November 11, 2022 – Intermountain Healthcare recently launched the most ambitious philanthropic initiative ever undertaken to enhance children’s health in Utah. The Primary Promise campaign to create the nation’s model health system for children represents the most significant investment in the health and wellness of children across Utah and the Intermountain West.
With a minimum goal of $600 million needed to bring this vision to life, Primary Promise, under the leadership of Intermountain Foundation, so far has secured $464 million in a powerful partnership between philanthropic members of the community and Intermountain Healthcare.
These gifts will help address increasingly complex physical and emotional needs of rapidly growing populations of children in Utah and throughout the Intermountain West.
These growing needs, combined with Intermountain’s close relationship with the communities it serves, creates an opportunity to create a holistic health system for children that will support more kids than ever for the next 100 years.
The campaign launch comes during the centennial year of Primary Children’s Hospital, founded in 1922 when two women saw a child struggling on crutches and felt compelled to act.
The objective of the Primary Promise to create the nation’s model health system for children includes three broad components and associated projects, programs, and facilities:
- Primary Children’s Hospital will be strengthened with the additions of the advanced Grant Scott Bonham Fetal Center, an enlarged and enhanced Level 4 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, an expanded cancer treatment center, and heightened research activities in partnership with University of Utah Health.
- Pediatric care excellence will be extended across the Intermountain West to bring expert care closer to home. This effort includes the construction of the Larry H. and Gail Miller Family Campus, which is a second 66-bed Primary Children’s Hospital in Lehi, Utah; and an expanded pediatric care network utilizing in-person and telehealth services.
- Emerging children’s health needs will be innovatively addressed through expanded mental and behavioral health services; teen-to-adult transition programs for children with chronic illnesses; and an expanded Healthy Kids program focused on helping children stay healthy and safe in their communities, including helping kids experiencing food instability or past traumatic events to avoid health complications later in life.
The initial states of focus in this campaign include Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Nevada and Alaska – all areas where Primary Children’s Hospital is caring for children in need.