A unique group of clinics, nearly as old as Intermountain Health itself, doesn’t treat common ailments or walk-in patients. Instead, they care for the workforce of community businesses and services. Intermountain WorkMed, our occupational service line, has 100 caregivers working in over a dozen clinics in Utah and southern Idaho. "We focus on anything that happens at work or needs to be done at work," said Sean Tomlinson, sales and development manager for WorkMed. WorkMed caregivers help patients with treatment for workplace injuries, work-related tests like drug screens, annual physicals, vaccines, and visual and hearing exams. "The biggest difference is that in occupational medicine, the employer is our customer,” Sean said. “They carry the workers’ compensation insurance that pays for occupational medicine services." "We’re taking care of the workforce: your brother, my sister, and our kids," said Cindy Miller, practice manager in St. George. "If they have a job, they’re a potential patient."
Congratulations to the following Intermountain Health hospitals for being recognized on Money's Best Hospitals 2025 list! - Holy Rosary Hospital - Miles City, Montana - Intermountain Medical Center - Murray, Utah - St. George Regional Hospital - St. George, Utah Money, a personal finance website, compiled their list based on an analysis of over 30,000 data points from more than 1,000 hospitals rated four or five stars by CMS. Each hospital was evaluated using multiple criteria, including overall performance, physician quality, and price transparency, with rankings and letter grades assigned in each category.
Derrick Haslem, MD, grew up in Vernal, Utah, a small town tucked away what he calls in the “middle of nowhere.” When a family member was diagnosed with cancer, he saw what it was to need treatment far from the city – and the experience convinced him that everyone deserves great care, no matter where they are. As senior medical director of the Oncology Clinical Program at Intermountain Health, he’s in a unique position to help deliver it.
Are you a new graduate RN or a current nursing student? Join us for an exciting opportunity to connect with our team and learn more about our Utah and Idaho hospitals, our nurse residency program, and much more at our upcoming RN New Grad Virtual Information Session! Date: Wednesday, February 26th, 2025 Time: 9 a.m. - 10 a.m. MT Location: Virtual via Microsoft Teams How to Join: A Microsoft Teams link will be shared with you via email after you RSVP During this live event, you'll have the chance to ask questions and engage with our nurse executive, nurse residency, and talent acquisition teams. Don't miss out! RSVP today at https://imh.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/IntermountainCareers/event/2792e14f281d1001a043485c408e0001/register. We look forward to connecting with you!
In a bustling hospital unit where every step counts, a team of caregivers started a mission to reduce patient falls. When nurse manager Crystal Holy Cross and her dedicated team at St. Vincent Regional Hospital in Billings, Montana noticed unassisted falls were higher than they'd like, they worked together to make a difference for patient safety. The team aimed to reduce falls in 2024. By mid-December, their efforts resulted in cutting the number of unassisted falls by more than 50%! Patient falls are the most common adverse events in hospitals, with up to a million falls each year in the U.S., and a quarter resulting in injury. Reducing falls helps patients, caregivers, and our healthcare system by preventing serious injuries, prolonged hospital stays, and increased costs. Their impressive reduction in falls is credited to one thing: getting back to basics.
Intermountain Health provides athletic trainers at 55 high schools in Utah, including all of southern Utah and Utah Tech University. But aside from helping heal athletic injuries, they serve as members of the school community. Cedar High School athletic trainer Melissa Mendini has been with Intermountain and Cedar High School for 11 years and has seen her fair share of injuries through her training room. “It's been a wonderful experience,” Melissa said. “Intermountain does a great job of integrating us into the community and into the high school to the point where we feel like both are our family.” Melissa teaches a sports medicine class, which Intermountain encourages, to Cedar High School juniors and seniors. It’s an experience that wouldn’t have been possible if she wasn’t an athletic trainer at the school. Once the teaching is over, Melissa turns on her athletic trainer cap and helps student-athletes who come in droves to get treatment in some form. She even has some students come in to hang out and chat with her. All in all, she’s built a community around her training space.
