Healing in Your Neighborhood: Ghanian Immigrant Doctor Robert Larbi-Odam’s Journey to Bridging Healthcare Disparities Across Minneapolis
The city of Minneapolis and surrounding areas are known for impressive education, high quality of life, diverse cultural events and festivals, and the resilience of its people overall. However, there is a darker, underserved side of the Minneapolis community: stark health disparities as a result of socioeconomic factors. Within this diverse landscape emerges a dedicated advocate: Dr. Robert Larbi-Odam, whose steadfast dedication is to those typically overlooked and forgotten by the American healthcare system.
Armed with a strong foundation in practicing medicine for the last 18 years and a master’s degree in public health informatics, Dr. Odam leverages advanced technology and public health expertise to provide top-tier care tailored to the unique needs of those who need healthcare right now, whether or not they have insurance. Even throughout the COVID pandemic, Dr. Odam managed to establish mobile clinics to administer vaccines, establish highly accessible walk-in clinics with an Urgent Care in the back, and help make ends meet for those who need it the most across sixteen counties in Central Minnesota.
Dr. Odam’s commitment to healthcare is transcends profession; it’s deeply personal as someone who immigrated from Ghana years ago. With this, he is resolutely dedicated to making a meaningful difference in tens of thousands of patients’ lives.
The CEO and Publisher of Voices Magazine, Mr. Charles Dwamina sits down with Dr. Larbi-Odam to discuss Community Medicine, his mission and leadership in the community he serves…
Charles – Q: To be in the healthcare business is not a small journey. Tell me how you grew up, and why did you get into this profession?
Dr. Odam – A: My dad was working on commission as a businessperson involved in the early politics of Ghana. Eventually, he ended up in management. He managed many big companies whilst he was alive, including Unilever and some of the other enterprises that were formed in the early part of Ghana’s independence. So, we kind of grew up in that environment. He was always going on treks. So, basically, all that we were told is that “You’ve got to study and make something good of yourself.”
My mother used to work for an organization called West African Exams Council, so she was in the whole academic environment, and her great-grandfather was also an entrepreneur and did a lot of gold mining.
So, I got into entrepreneurship whilst at university. When I was in my third or fourth year of medical school (when computers were coming to Ghana), most of the students, when they processed their theses, they usually would go somewhere to type it. So, I set up a secretarial thing within the campus, and we did business by typing people’s theses! That’s when I kind of started thinking, “Oh, maybe I could do something for myself!” When I got out of medical school, I also tried to set up an advertising agency with a friend. So, there were all of these inclinations to start my own business.
Here, I find myself in the United States practicing medicine. As much as the medicine here is great, there are differences in what people expect, and what the outcomes are based on their cultural background. There’s this big subject called “health disparities” where certain parts of a city or state don’t have enough medical providers. Most of the time, those areas are populated by immigrants, minorities, people whose first language is not English, and low-income shift workers. Because of that, those communities have different challenges in accessing care.
There’s always been an opportunity to set up clinics in those areas, preferably by people who come from those neighborhoods. And so, that’s where I decided to launch my entrepreneurial career because I had the training, I speak the language, come from the same background, and sort of understand what their socioeconomic challenges are.
So, when I got out of residency in 2005, I went to work in a community clinic in South Minneapolis – a highly underserved area.
When you get out of medical school, you have to learn how to manage your practice. Practicing medicine and seeing patients is one thing, and managing the business side – that’s another. So, I spent like five years over there, right out of residency. That’s where I picked up on a lot of things like how to do billing, how to get insurance companies to pay you, how to hire staff, how to buy equipment… So, I had all of those important stakeholders in starting this business operation.
The healthcare establishment is a different kind of business operation – completely different from anything. Because you’re selling something, you’re treating, and many times, you’re managing people’s psychology and finances as well. You’re helping keep people healthy and employed. In this country, the problem is that when you are sick, if you are a low-income worker, the likelihood that you lose your job is high.
Charles -Q: Do you have a personal vision when it comes to your work and the people you serve?
Dr. Odam -A: My vision is to be able to have clinics in all underserved areas and be able to support them in a unique way. Because there are systems in place to care for people who don’t have insurance, and the entity that cares for them still gets paid.
