Expanding Access to Care
Removing barriers to make care more accessible
Access to coordinated high-quality healthcare remains a significant challenge in California and across the nation. Too many experience difficulties and delays in scheduling appointments and getting timely access to the care they need when they need it.
To help address this, Sutter has embarked on a robust plan to reach more people and make exceptional and comprehensive healthcare more connected, accessible, and easier to deliver. Through new academic partnerships, a vast array of new facilities – including new hospitals and advanced specialty care centers – and digital advancements, Sutter is leading the way to bring personalized care closer to home.
11.4 million Californians live in areas with primary care shortages.
The federal government projects a 40,000+ shortfall of family physicians by 2037.
Source: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, National Center for Health Workforce Analysis
Opening new and enhanced medical centers, many featuring destination centers of excellence in specialty care service lines.
Creating seamless digital access through patient-centered technologies.
Growing the state’s healthcare workforce through academic partnerships and expanded physician graduate medical education and allied healthcare training programs.
“Too many people face challenges in accessing the care they need. At Sutter, we’re committed to breaking down those barriers.”
- Warner Thomas, Sutter Health President and CEO
Expanding capacity to deliver more care
1,700+
New physicians and clinicians added since 2023
27+
New outpatient care centers, another 27 urgent care sites and 22 ambulatory surgery centers planned to open in the next few years
26
Accredited medical education residency and fellowship programs in Sutter hospitals, with nearly 300 residents and fellows participating in 2024
139%
Increase in number of digitally engaged patients since 2018
1.4M
Video visits for patients with care providers in 2024
1.4M+
Patients accessed their lab results online in 2024
Bringing care closer to home
Sutter Health is relentlessly working to improve access to all types of care by creating and enhancing an array of care facilities and services – from advanced specialty care centers to new hospitals to more outpatient and urgent care to convenient diagnostic centers. We want our patients to get the care they need, when they need it, and spend less time waiting for and traveling to appointments.
Click on one of Sutter’s divisions below to see some of what we have underway to serve our communities.
“Nursing has been central to my life. Because I grew up with exceptional nursing role models – my mom and aunts – I saw at a very young age how impactful this work is to both patients and families. At Sutter, our commitment to delivering exceptional care to everyone who walks through our doors is paramount, and we want every patient to have access to the highest level of care possible and the best treatments available.”
Katrina Ascensio-Holmes, MHA, BSN, CNOR, RN Sutter Health Chief Nurse Officer
Accelerating the development of tomorrow’s workforce
Sutter is heavily investing in physician residency, nurse training, and allied healthcare professional development programs to cultivate more clinical talent to address the state’s growing shortage of healthcare professionals.
Our investments in Graduate Medical Education programs are crucial to addressing the physician shortage and increasing Sutter’s capacity to serve patients with the highest standards of care. We are currently on track to train 575 residents and fellows, at 39 accredited GME programs by the end of 2027.
Other investments include partnerships that create new pathways for nurses and medical assistants by:
Creating clinical training for the San Francisco State University accelerated nursing program, increasing program capacity by 25% and shortening the standard timeline for getting more trained professionals into the field.
Working with community colleges in Santa Barbara and Silicon Valley to create programs to train and certify medical assistants and other allied healthcare professionals.
Game-Changing Projects
Flagship medical campuses in Silicon Valley and the East Bay
Sutter plans to build comprehensive healthcare campuses to meet increased patient demand.
In Santa Clara, two healthcare campuses totaling 1 million square feet will feature centers of excellence for primary, women’s health, pediatric, cardiac, orthopedic and cancer care. The new sites will also host a partnership with Mission College to train more healthcare workers in the region.
In the East Bay Area, Sutter has planned a landmark 12-acre campus in Emeryville that will feature a new hospital with an initial capacity of up to 200 beds and room for future expansion, plus a destination outpatient care complex that will include an intensive care unit, labor and delivery, neonatal intensive care, imaging, operating rooms, outpatient clinics and acute care services.
Targeted investments to reach rural communities
Sutter Health is building a more sustainable, coordinated system of care in the rural communities we serve. Our work to close geographic care gaps reflects our not-for-profit mission and ensures innovative comprehensive care is easier to access. A few examples include:
- Sutter Coast Hospital in Crescent City will open an Emergency Psychiatric Assessment, Treatment and Healing, or EmPATH, unit in 2026 for patients experiencing acute mental health crises. The unit will leverage a nationally-recognized care model designed to stabilize patients in a more appropriate setting, reducing unnecessary inpatient stays.
- We’re also investing $17.5 million to bring more primary and specialty care to the community, as well as urgent care, diagnostic services, and even workforce housing for our people in the remote Crescent City area.
- We are building a new 6,900-square-foot care center in Lake County—long known for its limited options for care. The new site will allow us to serve 30% more patients and reduce long appointment wait times.
- To help address physician shortages in rural and remote communities, Sutter has a newly accredited Rural Training Track as part of its Family Medicine Residency Programs in Del Norte and Amador counties.
Expanded access to comprehensive cancer care
As a nationally recognized leader in cancer care, Sutter Health has expanded access to treatments, resources and state-of-the-art technologies across its footprint.
Sutter’s integrated network features 250+ cancer specialists, 20+ cancer centers – with more planned to open in the coming years – and more than 150+ clinical trials in this field.
New advanced specialty care centers
Sutter’s robust plan to bring more services closer to home for more patients includes opening comprehensive regional care centers, enhancing access to both primary and specialty services such as heart and vascular, cancer, neuroscience, orthopedics, and children’s and women’s health. A few examples include:
- The planned Sutter Advanced Neuroscience Complex at Sutter’s CPMC Mission Bernal Campus in San Francisco will be a regional destination for advanced comprehensive neuroscience care. The center will house high-caliber neurology and neurosurgery care plus lab, imaging, infusion and rehabilitation service, an on-site ambulatory surgery center, and research operations and clinical trials.
- Sutter is opening an advanced orthopedics and sports medicine care center in downtown Sacramento, which will be a destination center of excellence offering patients access to sports psychology, a unique concussion clinic, advanced spine surgery options, leading joint-replacement surgery, and nutrition support for athletes – all in one central location.
Major investment to expand behavioral health services
Access to mental health services remains a critical challenge in communities across the country. Rising demand combined with a nationwide shortage of behavioral health specialists, means it can take months to schedule a mental health care referral appointment.
Some of the ways Sutter is working to change that:
- New behavioral health clinics in Turlock, Modesto and Lodi opened in early 2025, plus specialty and intensive outpatient programs are expanding to meet a wide range of needs.
- Behavioral health specialists are embedded into primary care in a growing number of locations. In a successful pilot, patients reported experiencing improvements in three weeks versus two months previously.
- In 2024 the number of our behavioral health clinicians increased by 41% and in 2025 we initiated a partnership with Concert Health to provide additional expert treatment capacity via phone and video.
Historic state initiative to fund mental healthcare infrastructure
Funding from the Proposition 1 Bond Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program (BHCIP) will address critical needs and support more than 10,000 patient visits annually through these projects:
- Sutter Center for Psychiatry in Sacramento will add 13 inpatient beds and expand transitional care that provides timely and appropriate support for patients.
- Sutter Coast Hospital in Crescent City: will complete a new 3,000-square-foot EmPATH unit to provide immediate care for individuals in acute psychiatric crisis, also reducing the strain on emergency departments in this rural area.
