could spread our message of putting diabetes in its proper place as far as the internet would allow. We say this with the utmost humility: We believe in what we do. If something is worth believing in, it is also worth sharing. If we shared, we could meet the needs of each individual patient without the hindrance of geographical boundaries, educate in a way that reflected real life diabetes and expand to allow for more patient access. After months of processing, prayer and planning, T1D Revolution was born.