April 24, 2026
Recent surveys indicate that Utah clinicians, healthcare administrators, and patients are aligned on one point: health information isn’t moving as seamlessly as it should. The statewide surveys show how gaps in data connectivity continue to create daily challenges, including wasted time, repeated tests, unnecessary costs, clinician frustration, and avoidable risks to patient safety.
Survey Highlights:
- Utahns strongly support secure information sharing: 84% of Utahns say it is very or extremely important that doctors, hospitals, and clinics can easily and securely share health information when providing care.
- Critical data isn’t consistently available: Only 37% of clinicians report they can often or always access patient data electronically from external organizations, limiting their ability to deliver timely, well-informed care.
- Better care coordination is the top priority: Utahns, clinicians, and administrators all rank better care coordination as the leading benefit of health data sharing.
- Gaps lead to repeated tests and inefficiency: 63% of Utahns report having to repeat a test or provide the same health information multiple times due to lack of data sharing between providers.
- Stronger relationships is the biggest opportunity: Clinicians and administrators identify strengthening relationships between organizations as the greatest opportunity to improve health data connectivity statewide.
Although the tools and infrastructure to solve these challenges are attainable, the findings make clear that closing the remaining gaps will require aligned, collective action across the system.
To help turn these data-based insights into action, the One Utah Health Collaborative (the Collaborative) is releasing “Advancing Health Data Connectivity in Utah: Aligning Payers, Providers, and Policymakers to Continue the Work.” This report brings together the statewide surveys findings and guidance from an expert advisory group to identify the most persistent barriers to data sharing and outline the concrete steps stakeholders can take to overcome them.
In conjunction with the report, the Collaborative is launching a new initiative to address remaining barriers to health data sharing across the state. The initiative will convene clinicians and administrators from health systems, medical groups, and other organizations to surface gaps in information exchange, share real-world challenges, and take coordinated action to fix them.
This work complements the Collaborative’s broader efforts to improve health data sharing to date, including projects in advancing modern data exchange through APIs and accelerating the prior authorization process.
For more information or to participate in this initiative, please contact info@uthealthcollaborative.org
Acknowledgement
The One Utah Health Collaborative would like to thank Navina Forsythe of the Utah Health Information Network (UHIN) and Tom Merrill of Redstone Health for their valuable contributions to the design and execution of the statewide surveys.
