Intermountain was rewarded with the 2017 Hearst Health Award, beating out the American Heart Association and Stanford, for recognition of how mental health is treated.

A program was started where mental health professionals are located in the primary care clinics, and as a result, ER visits were reduced by 23 percent, hospital admissions were lowered by 11 percent and primary care encounters were reduced by seven percent.


According to Harrison, for an investment of $22 per person per year, the system saves around $115. “More importantly, people stay out of hospitals, they stay out of doctor’s offices, they spend more time at work, overall, they’re healthier.”

Telehealth is another area where Intermountain has been innovating, including a teleneonatology program wherein high-risk deliveries are attended by a neonatologist via video conference.

“Intermountain has been an absolutely fabulous organization, with lots of individual flavors and cultures, and we don’t want that to end,” Harrison said. “But what we do is deliver on the promise to our patients that regardless of where they show up, the quality is exactly the same. They’re trusting us and we aim to live up to that trust.”

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