Intermountain Healthcare - History

History

Intermountain Healthcare was founded on 1 April 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 quality 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 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 22 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.