From Deseret News archives:
Intermountain Healthcare CEO to retire
He will retire in December after nine years as president and CEO, turning leadership over to Dr. Charles Sorenson.
Nelson is a somewhat accidental health-system executive. He was born in Cedar City, raised in California where surfing was a daily delight, and attended Brigham Young University, where he met his wife-to-be, Christine Miles. He earned his degree in accounting, then did graduate work at the University of Southern California, before serving an LDS Church mission to Italy. He also earned an MBA.
He became an accountant at Ernst & Ernst in Los Angeles, grabbed from the bullpen to do whatever needed to be done until one of the partners decided it might be a good idea to form a group that would deal exclusively with health care, which is complicated. He joined that team "because I liked the other people" who were part of it.
When the newly formed Intermountain Health Care (it has since changed the name to make Healthcare one word) needed a chief financial officer, he applied. And that began a long career with Intermountain that would take the young man, 29 when he came on board, to the pinnacle of the organization.
At the time, it was just a family-friendly decision. "I loved public accounting, but I was working 60-70 hours a week," he said. "The kids (he has eight) were asking where I was. This was an opportunity to get more control in my life, and I liked the people and organization (at Intermountain)."
Were he keeping score, he says, his career has had more high points than lows. He's received prestigious awards and Intermountain has been honored a number of times as an example of a well-run health-care system. Among his favorite honors is a national study that says if the care and cost in three areas Rochester, N.Y.; Salt Lake City and Portland, Ore. could be replicated nationwide, Americans would save $35 billion and the outcomes for patients would be significantly better.
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