About Us

UMEC is a quasi-state agency, presided over by an eight member board appointed by the Governor, to bridge the gap between public/private health care workforce and education interests.

Our Mission:

To promote healthcare workforce planning, production, and policy through assessment, innovation, and collaboration with stakeholders.

Our Vision:

The Utah Medical Education Council holds assessment, collaboration, and innovation as its core values and focuses on the interdependency of the three to promote healthcare workforce planning, production, and policy based upon the community's healthcare workforce needs.

Core Responsibilities – Health Care Workforce

• Assess – supply and demand

• Advise/develop policy

• Seek and disburse Graduate Medical Education (GME) funds

• Facilitate training in rural locations

• Manage Utah’s GME demonstration project awarded by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)

Products

• Partnerships – public/private

• Reports – health care workforce

• Models – workforce and financial

• Program(s) expansion – rural and urban

• Funds management – privately funded programs expansion, Medicaid GME, rural training sites expansion, and Medicare demonstration

Impact/Accomplishments

• Economic

♦ $300,000 annual State appropriation for rural GME training
♦ $3 million annually to expand GME training from public/private partnership
♦ $25 million annually in Medicaid GME funding statewide

• Workforce

♦ Increased the number of interns and residents trained in Utah programs by 37%, about 225 positions, over the past seven years
♦ Increased rural health care workforce and education, including establishment of new rural surgery program; rural family medicine fellowship; and rural rotations in dental, emergency medicine, obstetrics/gynecology, pathology, pediatrics, psychiatry, and surgery
♦ Preserved both child and adult psychiatric training program
♦ Received the only national GME demonstration project awarded by CMS

Current Areas of Focus

• Retention of Utah trained heath care workforce

• Facilitate rural training opportunities

• Strengthen public/private partnerships