Part of my vision is a difficult one because it involves a lot of money. Many times, bankers are not very interested in minority businesses because they look at the numbers and say, “Oh…” That’s something that somebody has to do.
So, my vision is to be able to open more clinics in medically underserved areas and be able to leverage all possible revenue sources, from federal, state, and county levels. There are resources that many of my patients can get, but, number one, there are no clinics there. At least, there aren’t enough.
So, the little that I hear, they don’t have time to be doing that type of thing because it takes a lot of time, and you have to have the infrastructure for them.
Charles – Q: Who are the stakeholders in this operation?
Dr. Odam – A: I think the major stakeholders are the people who live in this neighborhood. They have unique characteristics, specifically defined as low-income, maybe non-English speaking, educationally challenged, problems with transportation, problems with housing – and, unfortunately, lots of chronic diseases like high blood pressure and diabetes. So, the community as a whole, they are the stakeholders.
For the other stakeholders, we plan to leverage other community leaders. They are usually the doorway into churches and various organizations that serve minority communities. Also, businesses here in this neighborhood who have never thought about this; there are different partnerships we can work out with various businesses, and we can provide care to their staff and business owners. You know, make sure they’re not sick or help them not to incur these huge bills. You know, because if you’re significantly sick, you most likely going to go to the ER. But if I’m your doctor, I can keep you out of trouble. I can keep you healthy.
Charles – Q: Do you accept health partners?
Dr. Odam – A: We take people who have insurance and people who don’t have insurance. We don’t discriminate as to who we see because we know that in this neighborhood, some have insurance, and some don’t have insurance. So, we make sure that we’re able to serve all of those. It’s very accessible.
Charles – Q: Tell me about how you’re handling some of these challenges in this kind of business unit.
Dr. Odam A: The first challenge, interestingly, is not finances. It’s finding a place to put your practice. You cannot just show up and rent any place because you have to pass certain requirements from the insurance company. So, you end up having to rent a reasonably good building – and those things cost a lot.
Landlords who own commercial buildings have very strict rules. Sometimes they limit how much time you spend in the building (after five, doors are closed), and restrictions on how many people can come into the building.
However, time is an issue, so, we do a lot of walk-ins. We encourage walk-ins because we know the unique situation of our population. If they need something medical, something has to be done that day. You can have a mom who has four kids and forgot to do the vaccines for the kids. They get sent home from school because it’s a no-shot-no-school state. Well, the mom depends on the kids going to school for her to go to work – which means there’s no money coming in until those vaccines are taken care of. So, if somebody shows up here and says, “Doc, my kids have been sent home from school,” I’m more likely to take them and vaccinate them compared to the other clinic across the street.
The second challenge is financing. Fortunately, as used local and small banks that have been friendly to our growth, particularly in being able to build our own space. So, we basically eliminated the landlord factor. We don’t have any restrictions as to when we can come in and when we can leave. In a short while, we’re going to start doing Saturdays and possibly Urgent Care – which means that once the primary care clinic is done, some agents keep going on that people can access. Then on weekends, we have lots of rooms in the back that we plan to have open for Urgent Care so folks don’t have to wait for Monday. If they need something done, they’re coming in then.
Charles – Q: How many facilities do you have right now?
Dr. Odam A: We have another office in St. Cloud, and we pioneered a mobile clinic which is, at the present time, doing very well in the St. Cloud area. We go from residence to residence.
Charles – Q: You don’t sleep, man!
Dr. Odam – A: Well, our people need help, and there aren’t many of us.
Charles – Q: You must be very passionate. People look up to you.. I know you’re a God-fearing man, love your church, and participate in multiple. But who, apart from your father, has been an inspiration to you? Anybody specific that you can call on that you look up to?
Dr. Odam – A: Because of my unique experiences, I’m kind of a trailblazer. It’s been an environment where you have to champion things solo. But I would say that, definitely, my paster has been very influential: Archbishop Vandyke Noah. Very influential in helping me through the journey, encouraging. I would say he’s a mentor.
