Each month, Andrea Burch, President of InterMountain Lutheran Hospital, shares insights on healthcare innovation, community wellness initiatives, and behind-the-scenes updates on how the new hospital is taking shape. From medical breakthroughs to heartfelt patient stories, this interview connects our readers with the pulse of local healthcare.
I know Intermountain Health offers a great benefits package to its employees. What are some of those benefits?
I’m extremely proud to work for an organization that cares deeply about its caregivers. We have outstanding medical, dental and vision plans offered at reasonable prices, along with life, accident, disability, home, auto and pet insurance. We also have Flexible Spending Accounts, Health Savings Accounts and Health Reimbursement Accounts. For caregivers who qualify, Intermountain has a Medical Premium Assistance Program which offers a 75% discount on medical plan premiums. Intermountain also offers education assistance through our PEAK program that provides up to $5,250 in tuition reimbursement.
Caregivers can participate in Be Well and earn rewards dollars by completing physical activities. We get discounts on gyms and fitness centers.
One of the things I love the most is the mental health support Intermountain offers. We have a robust Employee Assistance Program that provides free, confidential counseling, trainings and 24-hour crisis services. We also have on-site chaplains who provide resources for support, mindfulness, resilience and grief. We also have a Caregiver Relief Program that connects caregivers to community resources and referrals, as well as financial assistance.
Caregivers recently completed a survey about their jobs, Lutheran and Intermountain as a whole. Can you tell me more about that?
We just completed our first Share Your Voice survey of 2025 and our caregiver experience score ranks very high for similar hospitals across the nation. The survey results allow us to determine how healthy our culture is and if we’re focusing on the right things. Intermountain supports a model that surveys caregivers throughout the year to measure caregiver engagement and wellness in an ongoing way, versus just a moment in time. This allows us to trend results over time and also make adjustments in response to their feedback throughout the year.
For this survey, we really wanted to emphasize to our caregivers that their voice truly matters. We’ve taken feedback from previous surveys and made positive changes based on that feedback. Some of those changes include extended coffee shop and cafe hours, caregiver safety improvements, standardization of supplies, improvement of caregiver staffing concerns with the implementation of travelers, and spot bonuses to reward outstanding efforts.
We’re now digging into the data from this past survey and are looking forward to ways we can continue to make Lutheran an outstanding place to work.
What happens when patients come to Lutheran with signs or symptoms of a stroke or heart attack?
As a Comprehensive Stroke Center, Lutheran can provide the personnel, infrastructure and expertise needed to diagnose and treat stroke patients who require intensive medical and surgical care, specialized tests, or interventional therapies. We deliver the highest quality care to the most complex stroke cases, offering evidence-based treatments with cutting edge research protocols. The time from when a stroke patient enters the hospital to when IV thrombolytic treatment is administered has been under 35 minutes since 2015.
Lutheran’s cardiac program provides a full spectrum of care from cardiac testing to complex surgery. We have one of the most advanced electrophysiology programs in the Denver area and offer complex procedures including laser lead extraction and convergent procedures for persistent AFib.
I’m proud to say that our door-to-balloon time, which is the time between when a patient arrives at the hospital and the inflation of a balloon in the coronary artery for a STEMI, is 60 minutes. It’s a crucial metric because prompt treatment of STEMI, which is a type of heart attack, is essential to minimize heart muscle damage.
In addition, Lutheran is a designated Level II Trauma Center, which means we can provide comprehensive care for all injured patients. We have 24-hour coverage by trauma surgeons, as well as coverage by emergency medicine, orthopedics, neurosurgery, anesthesiology, radiology and critical care specialties.
