Intermountain Healthcare

Intermountain Healthcare, formerly known as Intermountain Health Care (IHC), is a not-for-profit healthcare system and is the largest healthcare provider in the Intermountain West. Intermountain Healthcare provides hospital and other medical services in Utah and Idaho. Intermountain Healthcare is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, and currently employs over 28,000 people.

History

Intermountain Healthcare was founded on April 1, 1975. Prior to Intermountain, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints operated many of the hospitals in the region. The church decided in 1974 it would no longer operate the hospitals and decided it would donate its fifteen hospitals as a system to the Intermountain community. The church did this on the condition that a not-for-profit organization would be formed to operate the hospitals on behalf of the communities they served.

Since its inception, board members of Intermountain Healthcare have been unpaid volunteers. Raising funds was done through the bond market and within just a few years, several additional hospitals asked to join the Intermountain organization. Intermountain's hospital market share (about 45 percent of Utah's hospital beds) has remained consistent since the organization was formed.

In 1982, Intermountain Healthcare began providing non-hospital services such as clinics and home healthcare. Four additional hospitals were added from 1982 to 1990. In 1991, Intermountain was recipient of The Healthcare Forum/Witt award.

In the mid 1990s, Intermountain Healthcare restructured into three major groups: hospitals, physicians, and health plans.

In 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005, Intermountain Healthcare was ranked No. 1 (among nearly 600 evaluated) integrated healthcare systems in the U.S. by Modern Healthcare magazine and the Verispan research firm. The rankings measured efficiency, communication cost and quailty of care. Intermountain is the only organization to have been ranked No. 1 five times. Intermountain has been named the No. 2 integrated health system in the country in 2001, 2006 and 2007. Intermountain has also received several other awards for the organization's pioneering use of electronic medical records and evidence-based medical care guidelines.

In 2002, Intermountain served as the Medical Services Provider for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

In November 2005, Intermountain implemented a new logo and slightly changed the spelling of its name from Intermountain Health Care to Intermountain Healthcare. The purpose was to reflect today's more common spelling of "healthcare." Up until this time, Intermountain was well known as "IHC." In April of 2006, Intermountain renamed their health insurance plan "SelectHealth" and formalized the separate management of the insurance side of the organization. The move helped to appease some critics who complained about the difficulty of competing against an organization that offered insurance, hospitals, and clinics through one system.

Intermountain has sometimes been subject to review by the Utah state legislature because of the hospital organization's nonprofit mission and because they own 20 of Utah's 60 hospitals. Proposals by competitors to force Intermountain to sell off either the insurance or hospital components of the organization have been fruitless.

In 2005 the Utah state legislature hired an outside research company to review Utah's healthcare marketplace. While the independent experts did not address all of the challenges facing Utah's healthcare industry, the researchers did conclude that "considerable evidence exists to support the conclusion that Utah's health-care markets are performing competitively. . . Intervention by the Utah Legislature to promote competition in these markets is not necessary." The six month study recommended that the Utah legislature refrain from creating more regulations for Utah's healthcare marketplace stating, "Competitive markets are more likely to be harmed than helped by regulatory directives."

Today, Intermountain Healthcare operates 20 hospitals in Utah and 1 hospital in Idaho. Intermountain also operates clinics, and urgent care facilities that are run by physicians as part of the Intermountain Medical Group. In total, Intermountain Healthcare operates over 160 healthcare facilities, employs about 700 of Utah's 4,600 physicians and provides insurance to about 19 percent of Utahns.

Hospitals

As of 2007, Intermountain Healthcare operates 21 hospitals in Utah and Idaho.

* Alta View Hospital - Sandy, Utah - 80 licensed beds, 73 staffed beds
* American Fork Hospital - American Fork, Utah - 76 licensed beds, 76 staffed beds
* Bear River Valley Hospital - Tremonton, Utah - 20 licensed beds, 14 staffed beds
* Cassia Regional Medical Center - Burley, Idaho - 25 licensed beds, 25 staffed beds
* Delta Community Medical Center - Delta, Utah - 20 licensed beds, 20 staffed beds
* Dixie Regional Medical Center - St. George, Utah - 245 licensed beds, 245 staffed beds
* Fillmore Community Medical Center - Fillmore, Utah - 20 licensed beds, 8 staffed beds
* Garfield Memorial Hospital - Panguitch, Utah - 14 licensed beds, 14 staffed beds
* Heber Valley Medical Center - Heber, Utah - 20 licensed beds, 20 staffed beds
* Intermountain Medical Center - Murray, Utah - 440 licensed beds, 428 staffed beds; five specialty facilities on a single campus.
* LDS Hospital - Salt Lake City, Utah - 250 licensed beds, 212 staffed beds
* Logan Regional Hospital - Logan, Utah - 148 licensed beds, 102 staffed beds - Level III trauma center
* McKay-Dee Hospital Center - Ogden, Utah - 317 licensed beds, 285 staffed beds - Level II trauma center
* Orem Community Hospital - Orem, Utah - 18 licensed beds, 18 staffed beds
* Primary Children's Medical Center - Salt Lake City, Utah - 235 licensed beds, 235 staffed beds - Level I trauma center, pediatric center serving Utah, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, and Wyoming.
* Sanpete Valley Hospital - Mount Pleasant, Utah - 20 licensed beds, 15 staffed beds
* Sevier Valley Hospital - Richfield, Utah - 42 licensed beds, 26 staffed beds
* The Orothopedic Specialty Hospital (TOSH) - Murray, Utah - 14 licensed beds, 14 staffed beds
* Utah Valley Regional Medical Center - Provo, Utah - 395 licensed beds, 349 staffed beds - Level II trauma center
* Valley View Medical Center - Cedar City, Utah - 46 licensed beds

Former hospitals:

* Cottonwood Hospital - Murray, Utah - closed October 29, 2007, upon the opening of the Intermountain Medical Center.

Park City Medical Center will be located in Park City, Utah. It will be a convert|100000|sqft|m2|sing=on facility with 26 beds, featuring a women's center, surgical center, orthopedic center, and emergency center. The entire project is estimated at approximately $50-60 million and is expected to be completed in 2009.

Intermountain Riverton Hospital is also under construction. It is located in the southwest corner of the Salt Lake Valley in Riverton. Completion of the facility is expected in late 2010.

Life Flight

Life Flight, Intermountain Healthcare's medevac unit, consists of four helicopters and three fixed-wing aircraft. Life Flight provides emergency air transportation as well as non-emergency transport for victims particularly in remote areas, as well as emergency scenes where time is critical. In addition to transport, Life Flight also provides search-and-rescue to the region.

Intermountain currently operates two Agusta A109K2 helicopters and two Bell 407 helicopters. The helicopters are based at McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden, Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo, Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, and Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City.

Life Flight also operates three Beechcraft B200 King Air twin-turboprop aircraft. Two are based at Salt Lake City International Airport, and one is based at St. George Municipal Airport.

ee also

* List of hospitals in Utah
* Alta View Hospital hostage incident

External links

* [http://intermountainhealthcare.org/xp/public/ Intermountain Healthcare - Official Homepage]
* [http://intermountainhealthcare.org/xp/public/imed/ Intermountain Medical Center - New medical campus]
* [http://intermountainhealthcare.org/xp/public/lifeflight/ Life Flight - Official Homepage]
* [http://intermountainhealthcare.org/xp/public/healthfacts/ UtahHealthFacts.org]