Amanda Wilde (Host): ReDoc is a program that makes switching to Iowa Specialty Hospitals and Clinics easy. Marketing Director, Gina Schnathorst is here to walk us through the process. Welcome to the Iowa Specialty Hospital and Clinic's ISH Dish podcast, practical health advice from Iowa Specialty Hospital experts. We want to connect the members of our communities with the latest healthcare information that's understandable, relatable, and useful to your daily life. Welcome to the ISH Dish Podcast, Gina. You're on the other side of the microphone today.

Gina Schnathorst: Thank you. This is just a little odd for me because you're right, I'm usually on your end.

Host: So, I'm shooting the questions today, and you have the answers. The ReDoc program, how did that even come to be a program? What was the reason for forming it?

Gina Schnathorst: I will give you the short and dirty answer to that question. I had 10 years of experience in banking, which seems like a hundred years ago. And at that time, I had several different roles in the banking world, but one of them was as a personal banker. And at that time, I thought there were a lot of people who came to us saying that they wanted to switch their banking to us from a competitor who literally was right next door, but they felt kind of embarrassed to go to their bank and say, "I quit. I don't want to be with you anymore. I want to take my money and everything that I have to the bank next door," which would've been us. And we were getting a lot of those requests.

So, I came up with a program at that time called a Switch Kit. And it basically functions a lot of the same way that ReDoc does, in that we would fill out all the paperwork, have them sign what they needed to. And then, we would take care of bringing their money and all of their services over to our bank so they didn't have to go back to their original bank and tell their bankers, "I quit, I want to go elsewhere." That was very successful for us, even way back in the day. And I know that that is kind of a popular thing now. So, one of my job duties as a marketing director has always been to try to find people's pain point and make it less painful for them. So, out of that same idea, ReDoc was born, and it runs along the same premise that there are a lot of people out there in the healthcare world who want to make that transition to a different doctor or to our health system from where they may be currently doctoring, but they just don't want to go into their doctor and say, "I quit." Nobody wants to have that awkward conversation. So, we formed ReDoc to try to make that transition easy.

Host: I want to say sort of a concierge service.

Gina Schnathorst: Absolutely.

Host: Yeah. Talk a little bit more about how the program works.

Gina Schnathorst: Most of it is online. We do have paper copies and paper versions if people are not tech savvy, which I know there's a lot of people like that in the world still. So if you are somebody who is wanting to switch your care to Iowa Specialty Hospitals and Clinics from where you currently are doctoring, you can go to our website, iowaspecialtyhospital.com. And on the homepage, there's a tab called resources. You click on that and then you go to ReDoc Program, Becoming a Patient. There is an online submission form and it's very easy. You just follow the prompts and go down the way. Fill out your name, address, birthdate information, whether or not you're wanting to switch your care for yourself, you and somebody else, which it says both, or your whole family.

And then, it gives you a list of actual services. So, you can cherry pick if you want Family Medicine or you're just looking for Weight Loss or a spine surgeon. There's a plethora of services. So, you choose one of those, or if there's something that you're looking for that's not on the list, you can just pick other and then you can freeform, just write it in. It also gives you the opportunity to list when would you like to be contacted, what's the best time, of day, what's the best day. And then, what happens after you've hit submit is that ReDoc online submission form goes to one of our ReDoc coordinators, and then they reach out to you at that designated day and time and then have a conversation with you about who would be the best provider in our system to take care of you, and then they set up the appointment and then transfer the records.

Host: And at that point, you are ready to go.

Gina Schnathorst: Pretty much. Yeah. The really cool thing about the ReDoc Program, and one of the things that I wanted to really stress before we created this is that it's not an end-all be-all. So, we know, and I think you probably would feel this way too, there's a connection that you need to make with your provider, especially family practice, because that's the person you're going to see every year for vaccinations, your annual checkup, those types of things. And you want to make sure that that person is somebody that you really relate to and the glory of the ReDoc program is that, once we set up your appointment with the provider and you also have the opportunity on this online submission to designate. If you already know who you want to see, you can write that in there. And then, it's a done deal. That happens quite frequently. Somebody knows that they like a certain provider at a certain clinic, perfect. But if you don't, we try to kind of play matchmaker, kind of get to know you a little bit and say, "Okay, well, here's who we would recommend at that clinic." But about a month out after your first appointment, we'll check back in with you to see how it went, because that would be the perfect time to make the switch to someone else, a different provider if you just felt like, "Hmm, that provider wasn't clicking with me." And I think a lot of people in that situation might just feel like they're stuck, and then they don't do anything about it. This kind of gives you an out, so we can choose somebody else for you. I love that part about this program.

Host: And then, that can happen at any time, it sounds like, where you might want to switch out your providers for one reason or another, either someone retires or your issues are more suited to a different primary care physician.

Gina Schnathorst: And that's something that we've tried to empower people to do anyway, ReDoc aside. If you are not happy with your current provider, let us know. There's no shame in that. But that's even happened to a family member of mine where they just weren't clicking with the provider that they were seeing. And I said, "Well, then just choose somebody else." And, "Oh, I can do that?" Absolutely. There's no shame in that, but you don't want to go a whole lifetime fearing or just not being comfortable with the provider that you're with. So, we would always tell people to please let us know if that's the case.

Host: Are there other programs like this out there or what makes this different from other programs if there are indeed others that do this sort of transitioning for you?

Gina Schnathorst: Good question. I do think there are. Well, I know that there are. I've been to a couple conferences in the last couple of years where they've actually had sessions that talk about this same thing. I think there are some systems in the healthcare world that have had a lot of good success with the program such as this. I feel like what sets ReDoc apart from a lot of the others that I've seen is the personalization. There's a program that was started in the state of Iowa. I was kind of keeping tabs on them, of course. And it was more like a matchmaking program, but they lacked the personalization. They lacked the, "Hey, we will call you when you want us to call," because nobody wants to play phone tag with their hospital. That's just an awful experience. So, let us reach out to you when it's convenient for you, and then let us help you figure out who the best provider would be for you and then. Also, we're going to empower you, like I said, to change your mind if that wasn't a good fit. I don't think a lot of the other programs that I've seen and heard about are that personalized, and I think that's really what sets us apart.

Host: That focus on customer service is the best kind of marketing and marketing director there is. So, that would be you, Gina. Thank you so much for sharing how to get into the ReDoc Program and what we need to do to get the process started.

Gina Schnathorst: Absolutely. Right now, we have about 350 new submission forms since we've started the program, and that equates to like 600 and some service lines. So, we're really proud of it. I'm extremely proud of the success of it, and it's free. There's no cost. And to me, customer service is kind of a lost art. So if we can bring that back a little bit, that's perfect. It's a win-win.

Host: Yeah, it truly is. Thanks again, Gina.

Gina Schnathorst: Absolutely.

Host: To learn more, visit iowaspecialtyhospital.com/resources/redocprogram. Thank you for listening to the ISH Dish Podcast. You can read a transcript of today's episode or previously aired episodes as well as get the latest news from Iowa Specialty Hospitals and Clinics, and explore all of the services that we offer at iowaspecialtyhospital.com.