Transformation Center aims to alter the way healthcare is delivered

Utah's Intermountain Healthcare has opened its four-story, 120,000-square-foot Kem C. Gardner Intermountain Transformation Center at the company’s campus in Murray. The new facility will be the home for multiple institutes and programs that the healthcare company said will transform the way medical care is provided in the U.S. and globally to achieve the highest clinical quality at the lowest sustainable cost.

Intermountain’s Clinical Program leadership teams of scientists and doctors will work at the new facility to research, innovate, and develop best practices to enhance care around the world, Intermountain said in a release. With more than 1,500 active research studies in more than 20 clinical areas, the Transformation Center is equipped to make medical discoveries that improve care and save lives.

The Transformation Center, where Intermountain expects leaders in healthcare to collaborate and be trained to develop and deliver the highest clinical quality at the lowest sustainable cost, was made possible with a $20 million donation from philanthropist Kem C. Gardner, who served on Intermountain boards for 36 years and was chair of the Intermountain Board of Trustees from 2007-2012.  He currently chairs the Intermountain Foundation Board. 

“I’m making this gift because Intermountain Healthcare has expertise of great importance to the world,” Gardner said. “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.”

Mitt Romney, a U.S. Senate candidate and longtime friend of Gardner, also spoke at the center’s grand opening and said it is important for clinicians to share what they know to improve the life and health of communities. 

“We are stewards of Intermountain’s long tradition of innovation, and this Transformation Center will be a hotbed — locally, regionally, nationally and globally — as we seek to advance that tradition,” said Dr. Marc Harrison, Intermountain Healthcare president and CEO, at a recent dedication ceremony.

“I feel like I’m standing in a place where the future is going to be created,” Harrison told those gathered for the grand opening. “I’m confident we’re going to make a big difference here.”

Harrison told the crowd that more than 40 percent of the care provided at Intermountain facilities is now prepaid.

“We are finally incentivized to keep people well,” Harrison said. “Because, in the end, healthcare is a people business. It is an opportunity, an obligation, an honor and a privilege to touch people in some of their times of greatest need.” He said the center will be instrumental in “helping people live the healthiest lives possible. This is a great day — for now and into the future.”

“This building is not only beautiful, it’s inspiring,” said Dr. Charles Sorenson, former president and CEO of Intermountain Healthcare and founding director of the Intermountain Healthcare Leadership Institute.” Sorenson, whose idea was the impetus behind the new center, said “Changes need to happen on the front lines of healthcare, where clinicians interact with the patient, focusing on preventing serious illness and injury in the first place.”

Intermountain said that the Transformation Center will help Intermountain clinicians improve healthcare both in the U.S. and abroad in specific areas such as innovation. Advancements in healthcare being developed at Intermountain will continue forward in the new facility, including creating tools to better meet the needs of caregivers and patients. For example, with the Innovation Lab at the Transformation Center, 3D technology is being used to print copies of patient organs. This allows clinicians to gain additional insight into performing life-changing surgeries that weren’t previously possible.

Intermountain also said the center will be a boon to the Utah economy with the many health professionals from around the U.S. and the world that will come to the Salt Lake City area to receive training. Intermountain cited the “internationally renowned” Intermountain Healthcare Delivery Institute, which has relocated to the Transformation Center and has already attracted more than 5,000 doctors, nurses and others to attend its courses.