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U of U Health Strategy

Strategy 2025

Together as One U, we serve communities and the region, advance equity, diversity, and inclusion, lead education and discovery, and innovate care accountable for outcomes.

Communities, partners, and people make us who we are, and we are fully invested in their health, wellness, and success.

One U

How We Are Advancing

One U

We are a high-performing health system and university. We create our highest value when we work together. Rapid changes in the environment require that we make decisions quickly and act nimbly. We will organize to create new value, solve grand challenges, and reach our full potential as an integrated, high-performing organization. Shared governance will help us make correct decisions and carry them out together. We will listen to our patients and employees to gain knowledge from the point of care. As one university, we are both the University of Utah and the University for Utah, achieving excellence in our missions, ensuring vitality for Utah and the region, and serving as a model for the nation.

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Outcomes We Seek for 2025

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Our Directed Steps in 2024

Deeper Ties

  1. Publish a case study about the realignment and integration of the U of U Health and U of U Advancement teams.
  2. Lead the Health Sciences Strategy 2030 planning effort in full alignment and participate with the university-wide strategy effort planned during CY 2024.
  3. Expand the resilient system focus to all of University of Utah.
  4. Implement practices to consistently co-feature U of U and U of U Health in each other’s communications.
  5. Help form and participate on cross-campus implementation teams for the Climate Action Plan.

New Solutions

  1. Design the HCI Utah County facility and advance fundraising initiatives to advance the project toward groundbreaking.
  2. Advance the proposed St. George U of U Regional Medical Campus by requesting planning funds from the legislature. Use them to hire a Regional Campus Dean to begin planning the campus.
  3. Complete planning for the West Valley Health Center phase 1a; break ground to begin construction in CY 2024.

Organizational Excellence

  1. Advance population health for U of U employees by deeply analyzing specific health and health care needs; implement initial plan design and care pathway changes in CY 2024 to improve employee health and the value of their health care.
  2. Align, coordinate, and advance faculty development and leadership development programs across the U and measure their effectiveness.

Serve Communities & the Region

How We Are Advancing

Service • Engagement • Mission Driven

University of Utah Health is here to serve Utah and the Mountain West as care providers, educators, researchers, partners, advocates, and more. We are an anchor institution in our community. We will further the impact of our work in these roles by connecting our efforts and prioritizing service to communities and people. Service is foundational to our mission to advance health. Communities, partners, and people make us who we are, and we are fully invested in their health, wellness, and success.

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Outcomes We Seek for 2025

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Our Directed Steps in 2024

Deeper Ties

  1. Engage community health workers in all collaborative clinics to connect communities to dental education and care.
  2. Create a working group to evaluate and prioritize opportunities to improve access and affordability for historically underserved populations (e.g., TAM population, FPL eval., CHIP expansion, etc.).

New Solutions

  1. Identify pilot sites and funding to integrate legal support services into clinical settings; build out operational processes from identification of need to completion of legal services.
  2. Prepare for the health impacts of climate change by developing educational resources to help communities improve and protect their health; prepare our systems to support the community during climate-related events.
  3. Establish an American Indian Health Initiative to help coordinate outreach efforts aimed at American Indian/Alaska Native health.
  4. Open an adolescent health clinic at West High School to provide high quality, sustainable physical and mental health care and serve as a pilot for future school-based efforts.

Organizational Excellence

  1. Define Community Health Worker role in clinical settings, including scope of work and pay scale; identify opportunities for pilot sites and funding sources.

Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion

How We Are Advancing

Enrich Experiences • Commitment • Leadership

Members of our university community are determined to research, challenge, and eradicate systemic sexism, racism, and bias and the resultant health disparities, while proactively and creatively developing institutional actions, policies, and funding mechanisms that extend support for the University of Utah’s ongoing commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion. Addressing these issues will improve outcomes for all patients, creating equity among historically marginalized groups (i.e. Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islanders, Latinx [Hispanic or Latino], Southeast Asians, LGBTQ+ community, differently abled and disabled people, women, and other excluded populations) and helping us become the campus of choice for learning and employment.

equity, diversity, & inclusion infographic

Outcomes We Seek for 2025

equity, diversity, & inclusion outcomes infographic

Our Directed Steps in 2024

Deeper Ties

  1. By June 2024, support developing and implementing three interventions to address health equity gaps identified through dashboards and the diversity engagement survey.
  2. Evaluate and inform enterprise recommendations on clinical metrics in which race may be inappropriately used, including EGFR correction follow-up, BMI, lung capacity, and maternal risk.
  3. Pilot a “Say This Instead” anti-ageism campaign at Madsen, Redwood, and South Main Health Centers; support it with pre- and post-campaign surveys; subsequently spread across the network.

New Solutions

  1. Create a clearing house to work with the Institute on Race, Policy Studies and Health Equity and the EDI Executive Council that coordinates and communicates health equity research, pathway programs, and outreach efforts.

Organizational Excellence

  1. In national journals, publish impact of U of U Health models to attract historically marginalized students into health sciences graduate programs.
  2. With, HSEEC, develop and share expectations for inclusive curriculum that represents the diversity in health and illness experiences.

Education

How We Are Advancing

Collaborative • Innovative • Exceptional

We are driven by a central vision of an exceptional educational experience for all students across all University of Utah Health colleges and schools. Through collaboration and a strong education community, we build student knowledge, skills, and attitudes. We strive for educational impact and transformation. Our educational programs actively engage communities, help address their needs, and prepare students to thrive in real-world environments. We train tomorrow’s health care experts and leaders to succeed in a rapidly changing world.

