University of Utah Health Regional Network

As a leading Academic Medical Center, the University of Utah Health system supports the delivery of health care in eight States, covering ten percent of the geographic area of the continental United States. This support is based on four mission categories of education, research, clinical care, and community engagement across the mostly rural and frontier Mountain West region. As part of clinical care, the University of Utah provides long established telemedicine services to hospitals and clinics across this vast landscape.

Since its inception in 1850, the University of Utah has been committed to developing cutting-edge research to enhance the lives of local, national, and international communities. Since the humble beginnings of the two-year medical school in 1905, many of the best minds in science have been enticed to join and grow with the University. Accomplishments include securing the first-ever NIH research grant, to presently leading more than 850 research projects annually; inventing and implanting the first artificial heart; and personalized cardiac treatments and robotic prosthetics. In recent years, significant progress in creating genetic knockout technologies to innovating precision genome engineering tools have been accomplished. From the shoulders of giants, today’s researchers are launching the next generation of lasting innovations, building on the legacy.

One of those next generation launches was the formation of the University of Utah Health Regional Network, LLC (UUHRN). In addition to its over 30 general affiliate relationships with rural facilities, in 2017 The UUHRN was formally organized as a true collaborative of separately owned healthcare entities. Representing health systems of all sizes, from Critical Access to Regional and Community hospital and clinic systems, the UUHRN has significant reach and impact on clinical care throughout the Mountain West region. In its initial three years, the UUHRN has built a solid infrastructure and strengthened the system of cooperation, serving as a vehicle to propel the collaborative forward.

The UUHRN consists of multiple individual hospitals/health-systems and clinics across five states, in partnership with University of Utah Health. The Managing Board consists of member CEOs plus representation of Executive Leadership from University of Utah Health

The current UUHRN members include: University of Utah Health (Utah), Blue Mountain Hospital (Utah), Utah Navajo Health System (Utah), St. Peter’s Health System (Montana); Madison Memorial Hospital (Idaho), Carson Tahoe Health (Nevada), and St. John’s Health (Wyoming). Many of these hospitals/health-systems have patient catchment areas that are completely HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration) designated rural health care areas; and two have significant census tracts that are designated rural. The University of Utah Health has significant tracts of catchment areas designated as rural and frontier health care areas and serves as a tertiary and quaternary hospital referral resource for all of the UUHRN hospitals/systems.