Intermountain Health to Participate in Groundbreaking National Initiative to Enhance Patient Outcomes Through Improved & Accelerated Research Process

SALT LAKE CITYIntermountain Health has been selected as one of 42 health systems nationwide by the National PatientCentered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to lead a pioneering initiative to accelerate the implementation of practicechanging research results in clinical care to improve patient outcomes across the nation.

As a participant in PCORI’s Health Systems Implementation Initiative (HSII), Intermountain, one of the nation’s leading health systems, will bring its vast experience and expertise in the delivery of high-quality, evidencebased, and affordable care processes, to develop and implement new strategies that will help accelerate research initiatives that can improve patient outcomes.

The goal of the national initiative is to cut the estimated 17-year lag between publication of research results that have been shown to improve patients’ outcomes and their widespread adoption in health care practice.

“Intermountain Health has a long history of clinical research and collaboration,” said JP Valin, MD, chief clinical officer at Intermountain Health. “Our participation in the HSII will augment that practice by allowing us to work alongside other health systems as we discover new ways to improve clinical efficiencies and effectively scale evidence-based best practices throughout our organization.”

HSII participating health systems have the opportunity to prepare proposals for capacity building projects in the first stage of the initiative. Each participating health system can receive up to $500,000 for a project in this initial stage that supports preparation for future implementation strategies.

A second HSII funding opportunity will support practical and innovative projects that promote uptake of specific evidence from PCORI-funded research studies within the health systems, with funds ranging from $500,000 to $5 million per implementation project.

In addition, through the HSII Learning Network, Intermountain and other participants will share experiences and learn from one another about best practices for implementation, evaluation metrics, and other topics integral to successful implementation of care-informing strategies.

Through the network, participants will provide input to PCORI on topics and specific PCORI-funded findings of interest for future implementation projects.

“Our participation with this initiative will accelerate our efforts to advance changes in care delivery to improve health care for all patients,” said Dr. Valin. “We are honored to have been selected and look forward to leveraging the access to research and a network of these leading health systems to innovate on best practices to better serve our patients and their families.”

HSII participants collectively represent 800 hos- pitals serving 79 million unique patients—nearly a quarter of the U.S. population—across 41 states and the District of Columbia. They include academic medical centers, community-based systems, integrated healthcare delivery and finance systems, safety net health systems, faith-based systems, public health care delivery systems and a medical center within the Veterans Health Administration.

“We welcome the opportunity to work with Intermountain Health and the other health systems participating in this groundbreaking initiative that will leverage their knowledge and experience to facilitate practice change and improve care based on results of PCORI-funded research,” said Nakela L. Cook, MD, MPH, executive director of PCORI. “The HSII participants’ efforts will lay the groundwork for future expansion and broader implementation by demonstrating pathways to uptake and sharing lessons learned across health systems.”

HSII is part of a portfolio of PCORI-funded efforts that aim to improve the awareness, uptake and use of results from patient-centered comparative effectiveness research. PCORI is an independent, non-profit organization that funds comparative clinical effectiveness research, which provides patients, their caregivers and clinicians with the evidence to make better-informed health and healthcare decisions.

—Intermountain Health

Garfield Commission: Approval of a $1200 donation to Panguitch High School's basketball camp, approval of Garfield Memorial Hospital’s recommendation to hire Hughes Construction Company as the construction manager for the Operating Room, Central Processing, and Pharmacy upgrade project, and approval of Ordinance 2023-4 to reauthorize ongoing collection of the Rural Healthcare Tax discussed.

Garfield Commission

Cont'd from A1 the Rural Healthcare Tax reauthorization: The one percent tax added to sales is supposed to be reauthorized every ten years. The State Tax Commission requested immediate action, so ordinance 20234 addresses this. Moore said the tax was initiated in 2000 to enable Garfield Memorial to remain operational. The tax was last reauthorized in 2011.

Commissioner Leland Pollock opened a public hearing on the proposed ordinance. One individual, Harshad Desai, of Panguitch, stepped forward to ask about the tax. The one percent tax goes into a restricted account intended only for hospital usage. Pollock explained that a hospital like Garfield Memorial is expected to provide the same level of updated facilities and equipment, staff and operating hours as any larger hospital, but a sparsely populated, rural county can’t supply all the operating funds needed. Commissioner Tebbs concurred, saying the tax enables future improve- ments, such as the ones just approved. Plus, tourists and visitors have also relied on the availability of the hospital. He said a future county commission could vote to rescind the tax but likely won’t given what it funds.

Upon approving the reauthorization, Commissioner Pollock noted Garfield Memorial’s top 99% rankings among Intermountain Health Care hospitals and noted its extended (24/7 hours) of op- eration.

The Garfield County Commission meets on the second and fourth Monday of each month starting at 10 a.m. All meetings are held in the County Courthouse in Panguitch. There is no set up for electronic participation, but all meeting recordings are uploaded to the Utah Public Meetings Notice board, https:// www.utah.gov/pmn/. —Insider

Spring Meeting:

On Saturday, March 25, 2023, the Grand Staircase Regional Guides Association hosted their spring meeting in Escalante. Taking place around a fire with the Escalante River canyon as a backdrop, the core group of professional guide business owners were also joined by other employees and a member of a local non profit organization: Grand Staircase Escalante Partners.

Spring Meeting

Cont'd from A1 tional Monument. They have successfully obtained uncertain special recreation permit renewals for numerous companies, as well as working with land managers to provide better road signage and to help contribute to conservation, education and private guiding opportunities on the protected landscape.