Sutter Health Named Among Top U.S. Health Systems

SACRAMENTO, Calif., April 25, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Truven Health Analytics^TM today named Sutter Health and Sutter's Valley Area among the top-performing health systems in the country. In its 15 Top Health Systems^® study, Truven recognized Sutter Health and its Valley Area as two of the nation's top five performers among large health care systems.   

Truven gathered data from 338 health systems and nearly 3,000 hospitals. It singled out 15 large, medium and small health systems that achieved superior performance based on a combined score of five measures of care quality, patient satisfaction, cost per episode of illness and operational efficiency.

The Sutter Health Valley Area, which encompasses the greater Sacramento and San Joaquin valley regions, is larger than many health systems in the nation. Accordingly, Truven evaluated the Valley Area's combined performance and size, as well as the performance of the entire Sutter Health system. Both received top five recognition in Truven's "large system" category.

Data show hospitals in Sutter Health and the other top performing systems:

• Save more lives and have fewer patient complications
• Spend five percent less per patient episode of care
• Shorten patients' length of stay in the hospital
• Make fewer patient safety errors
• Score 7 percent better on patient satisfaction

"We have been working very hard for many years to build the future of health care by creating an exceptional experience for our patients and their families. This study honors the commitment of our doctors, hospitals and care and support teams to make us a better organization at every level," said Sutter Health President and CEO Sarah Krevans.

As examples of its dedication to further improve the quality of care, Sutter Health:

• Reduced deaths from sepsis—a serious and sometimes deadly bloodstream infection—by 33 percent, translating into more than 500 lives saved since 2014
• Nearly eliminated early elective delivery of babies before 39 weeks of pregnancy—reducing the systemwide rate, on average, to under 1 percent
• Created a nationally recognized program to care for people at the end of life, reducing their hospital stays by 57 percent and the total cost of care by 37 percent for these patients
• Partners with and supports community health centers to ensure that people in need have access to the medical care and social services they need

All of these efforts continue today.

"We are working together to strengthen our foundation of high-quality, safe care for patients. It's not just what we do; it is who we are as a network," said Sutter Health Chief Medical Officer Stephen Lockhart, M.D.

"Truven's recognition demonstrates that our team has rightly focused on the things that make a difference for patients and communities. Our performance ranks us alongside top health systems of the same size nationwide," said James Conforti, president of Sutter Health's Valley Area.

For more information about the Truven Health 15 Top Health Systems study and its methodology, visit Truven's website at www.100tophospitals.com.

About Sutter Health
Serving patients and their families in more than 100 Northern California cities and towns, Sutter Health doctors, hospitals and other health care service providers join together and share expertise to advance health care quality, access to care and patient satisfaction. The Sutter Medical Network includes many of California's top-performing, highest quality physician organizations, as measured annually by the Integrated Healthcare Association. Sutter-affiliated hospitals are regional leaders in cardiac care, women's and children's services, cancer care, orthopedics and advanced patient safety technology. For more information about the not-for-profit Sutter Health network, please visit

www.sutterhealth.org | www.facebook.com/sutterhealth | www.youtube.com/sutterhealth | www.twitter.com/sutterhealth

SOURCE Sutter Health

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