Industry Healthcare Website www.sutterhealth.org Number of employees 51,000 Type of business Nonprofit organization | Area served California, Hawaii CEO Patrick Fry (2005–) Date founded 1921 | |
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Number of locations 24 acute care hospitals Key people Sarah Kravans, President & CEO Headquarters Sacramento, California, United States Subsidiaries California Pacific Medical Center Similar Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Kaiser Permanente, Dignity Health, John Muir Health, Blue Shield of California Profiles | ||
Sutter health expanding heart and vascular services in modesto
Sutter Health is a not-for-profit health system in Northern California, headquartered in Sacramento. It includes doctors, hospitals and other health care services in more than 100 Northern California cities and towns. Major service lines of Sutter Health-affiliated hospitals include cardiac care, women’s and children’s services, cancer care, orthopedics and advanced patient safety technology.
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Early history
The organization takes its name from one of Sacramento’s original European settlements, Sutter's Fort, built by California pioneer John Sutter. In response to the 1918 flu pandemic, community leaders constructed the first Sutter Hospital in the vicinity of the fort, replacing an old adobe house that had previously served as a makeshift hospital. Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento occupies this site today.
Other Sutter Health-affiliated hospitals date back to the 1800s and were some of Northern California’s earliest health care providers. For example, California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco was formed out of successive hospital and medical school mergers dating back to the city’s earliest days of organized medicine. In 1866, the predecessor of today’s Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa opened its doors to residents of Sonoma County.
Many of the health care facilities that eventually became part of the Sutter Health network were created as charitable hospitals by community members in cities coping with growing populations, epidemics, fires, floods and earthquakes.
Latter 20th century
Sutter Health was officially created in 1981 as a small Sacramento health care system. A few years earlier the organization had introduced a series of reforms in governance, communication and accountability in the wake of a late 1970s scandal involving William Miofsky, a physician who was charged with and pleaded no contest to felony charges of sexually abusing sedated Sutter hospital female patients.
Over the next 15 years, government cutbacks, the advent of managed care and other financial pressures fueled an increase in hospital and physician organization mergers, acquisitions and affiliations. By 1995 Sutter Health had grown to include 18 affiliated hospitals, seven medical foundations (physician organizations) and numerous outpatient care centers throughout Northern California.
Meanwhile, in the San Francisco Bay Area, another affiliation of hospitals was forming. By 1986, Pacific Presbyterian Medical Center in San Francisco, Mills-Peninsula Hospital in San Mateo and Marin General Hospital in Greenbrae had created an affiliation known as California Healthcare System (CHS). Berkeley-based Alta Bates Corporation (now known as Alta Bates Summit Medical Center) joined CHS in 1992, the same year that saw the creation of California Pacific Medical Center, formed through a merger of Pacific Presbyterian and Children's Hospital of San Francisco.
In January 1996, Sutter Health and California Healthcare System merged.
21st century
The new century brought advances in health care technology and Sutter Health was among the first health systems in the United States to install bar code medication safety technology and an electronic intensive care unit.
In 2004, 13 Sutter Health hospitals were among 25 statewide dropped by the California Public Employees Retirement System from one of its HMO networks because of cost-related concerns.
Also in 2004 Sutter Health implemented a systemwide policy for charity care and health care discounts for uninsured and underinsured patients. In 2006 Sutter Health expanded its policy to offer automatic discounts to uninsured patients. Later it, along with several other health systems, reached settlement agreements in class-action lawsuits related to the billing of uninsured patients.
In 2015, they became the jersey sponsor of the San Jose Earthquakes.
Locations
The Sutter Health Network currently consists of eight physician foundations, 24 acute care hospitals, cancer centers, a regional home health and hospice organization, long-term care centers, a university and research institutes.
In 2014, Sutter Health redesigned its operations into two geographic regions and four broad focus areas.
Focus Areas
Sutter Health Bay Area Operating Unit
Sutter Health Valley Area Operating Unit
Affiliated provider organizations not aligned with a region because of locations or other considerations
On June 30, 2010 Marin General Hospital, Greenbrae transitioned from the Sutter Health network to the Marin Healthcare District. The billing center has been moved to Utah.
Clinical services
Sutter Health doctors and hospitals provide a variety of clinical services including cancer care, complementary medicine, diabetes care, heart care, children's health, home health/hospice, mental health care, orthopedics, pregnancy and childbirth, sleep disorders, transplant services and weight loss surgery (bariatrics). Until the opening of UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital's pediatric emergency room in 2013, Sutter ran the only pediatric emergency room in San Francisco.
Sutter Health also operates outpatient surgery centers in 13 communities and three retail-based Sutter Express Care health clinics in the greater Sacramento region.
Quality
Sutter Health doctors and hospitals participate in voluntary and mandatory programs that publicly report patient satisfaction, cost, utilization and quality of care measures. These include Hospital Compare, California Healthcare Foundation, California Office of the Patient Advocate (OPA), and The Leapfrog Group.
Sutter Health affiliated hospitals and medical groups, have been recognized by a number of independent health care quality organizations. For example:
Individual performance measures for Sutter Health hospitals and affiliated medical groups are posted on the Sutter Health Web site.
Costs
Media coverage shows that Sutter Health is focused on making its services more affordable for patients. In 2015, NPR in Los Angeles reported that the Sutter Health network doctors are standardizing treatment and testing options to make care more consistent and help reduce overall costs for patients, while maintaining care quality.
In 2014, the Brookings Institution and The Atlantic wrote about Sutter Health’s nationally recognized Advanced Illness Management program, which improves quality of life for patients with advanced, chronic illness, reduces unnecessary hospitalizations, and makes care more cost effective.
A 2013 New York Times article focused on hospital costs in the expensive cities of San Francisco and New York. Sutter Health, which has medical centers in San Francisco, was included in the story.
In 2014, the UFCW & Employers Benefit Trust (UEBT) filed a class action antitrust lawsuit against Sutter Health. Blue Shield Spokesman, Steven Shivinsky, argues "Sutter has a long history of driving up the cost of healthcare. Now they are seeking new contract terms that would insulate them from any potential litigation." Blue Shield has said that Sutter's prices are 30% higher than other hospitals.
Labor relations
Sutter Health’s physician organizations, hospitals, home health and other services have nearly 60 locally negotiated collective bargaining agreements with more than one dozen different labor unions. Approximately 13,700 employees have elected to work under labor union contracts. Sutter Health and its affiliates employ a total of approximately 48,000 people.
In November 2012 over 3,000 nurses went on strike.