Intermountain Healthcare

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Intermountain Healthcare, formerly known as Intermountain Health Care (IHC), is a not-for-profit healthcare system and is the largest health care 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 25,000 people.

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[edit] History

Intermountain Healthcare was founded on April 1, 1975. Prior to Intermountain, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints operated most 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.

At its inception, board members of Intermountain Healthcare were unpaid volunteers. Raising funds was done through the bond market and within just a few years, several additional hospitals asked to join the IHC organization.

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, IHC was recipient of The Healthcare Forum/Witt award.

In the mid 1990's, Intermountain Health Care restructured into three major groups: hospitals, physicians, and IHC 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. Intermountain is the only organization to have been ranked No. 1 five times.

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

In November 2005, Intermountain Health Care 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 organization.

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. This was intensified for a brief period in 2005 when Intermountain Healthcare attempted to require patients to agree to arbitration, essentially waiving the patient's right to sue—a practice that was abandoned under strong pressure of public opinion. 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 that costs taxpayers $300,000 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 120 healthcare facilities and provides insurance to 19 percent of Utahans.

[edit] Hospitals

As of 2005, Intermountain Healthcare operates 20 hospitals in Utah and Idaho.

Intermountain Healthcare is also currently building two new hospitals. Intermountain Medical Center (IMC), currently under construction, will be located on a 100 acre site in the center of the Salt Lake Valley in Murray, Utah. It will be the flagship of IHC and will be the largest medical campus in the Intermountain West. It will completely replace the Cottonwood Hospital facility, which will be demolished upon IMC's completion in 2007. It will feature a Level I trauma center, a 15-story inpatient, critical care-Level I trauma hospital, a heart and lung hospital for advanced cardiac and respiratory care, women's and newborn hospital, cancer treatment hospital, medical education and research facilities, and physician offices. It will also be the home base for IHC's Life Flight. The entire project is estimated at approximately $400 million.

Summit County Hospital will be located in Park City, Utah. It will be a 100,000 square foot facility with 26 beds and will also feature 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 2007.

[edit] 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.

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

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

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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