Salt Lake City, Utah, October 3, 2016 --- Utah philanthropist Kem Gardner will donate $20 million to the Intermountain Foundation toward the construction of the Intermountain Transformation Center. The Center, to be built and operated by Intermountain Healthcare, will be the home for institutes that train healthcare leaders seeking to transform the way care is provided in the U.S. and around the world, achieving the highest clinical quality at the lowest sustainable cost.

“This is a remarkable and generous gift to the Intermountain Foundation by one of the great civic and business leaders in our community,” said Scott Anderson, Chairman of the Intermountain Healthcare Board of Trustees. “It recognizes the value of this Center and how it can help positively transform healthcare not only here in Utah, but throughout the world.”

Mr. Gardner has served on Intermountain boards for 34 years and was Chair of the Intermountain Board from 2007-2012. He currently chairs the Intermountain Foundation Board.

In 2017, Intermountain will begin constructing the 120,000-square-foot Transformation Center on the Intermountain Medical Center campus in Murray. Construction of the four-story facility should be complete in 2018. The Center is designed to be the center of Intermountain’s focus on transforming healthcare in ways that are patient-focused and that consistently provide the best clinical outcomes at sustainable costs.

The Transformation Center will be the base for a number of Intermountain programs, including:

  • Intermountain Healthcare Leadership Institute. Led by Charles Sorenson, MD, Emeritus President and CEO of Intermountain, the Leadership Institute will offer multi-day leadership courses to senior-level healthcare physician leaders and administrators from the U.S. and other countries.
  • Intermountain Institute for Healthcare Delivery Research. Led by Brent James, MD, Intermountain’s Chief Quality Officer, this Institute has trained nearly 5,000 senior physician, nursing, and administrative executives, drawn from around the world, in clinical management methods. The Institute also has nearly 50 “daughter” training programs in eight countries.
  • Clinical Programs and Innovation Programs. With more than 1,500 active research studies in more than 20 clinical areas, Intermountain is equipped to make medical discoveries that improve care and save lives.

“We greatly appreciate this very significant gift to help build the Intermountain Transformation Center,” said Marc Harrison, MD, President and CEO of Intermountain. “The confluence of Intermountain’s commitment to leadership development and its international reputation for clinical excellence, innovative care delivery, continuous improvement, and collaboration creates a unique opportunity to house a world-class leadership education and clinical training program in Utah. This very generous contribution will do so much to establish the center and will help advance healthcare worldwide.”

“I’m making this gift because Intermountain Healthcare has expertise of great importance to the world,” said Gardner. “The programs housed in the Transformation Center will do so much to improve the health and care available to people in Utah and around the world. It is also my hope that this gift will inspire others to contribute.”