After an extensive national search, Intermountain Health has selected Cara Camiolo, MD, as our chief quality and safety officer. Dr. Camiolo is currently the chief medical officer for Intermountain Health’s Desert Region, which includes southwestern Utah and southern Nevada, and will begin her new position immediately. Dr. Camiolo has also served as a service line leader of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, as well as Pain Management, and an associate chief medical officer of Clinical Shared Services. Her leadership and dedication to quality and safety has guided Intermountain’s Desert Region to top performance in acute care quality for the last two years – and a five-star quality performance for Medicare Advantage members in Nevada. In her new role, Dr. Camiolo will lead Intermountain Health’s Clinical Excellence team to further enhance a centrally led, locally deployed model, meeting the needs of local facilities, markets, regions, and the enterprise, while advancing proactive care across the Intermountain Health system. “Dr. Camiolo is a proven champion of quality and safety. I’m excited for her to lead our amazing Clinical Excellence team that has helped to propel Intermountain to industry-leading top decile performance,” said JP Valin, MD, Intermountain Health chief clinical officer.
It’s only appropriate that someone whose last name is “Merry” be the bearer of good tidings during the holiday season. Bridget Sievers Merry, a Clinical Excellence patient experience operations manager, and her fellow merry-maker Jena Huck, a nurse director at St. Vincent Regional Hospital, recently partnered with the iAct program to make sure underprivileged children in Billings, Montana had a very merry Christmas. Together, Bridget and Jena used an iAct team volunteer activity grant to support The Santa Project, an initiative that provides filled stockings to underprivileged children. In collaboration with several local organizations and individuals, Bridget and Jena were able to fill 235 stockings. Here’s what they had to say about their experience.
If there’s one thing Alba Martinez Garcia wishes people knew about being a medical interpreter, it’s that it’s not just about knowing more than one language. It’s not just about knowing the medical vocabulary, either – although most people don’t. It’s about becoming invisible.
We are reminded of the true impact of compassionate care through stories like Dan Thomas's. A former cardiovascular patient at Lutheran Hospital in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, Don returned to thank the caregivers who stood by his side during his recovery. His journey is even more remarkable, as he also underwent life-saving brain surgery a few years ago at the previous Lutheran Hospital after a serious fall from a cherry tree. We are honored to have saved his life twice, and his gratitude and resilience inspire us every day! 💙
Congratulations to Nannette Berensen, our chief operating officer, for being named to Becker's Healthcare's 118 COOs to know list for 2024! 🎉 In her role as chief operating officer, Nannette is focused on enhancing clinical care and overseeing operations across the system. Previous roles include director of pharmacy services for Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah, as well as vice president and chief operating officer of clinical shared services. During her tenure with us, she has created and launched the clinical shared services model across 13 clinical service lines and modernized the biorepository.
Six years ago, the Pavilion CT machine at St. Mary’s Regional Hospital in Grand Junction, Colorado was cranking through 1,200 exams per quarter. Last quarter it was 2,000. Demand for imaging is up, and especially for patients in rural areas like Grand Junction, access can be a struggle. That means Imaging Services has needed to do more with less – and they’re crushing it. Find out how.
Sixty million people – roughly one of every five Americans – are grappling with shrinking patient access, rising mortality rates, and closing hospitals. To help address America's healthcare crisis, we're proud to partner with Microsoft, Gates Ventures, Epic, and West Health to form a coalition aimed at reversing the current trajectory of rural healthcare. Formed in late 2023, the coalition identified improving specialty care access, narrowing urban population disparities, strengthening hospitals’ financial stability, and addressing technology infrastructure gaps as areas most likely to make a significant, lasting impact.
It’s a testament to Casey Leavitt’s commitment to her own physical health that she completed an ambitious course of 18 hikes this summer. As executive director of the Musculoskeletal Clinical Program at Intermountain Health, she’s also dedicated her career to the physical health of others. Learn what she’s most proud of in that role (and her favorite hikes).
The first-ever White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research, launched in 2023, allocated nearly $1 billion in funding from a variety of federal agencies to improving women’s health across the country. Last week, the President and First Lady invited a select group of women’s health advocates, clinicians, researchers, experts, investors and philanthropists to the White House to celebrate the program’s success. Intermountain Health’s Audrey Jiricko, MD, was among them. For Dr. Jiricko, it was a reminder that the work she’s led and continues to lead at Intermountain really does make a difference. “Every time I attend a national event like this, I appreciate Intermountain even more,” she said. “We’re doing great research, but we’re also operationalizing those best practices to deliver excellent care to our patients. Our focus on becoming a model health system brings it all together.”
Continuous improvement is everywhere. Just because something works doesn't mean it can't be improved upon further. Intermountain Health's Continuous Improvement team in Nevada aims to foster that mentality in our future healthcare leaders through its internship program with University of Nevada-Las Vegas (UNLV). The CI internship is a non-paid program that selects students mostly from primary health care schools to learn the core continuous improvement concepts (and earn school credits). The internship includes a fundamentals course, certification/training, and project experience. The program accepts three cohorts each year (spring, summer, and fall). Continuous Improvement director Ryan Hicks, MBA and GME program manager Veronica Tomlinson regularly visit UNLV for recruitment. Continuous Improvement consultants Lisa Tarone and Adrina Hines help the interns comprehend continuous improvement's place in healthcare, using the tools and methodologies needed to problem-solve and work together as a team. "Through the internship, they are exposed to current barriers in healthcare leadership and participate in building systems to overcome those barriers. The real life, hands-on experience compliments the lessons they have completed in the classroom," said Lisa. Hear from three former interns, including two current Intermountain employees, on how this program benefited their personal and professional lives.
