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Kim Plaggemeyer has dedicated her entire career to clinical practice management, first as a clinic manager, then a practice administrator, and most recently as a manager of ambulatory quality under clinical excellence. She recently celebrated 23 years with the organization (which was St. Vincent Regional Hospital in Billings, MT when she started). Here, she talks about closing care gaps, planning a good scrapbook, and why her favorite Intermountain Health value is “We do the right thing.”
Let's give a round of applause to the following Intermountain Health hospitals for being recognized as on The Lown Institute's Honor Roll list of America's Most Socially Responsible Hospitals for 2024! ❇️ Cedar City Hospital - Cedar City, UT ❇️ Intermountain Medical Center - Murray, UT ❇️ Layton Hospital - Layton, UT ❇️ LDS Hospital - Salt Lake City, UT ❇️ Logan Regional Hospital - Logan, UT ❇️ McKay-Dee Hospital - Ogden, UT ❇️ Park City Hospital - Park City, UT ❇️ Sanpete Valley Hospital - Mt Pleasant, UT ❇️ St. Mary's Regional Hospital - Grand Junction, CO ❇️ St. Vincent Regional Hospital - Billings, MT ❇️ Utah Valley Hospital - Provo, UT Out of 2,784 acute care hospitals nationwide, only 154 are recognized as “Honor Roll” hospitals for achieving the highest scores on measures of equity, value, and outcomes.
Last week, Select Health held the grand opening of their Nevada headquarters with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The event also celebrated the opening of the Intermountain Health Maule Clinic exclusively for Select Health members located within the same facility. The new Select Health headquarters serves as a hub for all members to access care, explore health insurance products and services, ask questions face-to-face, and receive immediate assistance. The building also features a dedicated event space for hosting information sessions during health insurance enrollment periods for both Medicare Advantage and commercial insurance plans. "This new headquarters represents our ongoing commitment to serving the health needs of Nevadans,” said Rob Hitchcock, Select Health president and CEO. “By offering a central location for our members to access services and information, we're making it easier for them to navigate their healthcare journey."
June is National Pride Month and for the first time this year, Intermountain Health and Select Health had a cobranded booth at the Denver PrideFest this past weekend. More than 5,000 people visited the booth and learned about our affordable health coverage plans through Select Health, and gun safety by taking home Intermountain Health gun locks. Our clinicians performed more than 700 blood pressure screenings, mostly on young adults who have never had their blood pressure checked. Thank you to all our caregivers, clinicians, and LGBTQ+ Caregiver Resource Group members who volunteered their time to make our presence at Denver Pride a huge success!
Lee Boyles has served as president of our Montana and Wyoming market and president of St. Vincent Regional Hospital in Billings, MT, since March 2024. Lee recently told Becker's he's excited about his new role, particularly St. Vincent Regional Hospital's official verification as a Level I Trauma Center by the American College of Surgeons. Check out this article on Becker's where Lee discusses the trauma center verification, which indicates the hospital has met ACS criteria for providing extensive trauma care, as well as physician recruitment and organizational culture below.
Our Supply Chain Organization is celebrating a 40,000 square foot expansion at its state-of-the-art warehouse in Midvale, Utah. The new upgrade allows for a 30 percent more bulk space storage for vital medical supplies, which is a part of our efforts for cost savings and emergency preparedness. The upgrade allows for supplies currently being stored in rented spaces to be consolidated under one roof at the Intermountain Health supply chain warehouse. This step alone will save more than $12 million annually. Extra savings also comes from avoiding thousands of unnecessary trucking miles to ship supplies back and forth from other warehouses. “This expansion is another step in our continuous effort to streamline our supply chain while adapting to growing needs of our communities,” said Allison Corry, chief supply chain officer at Intermountain Health. “Being able to store large amounts of vital medical supplies played a major role in getting us through the pandemic and this new space will make us resilient for the next emergency.”
A good garden provides more than just vegetables, and the LiVe Well Garden at Orem Community Hospital in Orem, Utah has had a major impact on one local couple. Anne and Dan Pierce purchased a house that shares a fence with Orem’s LiVe Well Garden because they were interested in gardening there. After moving in, they joined a wait list for a plot, and four years ago, they were granted a space. The opportunity is particularly valuable to them because, for the last decade, Dan has required an organic diet as he copes with liver cancer and cirrhosis of the liver. Dan entered hospice care this spring, and Anne struggles with her own health issues, so when she arrived at the garden last month to prep her soil and plant, she didn’t have the strength to pull it off. What followed was, according to Anne, “a wonderful miracle.” Learn more about how our volunteer team at Orem Community Hospital stepped in to support Anne and Dan during this difficult time in their lives in the article below.
The stories of the individuals we reach truly underscore the reason our work matters and why we stay committed to doing the right thing. Hear from Heather O'Toole, MD, on how she sees our value of We do the right thing in action in her role as vice president and chief medical officer at Select Health: "Intermountain Health and Select Health work together to do the right thing by identifying and addressing the healthcare disparities of our patients and members. When appropriate, we adjust internal processes to serve them better. We also try to better understand the social determinants of health (SDOH) they face outside the healthcare system. Sometimes, access to healthcare is a barrier. At other times, housing and food security, which are two of the most common SDOH challenges, are barriers. Together, we find ways to support our communities through investments, volunteer recruitment, and thought leadership at the local and national levels. I'm excited to advance the work we do in equity through ensuring that we reach out to our members proactively when we identify they may be at risk, rather than waiting until they engage with us. We can be more successful in meeting our members’ needs with this thoughtful, personalized approach.
Congratulations to Craig Richardville, chief digital and information officer at Intermountain Health, for being recognized as one of Becker's Healthcare's 133 CIOs to know for 2024! 🎊 In his role as chief digital and information officer, Craig is responsible for our health system's technology service center and strategic vision for our technology infrastructure, systems and integration. He has 20 years of experience as the senior vice president and chief information and analytics officer at Atrium Health, where he implemented data analytics, business intelligence, machine learning and robotic process automation.
Dwayne Gaeddert has been with the organization for so long he can’t even remember, although he thinks he probably started at Lutheran Medical Center in Wheat Ridge, CO in 1982. Back when he got hired, of course, Lutheran wasn’t part of any healthcare system. It was just Lutheran. “The facility director there at the time had a vision of getting rid of the general contractor,” Dwayne says. “He wanted to establish a construction company in-house, and that’s what he did. At one time, we had seven carpenters, three electricians and three plumbers.” Dwayne was part of that crew. And true to the vision, the crew did pretty much everything, from cabinetry to full department remodels. Dwayne held a general contractor’s license on behalf of the organization for 30 years, while the organization went from Lutheran to Exempla to SCL Health. He became a construction manager, and then later took over maintenance (which he “knew the basics” of) and became facility manager. “I got really into being involved on the clinical units, on the floors,” says Dwayne. “I enjoyed the interaction. I love that I’m always learning things.” So when he got the offer to take over ambulatory facilities for the entire Peaks Region last year, at first he was hesitant. Lutheran was moving to a new campus, and Dwayne had a lot of time and effort invested in facilitating that move. He also knew it represented an enormous learning opportunity: new technology, new systems, new specs.
