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Following more than three years of construction and decades of planning, the second campus of Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital was dedicated in a special ribbon-cutting ceremony last Friday, ushering in the most significant enhancement in pediatric health care in Utah and the Intermountain West in more than a century. Philanthropist and civic and business leader, Gail Miller, a Primary Promise Executive Campaign Cabinet Co-Chair, joined patients, caregivers, and leaders from Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital, Intermountain Health, and the community to cut the ribbon on the hospital campus that bears her family’s name. The Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital, Larry H. & Gail Miller Family Campus in Lehi opens for patient care on February 12, 2024. “It’s been nearly four years to the day that we announced the second campus of Primary Children’s Hospital, and we’ve all been anxiously awaiting the moment we open the doors to serve the children and families in the rapidly growing southern Salt Lake County and Utah County,” said Lisa Paletta, president of Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital, Miller Family Campus. “The day is almost here, thanks to our generous supporters, and the expertise and passions of our construction teams, caregivers, and communities.”
We are excited to celebrate Angela Luther, Chealcae Crnkovich, and Alishea Waite as the first graduates from our in-house surgical technologist training program at St. Vincent Regional Hospital in Billings, MT! 🥳 The first class of students started the program in April 2023. This rigorous program consists of 18 weeks of online training in partnership with an outside educational provider, as well as daily hands-on skills training in the classroom and practice lab alongside the instructor and staff preceptors. Jenna Haacke, instructor of the program and St. Vincent OR nurse educator and surgical technologist, shared, "Being able to invest in our dedicated internal employees and provide them with an educational opportunity along with advancement in their healthcare careers has been very rewarding. With the shortage of surgical technologists nationwide and difficulties filling surgical technologist positions, we are able to help fill those openings with staff who are committed to patient safety and the St. Vincent Intermountain Health organization." The second group of students began in October of 2023. "With the success of the program we hope to continue to build and grow more surgical technologists in the future. These students are valuable members of our surgical team and it has been fun watching them develop their skills and thrive under the guidance of our very talented OR team," Jenna shared.
Nearly all parents need help with a new baby. In fact, 95% of parents said that they needed support after their babies were born, but couldn’t find it. To help fill this gap, families in Jefferson County, Colorado now have a new, free resource to support them through the many joys and challenges of welcoming a new baby. Family Connects, a partnership between Jefferson County Public Health (JCPH) and Lutheran Medical Center in Wheat Ridge, is a program that connects all new parents with a highly-trained registered nurse at no cost. Unlike the traditional post-birth experience, Family Connects nurses visit the family in their home to support everyone’s health and wellbeing in the household. “It’s great to have a program that focuses on the mother,” said Amanda McCoy, a family ambassador with the Family Connects program. “Up to delivery it’s all about you, and then as soon as the baby is born, it’s all about them and you are left reeling. Family Connects is exactly what I needed, a program that focuses on the mother as well as the baby and helps you understand what is normal to experience as a parent.”
This #BlackHistoryMonth and every day, we celebrate the rich tapestry of achievements, resilience, and contributions that Black individuals have made throughout history.
External ventricular drains (EVDs) are commonly used in Neurological Critical Care Units (NCCU) to drain cerebrospinal fluid and help take pressure off the brain. However, like many other invasive procedures, they carry an increased risk of causing infections, particularly a brain infection called ventriculitis. Even though EVD-related infections rarely happen, the mortality rate and morbidity are relatively high, putting the patient at a 30% increase in death if they get one. A physician at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, UT working with the neurosurgical unit asked the team what they could do to prevent these infections from happening. The question sparked conversations between Sara Johnson, an RN shared leader, Cali Wightman, an assistant nurse manager, and Danielle Hill, a nurse educator, who felt they could find a way to improve the practice to lessen brain infections from EVDs. Learn more about how the team, with the support and help of Janine Roberts, a nursing research coordinator, put together a program of recommendations to implement some of the best practices they found and created an EVD care bundle.
Congratulations to Carrie Dunford, chief pharmacy officer and vice president of clinical services at Intermountain Health, for being recognized as one of Becker's Healthcare's 75 hospital and health system chief pharmacy officers to know for 2024! 🎉 Dr. Dunford has served our organization since April 1999, when she began working as a clinical pharmacist. Since then, she has held various pharmacy leadership positions with us, becoming chief pharmacy officer in November 2021 and assuming the additional role of vice president of clinical services in May 2023. One of her main priorities is providing our patients with high-quality care for affordable prices.
It's not too late to join us for our Utah and Idaho RN New Grad Virtual Open House! Come connect with our team and learn more about our Utah and Idaho hospitals, our nurse residency program, and more. Participants will be able to ask questions and connect with our nurse executive, nurse residency, and talent acquisition teams during this live event. We also encourage you to submit your questions prior via our RSVP form. 📅 Date: Wednesday, January 31st, 2024 ⏰ Time: 5 p.m. - 6 p.m. MT 💻 Location: Virtual via Microsoft Teams - a link to join will be shared with you after you RSVP Visit https://forms.office.com/r/aQhDp97QjG to RSVP for this virtual event today - we hope to see you there!
At 18 years old, Andy Smith was told he had brain cancer. He fought through surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and a clinical trial and through it all, he attended Colorado Mesa University with a goal of becoming a sports psychologist. When he was told he was terminal, his care team at St. Mary's threw him a surprise college graduation ceremony at the hospital, making his dream a reality.
Curtis Cazier’s typical day as an Intermountain Health athletic trainer at Sky View High School in Smithfield, UT is spending time with the student-athletes after school, taping ankles, and helping them with stretching and other mobility exercises. Curtis was in his office working with another athlete when a student alerted him that a football player had collapsed. Curtis thought the athlete, Dean, may have fainted after holding his breath while lifting and imagined Dean would be up by the time Curtis got to him. The reality was the opposite of what Curtis had envisioned. The 16-year-old athlete was unresponsive and undergoing cardiac arrest, a medical emergency. Nine out of ten people who experience this outside of the hospital die from it. His color was changing, and Curtis knew he needed to act fast. Read more about how Curtis used his training and smart decision-making skills to save Dean's life.
2023 was another record-breaking year for our adult organ transplant programs at Intermountain Health, which helped saved the lives of hundreds of patients in Utah and surrounding states needing a gift – often from a stranger. It’s the fifth consecutive year that the Intermountain Transplant Program has performed a record-breaking number of adult transplants. A total of 182 liver, 198 kidney, 30 heart, and 4 kidney/pancreas adult transplants were performed in 2023. That’s a 38 percent increase from 2022, when the team performed 300 transplants. “This unprecedented growth in our transplant program reflects how our dedicated multidisciplinary team has lived up to our mission of helping as many people live the healthiest lives possible,” said Jean Botha, MD, transplant surgeon and medical director of our abdominal transplant program. “The increased number of transplants is evidence that our team of caregivers are making transplantation possible for even the most complex patients with high-quality outcomes.”