Amanda Cleveland, MD, was prepping a particularly anxious adult patient for surgery when she noticed that the patient had brought a stuffed toy for emotional support and saw that it had a rip in the back. To make the patient feel as cared for as possible, Dr. Cleveland volunteered to patch up the stuffed broccoli sprout, a.k.a. Broccoli Bob. The operating room team immediately caught the spirit, and — after the human surgery was safely completed — a “sterile field” was assembled out of leftover materials. Matthew Fowler, MD, the anesthesiologist, donated the patient’s pre-op oxygen mask for the extra case. Sharoll Ayala, RN and others on the OR nursing team printed a wristband and wrote Bob’s info on the patient board. A scrub tech set out instruments and fine-tuned the lighting in the operating room. Chelsea Mutscheller, MD, OB-GYN, offered to act as “first assist” for the first-ever stuffed vegetable surgery at LDS Hospital. While the patient was waking up from anesthesia, Dr. Cleveland “beautifully repaired the stuffie,” according to Dr. Mutscheller, who added that this unplanned case did not generate any extra charges. “The reception by the patient and her family was over the top,” she said. “They were thrilled. All of her anxiety was eased, and she returned home to heal.” “The group here truly goes the extra mile,” Dr. Mutscheller said, “and we all love each other while doing meaningful work every single day. This one definitely goes in my scrapbook.”
An innovative new program based at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah is easing staffing shortages in our operating rooms and helping caregivers move forward in their careers. In 2023, we launched our own surgical technologist training program. The intensive, 9-month paid program starts with coursework in a classroom or laboratory, and ends with a stint in an operating room. Classes are taught at LDS Hospital and St. George Regional Hospital in St. George, Utah, and are being made available remotely. In the next cohort, two students will join the training from Billings, Montana. Students finish the class with a national certification and credentials as surgical technologists. Many students have been Intermountain caregivers seeking a new career opportunity. M.J. Moreno is a recent graduate. Having worked at Intermountain for 20 years, most recently as an endoscopy technician, M.J. applied for surgical tech training. M.J. said the program was “very interesting and very challenging,” requiring her to learn new technologies and medical terminology. She considered the course demanding but manageable. “In the end, I feel like I have benefitted from doing this program,” she said. “I understand so much more about the human body and my new role in healthcare. It has helped me grow as a person and also given me the opportunity to continue growing my career.”
Our new Intermountain Health St. George Regional Hospital Day Treatment Center in St. George, Utah is opening its doors this week to address a critical need in pediatric behavioral health care, thanks to community support given to the annual Jubilee of Trees fundraiser. The Partial Hospitalization Program offers intensive care and skill building to kids five days a week, each day for the length of a typical school day. At the end of each day, participants go home to use the skills they learned with their family. The course of treatment is up to 15 days, with the length of stay determined by the youth, their parents, and the program team. “This new center fills an important need in mental health care and will bring hope to kids and families in the St. George area,” said Natalie Ashby, president of Intermountain St. George Regional Hospital. “Thank you to our caregivers, providers and external partners who helped to build this clinic. It takes many, many people to make this happen, and we are grateful for your contributions and dedication to helping children and families.”
How do we give each patient a voice to help us continually improve? Through a strategic, simple survey of around a dozen questions. After almost every visit to an Intermountain Health care site or provider, patients receive an email or text survey about their experience. Questions range from how much a patient trusts a facility to care for their needs to whether caregivers explained things thoroughly. Sending patient surveys isn’t just a formality — it’s a well-thought-out process to gather valuable data without overwhelming patients. The shorter, digital approach is a huge improvement over the previous, 65-plus question surveys that were physically mailed to every patient. “We try to simplify the survey and lean into analytics,” said Katie Boemecke, senior director of Patient Experience. “Instead of having the patients answer questions on every facet of their experience, we trust that what’s most important to the patient is going to come through in the survey.” The collected data is not just for show. We use it to implement best practices across our facilities, ensuring consistent and high-quality care. At a high level, survey data highlights overall systemwide trends in our experience and care. “Every caregiver plays a part in how the patients perceive their care," said Katie. “Everybody can positively or negatively impact a patient's perception. Survey data is where we can learn from our patients to evolve and elevat