One person I would also like to mention is one of my residency program directors: Dr. Jeremy Springer, who encouraged me from residency to go work in my neighborhood. Can you believe that? Yes, he’s Caucasian. He set me up at South Side and said, “When you go, you will realize that there’s a great need.” I’ll always remember him because he set me up with that mindset: go there and see what’s going on. “I believe that you can make a difference,” he told me.
Charles – Q: Can you tell us about some of your many accomplishments? Just getting this far is a huge one, but what are some other things that you are proud of?
Dr. Odam – A: Yes, we were able to put up our own facility, but I think my major accomplishment is being able to set up this infrastructure. Because what people don’t realize is that even though it’s here now, it’s going to be here for a long time. It’s going to be here in this neighborhood for a long time. And so, I think that we don’t have that type of infrastructure that is owned by someone in our community. With the buildings, some just exude confidence – and we have been able to establish that here.
We have another clinic in St. Cloud fully finished and fully staffed. The type of infrastructure we have it’s comparable to anything that you find anywhere. That’s why we were so effective during the COVID season: because of all of those special refrigerators needed to store vaccines and distribute – you know, we had all of those things all laid out.
Charles – Q: Were you projecting that this was coming?
Dr. Odam – A: One of my specialties is in public health, specifically health informatics where you look at data predictions, which includes pandemic management. So, I have a deep understanding of how to organize health establishments because….. A medical building is a building, but what comes in is all data. What does a person have? Diabetes. How bad is it? Okay. At this level, what medication are you going to use? All of this information is unique in actually sustaining a medical practice. They’re all in the database.
One of the interesting things about our community is that our community thrives on reminders. You have to remind people because they are so busy! They’ve got kids, and they’re trying to make ends meet. Sometimes health is not a priority – until things crash, and I mean crash to a point where they cannot work. I mean, we have folks who have had strokes all because they didn’t follow up the way we wanted them to.
I think that is our major accomplishment: being able to provide that healthcare and infrastructure to be able to serve our community.
Charles – Q: How has your business impacted the immigrant community, specifically during COVID? What role did you guys play during that time?
Dr. Odam – A: One of the unique things about this population is that you are more likely to find somebody who doesn’t have a primary care provider. You are more likely to find someone who hasn’t been to the doctor in a few years because there’s nothing wrong with them.
Now, during the COVID era, one of the early requirements was that the vaccines were taken the clinics. So, if you are not a member of that clinic, where do you go?
If you factor in those who don’t have a primary clinic and those who don’t have insurance, basically those folks don’t have anywhere to go – and we became the contact for them.
Now, we’re using the mobile clinic to go into the neighborhoods and give them the COVID vaccines. Everything is on the bus – fridge, table, everything. So, you come into the bus, we give you a shot.
We park in front of Mexican grocery stores. Anywhere that we can find our people, we go there.
Charles – Q: How would you like to impact your community, and how can they empower themselves?
Dr. Odam – A: First, we do have a significant need for medical providers, including nurse practitioners, laboratory technicians, and other healthcare workers, from this community. So, I would encourage anyone who aspires to the health field to do everything that they can to finish and come back to serve their community.
The second thing is that we need to be able to come together to start our own health clinics – because we can. We should be looking at coming together to start our own clinics as a community. Until we are able to do that, we will not experience the kind of healthcare that we want.
Next year, we’re going to set up The Center of Excellence in Health Disparities Reduction, which is going to be a workforce development entity where we go out to encourage people and mentor them. From high school, we mentor them. If it’s science-based, we mentor them through their science programs, we can connect them to colleges, and help them get through the licensing process.
My vision is that in the next 10 years, I should not be the only one who has my practice, but we should have other minority doctors. We’ll have a full minority staff; everyone here was an immigrant or born here as a minority.
The third thing I want to say is that every enterprise would only be successful if the finances are there. There is a significant amount of finances needed to sustain any healthcare establishment. I’ve been doing this for seven years, and I haven’t missed a paycheck. Because if you put everything together, there is significant revenue to sustain clinics in our neighborhood – good, quality clinics.
If I put those three things together, I’m looking to inspire young ones to get into the healthcare profession and be able to establish their own clinics in these communities.
Note: Do you have a compelling story to share, impacting your community and other? Reach out to us and share your story. Call 952-381-7697 to set-up and appointment for a sit down interview.
