Intermountain Healthcare CEO plans to step down

After six years, Intermountain Healthcare said Marc Harrison, the organization's president and CEO, plans to step down.

Harrison is leaving Intermountain to accept a new position to run a healthcare platform business for General Catalyst, the Utah-based health system said Thursday. Harrison plans to make the move in the fall.

Mike Leavitt, the chairman of Intermountain’s board and the former governor of Utah, saluted Harrison’s service.

“Marc has helped spur innovation across our organization during his six-year tenure. We are better today because of his outstanding leadership,” Leavitt said in a statement.

“At Intermountain, we remain steadfast in our dedication to our patients and the communities we serve," he said. "Our leaders and caregivers will continue to carry our important work forward and ensure that the health and well-being of our patients remain at the center of our work.”

Intermountain said the system plans to name an interim president and CEO. The organization will begin a national search for Harrison’s successor in the fall.

The move comes just days after Intermountain announced a strategic collaboration with General Catalyst, a leading venture capital firm, to drive innovation in healthcare. The organizations said they intend to focus on value-based care, reducing the cost of healthcare and improving health equity.

As part of the collaboration, Intermountain will work with tech companies in General Catalyst’s portfolio, including Transcarent, Olive, Sprinter Health, Commure, and Cadence.

“We’ve historically been on the cutting edge of health innovation, especially when it comes to providing high-quality care that keeps people healthier at more affordable costs,” Harrison said in a statement about the partnership. “This collaboration between Intermountain and General Catalyst can help turbocharge the movement towards population health and value-based care by connecting us with a network of innovators outside the traditional healthcare space.”

Intermountain operates care sites in seven states, including 33 hospitals and 385 clinics. Earlier this year, Intermountain completed a merger with SCL Health.

In an interview with Chief Healthcare Executive in April, Harrison said the goal of the merger is “to spread high quality care that people can afford and is oriented to keeping people well, further and further across the United States.”

Harrison offered more perspective on Intermountain’s merger with SCL Health and why he thinks patients will benefit. See more of our April interview with Harrison in the video below.

As Intermountain continues to grow, Harrison said digital technology and telehealth will be a big part of the plan.

“We talk about having a clicks-and-mortar footprint in the not-distant future,” Harrison said.

“In an environment where it’s increasingly expensive to deliver care, to be able to do so digitally without people needing to travel and burn the gas in the tanks of their trucks and cars, which is so expensive for them, and to be lighter on labor so it’s less expensive to create a visit, I think it’s going to be very important.”