Intermountain wins Leadership Award

Intermountain Healthcare has been awarded the 2011 Transformational Leadership Award sponsored by CHIME (College of Healthcare Information Management Executives) and the American Hospital Association.

Intermountain was recognized for its outstanding leadership in information technology and for its extended use of data mining integrated with decision support in clinical information systems to directly improve patient outcomes. Intermountain has developed a world-class Enterprise Data Warehouse that has set the industry standard for data mining and clinical research.

For example, nationally in surgical practice there is considerable variation in the timing of when antibiotics should be given to patients to prevent surgical-wound infections. Tracking and studying the data found the most effective time for surgical patients to receive preventive antibiotics. Intermountain implemented these guidelines to reduce the risk of infection.

"This award signifies an increasing partnership between information systems and clinical teams in collaborating on and implementing solutions that transform healthcare delivery," said Marc Probst, Intermountain chief information officer. "This recognizes the strategic foresight and rigor of our teams, which are focused on developing best care models that continually improve medical outcomes and quality."

The CHIME Transformational Leadership Award was created to acknowledge outstanding transformational leadership using IT in healthcare. The award recognizes an organization that has excelled in developing and deploying information technology that improves the delivery of care and streamlines administrative services. For more information, visit the CHIME website.