Sean Esplin paints a picture of women’s health

When you work for a hospital system that delivers two thirds of the babies born in the state of Utah, you touch a lot of lives. Even more so as the medical director of the women’s health clinical program, where maternal fetal medicine physician M. Sean Esplin, MD, influences care delivery across multiple states. “It’s my dream job,” he said.?

Read on for his thoughts on the virtues of being big, the clinic lessons of watercolor, and why, at Intermountain Health, you’re never alone.?

How did end up in this role??

I've been around just long enough to be the last guy left standing. (Laughs). The first time I set foot in an Intermountain hospital was in 1991, and I have been involved in some way ever since. This is my dream job, because I love to think of new ways to take care of patients, and I get the opportunity to cross our whole system.?

One of the things I love about Intermountain is that we’re so big we can touch most of the people in Utah. I’m excited to be a part of expanding that kind of influence to Peaks and coming together as one group to eliminate variation, establish best practices, and demonstrate the impact that has on our patients.?

Can you give an example of work that touches most of the people in your state??

Yeah, so two-thirds of babies in the state of Utah are born at an Intermountain hospital. And because we have hospitals in Sanpete, Heber Valley, Garfield, and so on, these smaller towns get the same quality of care they’d get if they were in Salt Lake City, because we’re a connected system.?

One of my favorite stories is in Bear River, there was a family physician doing a delivery and the uterus turned inside-out. It’s called a uterine inversion. An obstetrician will see that maybe once or twice in their career, and it’s an emergency. He was by himself in a small hospital, but he made one call and got one of my partners on the phone, and she talked him through this critical scenario and at the same time arranged transport. And everything was okay.??

So that’s why I say one of our strengths is that we’re big. If we can learn a lesson at one place, we can apply that lesson at 20 places. So you’re never just a lone physician out there.??

The other strength is that, because we’re the hospital and the medical group and the payor, we actually win when people stay healthy. That is huge. That’s really important to me.??

“If we can learn a lesson at one place, we can apply that lesson at 20 places. So you’re never just a lone physician out there.” - Sean Espin, MD, medical director, women's health clinical program

Let’s talk about that. What are you working on that contributes to proactive care??

In obstetrics, proactive care means identifying people who are at highest risk and giving them the highest level of care. We’ve partnered with Castell to capture women at risk of preterm birth at the beginning of their pregnancy and initiating evidence-based care that will mitigate that risk.??

We also created a rapid-access gynecology clinic in the Canyons Region’s Central Market that allows us to see women within 72 hours, which allows people to take care of problems before they become serious. That project has been so successful we’re spreading it to all the markets in Canyons, and we’re constantly filling up these clinics with people who before would have been waiting maybe months.?

I understand you’re a painter.?

Yes, I’m learning watercolors. I do landscapes only. I don’t do people or animals because I’m not very good. But I find it really relaxing, and I love learning new techniques. It’s helping me get over this thing I have that’s like, I’m not going to paint because I’m not going to get it right the first time. I don’t want to have to do it 100 times to get it right. So it’s teaching me patience. I’m never going to create a masterpiece, but my painting is going to make me a better person.?

Is there a clinical lesson in there? Like, we’re not going to always get it perfect. All we can do is keep refining our technique??

I think so! And it’s layers, too. You have to think about layers. The really cool thing about it is that you start to notice things differently – all this variation in color and light and shapes. It changes how you see the world.??

Would you be willing to share a painting??

It’s just they’re literally not that good. If they were good, I’d share one. Ask me again in five years. If I’m still doing it, I’ll share one then.??