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Outcomes We Seek for 2025

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Our Directed Steps in 2024

Deeper Ties

  1. Develop guidelines and policies to maximize transparency and efficiency of clinical placements.
  2. Establish and pilot Pathways for Success in Health Profession Education; focus on undergraduate communities where we can have greatest impact.
  3. Advance the exceptional faculty educator experience by publishing guides for faculty educator development.

New Solutions

  1. Model and share new innovations for student success, including admissions, advocacy, and coaching; focus on communities where we can have greatest impact.
  2. Expand opportunities for authentic interprofessional clinical experiences.

Organizational Excellence

  1. Build infrastructure with colleges, schools, and hospitals to improve access to appropriate mental health and wellness services for health profession students.
  2. Develop and share expectations for inclusive curriculum that represents the diversity in health and illness experiences (with HSEDIC).

Discovery

How We Are Advancing

Excellence Across the Research Spectrum

We improve human health for all by advancing biomedical discoveries, innovation, and health care practices. Weaving discovery through all we do amplifies the impact and pace of our combined work and further differentiates us as a leading academic health system.

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Outcomes We Seek for 2025

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Our Directed Steps in 2024

Deeper Ties

  1. Engage in the campus strategic planning process to develop specific One U collaborations.
  2. In partnership with fellow offices on campus, refine faculty recruitment and hiring processes to attract individuals from all backgrounds who represent our institutional values and embody our commitment to innovative research.

New Solutions

  1. Partner with departments, offices, and HR to evaluate UCareer implementation, propose policy changes, and ensure advancement pathways with the goal of cultivating the next generation of leaders.
  2. In 2024, launch the Philanthropic Advisory Board.
  3. Identify research areas where U of U Health has unique national distinction, critical mass, and/or differentiation and where we are poised to lead nationally and globally.

Organizational Excellence

  1. Work with departments to optimize expectations of appropriate protected time and salary composition structures for research-intensive faculty.
  2. Develop a five-year strategy to diversify funding streams, including commercialization, strengthening federal relationships, and cultivating external partnerships.

Innovate Care

How We Are Advancing

Patient-Focused • Accessible • Provider-Friendly

We tailor services to the specific needs of each patient and seamlessly move them through our health system. Care is sensitive to patient time and money and is available close to (or at) home with little to no wait. Routine care is often handled virtually on-demand. Growth is sustainable for providers. Care roles are top-of-license and team-based. Diverse, talented professionals come here and stay for their careers.

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Outcomes We Seek for 2025

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Our Directed Steps in 2024

New Solutions

  1. Improve value-based care contract performance in partnership with the Primary Care Integration Committee; convene health system partners to implement two new value-based care programs: one at the Population Health Center and one in U of U Health Hospitals & Clinics.
  2. Develop a collaborative model for provider onboarding to support retention and commitment to mission, vision, and values.
  3. Develop artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to advance each of our digital focus areas:
    • Virtual Care: Implement an interactive app to enhance patient and family engagement in care.
    • Access: Optimize scheduling templates and self-service tools to improve the scheduling experience.
    • Community: Leverage automation to identify the right care program for every patient.
    • Personalization: Capture key consumer insights to improve digital/web experiences.
    • Innovation: Implement a Large Language Model to innovate new operational or clinical use cases.
    • Digital Architecture: Use enhanced data services to centralize data access, including advanced integration of external applications.
  1. Analyze Social Drivers of Health data collected beginning in summer 2023; focus on patients who present to the Emergency Department within seven days of a prior ED visit or hospital discharge; seek actionable insights for possibly using community health workers, targeting factors that influence readmissions or length of stay.
  2. In partnership with Community Nursing Services, create 200+ additional bed days through new home-based care programs.

Organizational Excellence

  1. Incorporate provider onboarding as an expectation of Ambulatory Practice Standards.
  2. Measure work-after-work impact on clinical team performance to optimize team-based care structure.
  3. Improve access to our specialists.
  4. Scale Destination Care coordination models and implement best practices across U of U Health's system (two-year goal).
  5. Continue evaluating and implementing a secure chat platform to support communication needs of the interdisciplinary inpatient care team.

Accountable for Outcomes

How We Are Advancing

Value • Experience • Population Health

University of Utah Health is firmly established as one of the nation’s highest value academic health centers, a top performer in quality, safety, and caring. We seek the next phase of our ambition: becoming directly accountable for our choices and their outcomes.

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Outcomes We Seek for 2025

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Our Directed Steps in 2024

Deeper Ties

  1. Implement targeted quality improvement initiatives to address the needs of disadvantaged patient groups, including the infrastructure to collect sexual orientation and gender identity data to improve care, patient safety, and the identification of any potential health equity issues; collaborate with health care providers and focus on areas where disparities are most pronounced.
  1. Begin addressing inequities in colon cancer, breast cancer, and depression screening.
  2. As a committed Age-Friendly Health System, develop a prototype of age-friendly resources, apply new age-friendly functionality in Epic to document patient goals, and join the CMS' GUIDE program that focuses on improving quality of life for people living with dementia.

Organizational Excellence

  1. Identify top-tier opportunity areas for Value Stream Programs and initiate three programs.
  2. Design an employee-facing, value-based care pilot to improve health and reduce health care spending by addressing self-care (health behaviors) in primary care clinics.
  3. Report clinical outcomes for Destination Care programs.