Intermountain Health

WEEK 10 Mental Health Exercise Drawing attention to the sense of touch brings us into the present moment. It is in these moments we can reduce stress and anxiety. 1-Minute Meditation with Sense of Touch Close your eyes and pay attention to your body’s sense of touch. Notice what your body feels like, what sensations you can feel, and what different parts of your body are feeling or touching (hands, arms, feet, legs, etc.).

If you hear growling coming from Riverton Hospital’s NICU these days, it’s not cause for concern; it’s probably just a caregiver demonstrating a lion’s roar or an elephant’s trumpet. Little Rori was born in March, but had lingering health issues and hasn’t been released to go home yet. Most infants in newborn intensive care units don’t stay long, but Rori has spent more than three months in Riverton’s NICU. That has given caregivers there a unique opportunity to watch her develop, and they have gone out of their way to foster that development and bond with her. Nurse coordinator Leanna Immenschuh said she tries to visit Rori daily, whether or not she is assigned to her care. On one beautiful spring day, Leanna asked if she could take Rori to the zoo. It wasn’t possible to leave the care site, so Leanna decided to bring the zoo to the hospital by cutting out and laminating pictures of animals to put up around the baby’s crib. Leanna rotates in new animals for variety, and caregivers take turns introducing Rori to the new animals and teaching her what sounds they make. AnnJanette Jenson, the Riverton NICU nurse manager, said that her staff members have essentially adopted Rori. It is not, however, the first time AnnJanette’s team has made special efforts for a patient. When the older brother of a newborn was sick and couldn’t visit the NICU, a nurse dressed the baby as a whale and drew a card with a message for the brother: “I whaley love you.” With 19 beds, a staff of 42 nurses, and an average daily census of 10 (and rising), Riverton’s NICU is somewhere between small and medium, but its impact on patients and families is large. #TogetherForTheHealthiestLives

As a clinical communications manager at Intermountain Health, Jef Otte gets to talk to a lot of caregivers who are doing extraordinary, life-saving work. But it’s not that often he gets to talk to the doctor who saved his own life. In early February, Jef was in a bicycle crash that crushed his helmet and fractured his skull in three places. A runner found him and called an ambulance, and the ambulance took him to Good Samaritan Hospital in Lafayette, Colorado. Around midnight, Jef's condition took a turn for the worse. Neurosurgeon Chih-Ta Lin, MD, was on call that night. Within the hour, he performed a procedure he’s done dozens of times – one Jef needed to survive. A few months later, he was kind enough to chat with Jef about how he became a neurosurgeon, what he remembers about that night, and why neurosurgery is really a team sport.

First aid isn’t just for the body – with Stress First Aid, our caregivers are learning to check on themselves and each other and to connect with resources to help cope with stressful periods. Learn how two Intermountain Health caregivers helped their fellow caregivers during challenging times. #WeServeWithEmpathy

Kim Plaggemeyer has dedicated her entire career to clinical practice management, first as a clinic manager, then a practice administrator, and most recently as a manager of ambulatory quality under clinical excellence. She recently celebrated 23 years with the organization (which was St. Vincent Regional Hospital in Billings, MT when she started). Here, she talks about closing care gaps, planning a good scrapbook, and why her favorite Intermountain Health value is “We do the right thing.” #WeDoTheRightThing

Today, crews placed the final beam on the new, family-centered Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital Behavioral Health Center in Taylorsville, Utah. Starting in 2025, the new Intermountain Primary Children’s Behavioral Health Center will expand access to critically needed behavioral health services for young children and teens. Why is this access so important? Here is Liz's story.

Imaging now closer to home for rural Utahns and those out enjoying the recreation our state has to offer. “When people can get the care they need closer to home the less likely they are to skip important screenings,” said Brian Osborne, imaging manager at Intermountain Sanpete Valley Hospital. “Whether it’s preventive or emergency care having the latest imaging technology is changing rural healthcare as we know it.” Colby Mower moved back home to Fairview last year. Four years ago, Mower was living in North Carolina when he was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer. His cancer is now in remission, but Mower must do two scans per year to ensure his cancer hasn’t come back. He says it’s much easier to do those scans at the hospital 10 minutes away then having to drive two hours round trip. Those images are sent to his oncologist who can review and do a follow up appointment using telehealth. These imaging services aren’t just good for routine health scans but can make a huge difference in emergencies. In the past, if someone was having a stroke or other major emergency that required a transfer to another hospital, caregivers would have to take scans and send the negatives with the helicopter to be reviewed. Now, Osborne says they can take the necessary imaging at their hospital and send them electronically to the team at the hospital where the patient is being transferred. This way a doctor has time to look over the scans and plan out treatment before the patient arrives.

A good garden provides more than just vegetables, and the LiVe Well Garden at Orem Community Hospital in Orem, Utah has had a major impact on one local couple. Anne and Dan Pierce purchased a house that shares a fence with Orem’s LiVe Well Garden because they were interested in gardening there. After moving in, they joined a wait list for a plot, and four years ago, they were granted a space. The opportunity is particularly valuable to them because, for the last decade, Dan has required an organic diet as he copes with liver cancer and cirrhosis of the liver. Dan entered hospice care this spring, and Anne struggles with her own health issues, so when she arrived at the garden last month to prep her soil and plant, she didn’t have the strength to pull it off. What followed was, according to Anne, “a wonderful miracle.” Learn more about how our volunteer team at Orem Community Hospital stepped in to support Anne and Dan during this difficult time in their lives in the article below. #WeServeWithEmpathy

Dwayne Gaeddert has been with the organization for so long he can’t even remember, although he thinks he probably started at Lutheran Medical Center in Wheat Ridge, CO in 1982. Back when he got hired, of course, Lutheran wasn’t part of any healthcare system. It was just Lutheran. “The facility director there at the time had a vision of getting rid of the general contractor,” Dwayne says. “He wanted to establish a construction company in-house, and that’s what he did. At one time, we had seven carpenters, three electricians and three plumbers.” Dwayne was part of that crew. And true to the vision, the crew did pretty much everything, from cabinetry to full department remodels. Dwayne held a general contractor’s license on behalf of the organization for 30 years, while the organization went from Lutheran to Exempla to SCL Health. He became a construction manager, and then later took over maintenance (which he “knew the basics” of) and became facility manager. “I got really into being involved on the clinical units, on the floors,” says Dwayne. “I enjoyed the interaction. I love that I’m always learning things.” So when he got the offer to take over ambulatory facilities for the entire Peaks Region last year, at first he was hesitant. Lutheran was moving to a new campus, and Dwayne had a lot of time and effort invested in facilitating that move. He also knew it represented an enormous learning opportunity: new technology, new systems, new specs. Learn more about Dwayne's career journey in the story below. ⬇️

When we use the term “heart failure management”, we’re talking about more than just “the heart." We’re talking about pulmonology, the vascular system, blood pressure, rhythms, nutrition, and behavior. Our cardiovascular system is complex, and there are many factors to heart health upkeep, from the physical to a patient’s social environment. It takes a group of dedicated caregivers like Intermountain Health's cardiology team at the La Canada Cardiology Clinic in Las Vegas to simplify this complexity for our patients as much as possible. This site (which, because of its centralized location in Las Vegas, serves as a specialty hub) is leading out on multiple advanced heart failure management procedures to help our patients stay out of the hospital, promoting not only good heart health, but effective intervention techniques. From cardiologists like Corey Lum, DO, to the nurses and medical assistants, every caregiver plays an important role. #Cardiology #HeartFailureManagement