Following the announcement of longtime CIO Marc Probst’s forthcoming retirement, the Salt Lake City, Utah-based Intermountain Healthcare has named Ryan Smith as the health system’s new vice president and chief information officer.
Smith, who previously worked for Intermountain for 19 years from 1994 to 2013 in information technology leadership roles, said he’s excited to return to Intermountain and lead the care transformation information systems team and partner with other Intermountain teams to implement innovative digital, data, and technology platforms and solutions. He starts his new role June 29.
Since that time, Smith served as senior vice president and CIO at Banner Health in Phoenix, from 2013 to 2018, “where he introduced innovative digital business strategies, supported geographic expansion, and built a highly successful strategic partnership with Cerner, a health information technology company,” according to Intermountain officials.
Most recently, Smith worked as senior vice president at data analytics vendor Health Catalyst in Salt Lake City from 2018 to 2020, where he advised senior healthcare executives across the country on how to leverage data and technologies to streamline operations, support growth, increase quality, and improve customer experience.
Probst has spent more than 30 years in healthcare IT, and just recently was recognized by two leading industry associations—the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and the Chicago-based Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS)—as the 2019 John E. Gall Jr. CIO of the Year.
Health system officials note that they conducted an extensive nationwide search. “Ryan is a proven leader who understands and exemplifies Intermountain’s mission, vision and values and brings extensive experience in successfully managing complex, dynamic information systems,” said Dan Liljenquist, Intermountain’s senior vice president and chief strategy officer.
Intermountain Healthcare is an integrated health system comprised of 24 hospitals, 215 clinics, a Medical Group with 2,500 employed physicians and advanced practice clinicians, a health insurance company called SelectHealth, and other health services in Idaho, Utah, and Nevada.
Smith’s work will align with Intermountain’s strategic goals to deliver extraordinary patient experiences, improve quality, and increase value while facilitating digital consumer transformation and growth, officials stated.
