Sutter Health is doubling down on its growth strategy, with a focus on expanding access and attracting more physicians to California.
Headquartered in Northern California, with executive offices in Sacramento and Emeryville, the health system‘s 57,000 staff and clinicians and 12,000 affiliated physicians provide care to more than 3.5 million Californians. Now, the organization counts San Francisco’s East Bay region among its opportunities for growth, President and CEO Warner Thomas told Becker’s.
In February, Sutter unveiled plans for a $1 billion expansion aimed at enhancing care access in this region, including a flagship campus in Emeryville, featuring a new 335,000-square-foot medical center and ambulatory care complex. The ambulatory care complex is slated to open as early as 2028. The medical center is slated to open in 2032 to 2033, replacing acute care services at Sutter’s Alta Bates campus in Berkeley, Calif., which will be converted into an ASC and urgent care clinic.
Mr. Thomas said the Emeryville project aligns with Sutter’s overall growth strategy, which began with an initial investment of about $800 million in ambulatory expansion across two campuses in Santa Clara, Calif. — 23 clinics.
“Those are all opening, and will all be open by early 2026,” said Mr. Thomas. “We have 14 opening in 2025. Since the beginning of 2023 — we’ve hired over 2,000 physicians and clinicians across our system. And we are working hard to improve access across Northern and Central California, bring more physicians and clinicians into the market and continue to expand our capital investment in ambulatory for physicians, and also to facilitate access for patients.”
Sutter is working on the next phase of that expansion, which includes more ambulatory expansion in additional markets throughout Northern and Central California. Mr. Thomas said the health system is also looking at expansion in urgent care.
“It’s all in the name of serving our patients, serving our communities, improving access, and bringing more physicians to California,” he added.
Additionally, digital opportunities and expansion are part of Sutter’s long-term strategy for access, workforce partnerships and competitive positioning in California. The health system will book more than 5 million online appointments this year.
“We’ve worked hard on simplifying the access process,” Mr. Thomas said. “We’ve certainly added new physicians and clinicians, but we’ve also worked on the systems to make it easier to be seen at Sutter Health. And that’s an ongoing set of work, but we certainly feel positive about the improvements that have been made there.”
Sutter is coupling this with additional digital opportunities for connection, such as virtual care and remote patient management for chronic disease. Currently, about 63% of the health system’s patients are digitally engaged with Sutter.
“It’s a multifaceted approach to access and improving the patient-consumer experience with Sutter Health,” said Mr. Thomas.
Sutter’s investments come as health systems across the U.S. navigate a complex and uncertain economic environment — with potential Medicaid and safety-net funding cuts, tariffs and rising operational costs top of mind. These investments also coincide with the health system’s broader efforts to address workforce challenges and strengthen pipelines to fill staffing needs.
Sutter has specifically grown its graduate medical education programs. When Mr. Thomas joined Sutter at the end of 2022, there were about 220 residents and fellows in the organization’s various programs. He said that number has grown to approximately 400 residents and fellows, with expectations to expand to between 900 and 1,000 by 2030.
“We’ve opened new programs in Modesto, in the East Bay of the Bay Area, in Oakland at Alta Bates Summit campus,” Mr. Thomas said. “We’ve expanded our program in Roseville, up in the Sacramento market. And we see continuing to grow those new programs, as well as our existing ones.
“At the same time, we’ve hired a lot of physicians and clinicians. We’re growing the pipeline, building our capability to train more physicians in the future. So, it’s certainly an ‘and’ strategy.”
Regarding Medicaid cuts, Mr. Thomas expressed concern while emphasizing the continued focus on investments.
“Frankly, hospitals are facing one of the largest healthcare cuts we’ve seen in our history,” he said. “And it’s disconcerting to see that this is where our government leaders are headed. But we’re optimistic that hopefully we can change the direction of some of that policy and that the final outcome will not be as negative as we see today.
“With that being said, we still view that there’s a deficit in access, there’s a deficit in physicians, and we see more and more care moving to ambulatory. We’re continuing to make those investments because we think that they are long-term oriented and make the most sense for us long term. And at this point, we are not adjusting our capital plans. We certainly will watch and see what happens from a regulatory perspective and adjust accordingly if there are major changes that come down.”
