Encouraging numbers bring additional funding to Abbott Northwestern’s Robina Care Guide Project

MINNEAPOLIS 02/08/2010--Initial results are so promising the Robina Foundation has granted Abbott Northwestern Hospital $4.75 million to expand a primary care experiment called the Robina Care Guide Project.

The study currently includes 332 patients who have diabetes, hypertension or heart failure. Before the study, 33 percent of these patients were not meeting their clinical goals. Six months after the project started, only 22 percent were not meeting them.

The study is to show if using a new kind of relatively inexpensive employee without previous training, called a care guide, can help manage chronic diseases.

Erik Christianson has diabetes and is also trying to quit smoking. He sees his care guide at the clinic after each doctor appointment. The guide also calls him once or twice a month between appointments.

"All of us are busy, and the thing that helps me is that I have somebody keeping those goals in focus and will tell me if something isn’t met. Personally, I can blow those things off, and I think that’s human nature. But having someone else tell you, that can sometimes be a blessing," Christianson said.

Christianson’s primary physician for two years has seen a change in his patient’s medical direction. "We’re getting better results since the Robina project. Before, I didn’t see him so frequently," said Darragh Flannery, M.D.

"I would say, 'OK, here are our goals, here are the things to do, and I’ll see you in a couple of months.' And a year would go by, and I’d ask ‘How are we doing?' and see that we were back where we started."

"An average emergency room visit costs $1,150 and a day in the hospital costs much more than that. If a care guide can keep a patient out of the hospital, that’s a tremendous savings," said Richard Adair, M.D., lead physician at the Abbott Northwestern Medicine Clinic and principal study investigator.

The initial study site is a primary care clinic staffed by internal medicine residents from Abbott Northwestern Hospital, the University of Minnesota and their teachers. Located at 2800 Chicago Ave. S., the clinic provides care for a wide spectrum of patients, including many from the inner city. A research team from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health is helping with the study.

This summer, the Robina Project will expand to about 2,000 patients and a broader demographic mix at four other clinics.

More about the Robina Foundation

The Robina Foundation, a Minnesota-based private grantmaking foundation, seeks to positively impact critical social issues by encouraging innovation and financially supporting transformative projects of its four institutional partners. These partners, selected by the Foundation’s founder, James H. Binger, are: Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Minneapolis, MN; The Council on Foreign Relations, New York, NY; University of Minnesota Law School, Minneapolis, MN; and Yale University, New Haven, CT.

More about Abbott Northwestern Hospital

Abbott Northwestern Hospital is part of Allina Hospitals & Clinics, a not-for-profit health care system of hospitals, clinics and other patient care services that provides exceptional care to communities throughout Minnesota and western Wisconsin and employs more than 22,000 people.

The Robina Project is complementary to another Allina initiative. The Backyard Project, part of Allina’s Center for Healthcare Innovation, works in Minneapolis’ Phillips and Powderhorn neighborhoods. The Backyard Project is forging new models for improving residents' health status and understanding how medical, social, educational and economic factors are interdependent and impact health.

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