• On-schedule screenings for cancer? Check.
• Proper prescriptions for diabetes, asthma and heart disease? Check.
• Avoiding unnecessary treatments, tests or procedures? Check.

The physician groups caring for patients throughout the Sutter Health network met these criteria and more during an annual review of quality. In fact, all nine Sutter-aligned medical groups received high marks on recently released report cards that rate how well medical groups care for patients.

“Sutter-aligned medical groups are our most important partners in our mission to care for the nearly 3.5 million patients who rely on Sutter Health for healthcare services,” said Dr. Todd Smith, Sutter Health senior vice president and chief physician executive. “With our nine aligned medical groups we are providing industry-leading quality and patient experience to our patients and delivering on the promise to make Sutter the premier place to work, practice medicine and receive care in California.”

Published by the California Center for Data Insights and Innovation’s Office of the Patient Advocate, the report cards rate medical groups across quality of care and patient experience measures. Quality data is derived from the Integrated Healthcare Association’s “Align Measure Perform” program and patient experience data is collected by survey. To aid consumers, the detailed data is condensed into star scores, on a one to five scale, where five stars is best.

All nine Sutter-aligned medical groups earned four stars or higher in quality of care or patient experience or both.

Two report cards are produced for each medical group. One reflects care provided to patients enrolled in a Commercial Health Maintenance Organization, or HMO plan. The other reflects care provided to patients covered by a Medicare Advantage or Medicare HMO plan.

Commercial HMO Report Card Results

The 2023-2024 edition of California’s report cards rated 197 medical groups that care for millions of state residents insured through a Commercial HMO plan. The report card’s quality of care rating – a composite of 11 measures – reflects how closely these medical groups adhered to preventative care and treatment goals aimed at helping people get or stay healthy. The quality of care rating reflects care provided in 2022, the most recent year from which data are available.

Three Sutter-aligned medical groups received five stars or “excellent” in the quality of care category, on these report cards:

• Mills-Peninsula Medical Group/Mills Peninsula Division
• Palo Alto Foundation Medical Group
• Sutter Medical Group

Five Sutter-aligned medical groups, received four stars or a “very good” rating for quality of care:

• Sansum Clinic
• Sutter East Bay Medical Group
• Sutter Independent Physicians
• Sutter Medical Group of the Redwoods
• Sutter West Bay Medical Group

Patient experience ratings provide valuable insight into the level of customer service that a medical group provides to patients. This rating is based on survey responses that cover many aspects of a visit, including how well clinicians listened to a patient, provided clear explanations and treated patients with respect. The patient experience rating reflects care provided in 2023.

In the patient experience category, three Sutter-aligned medical groups received five stars or “excellent.”

• Gould Medical Group
• Mills-Peninsula Medical Group/Mills Peninsula Division
• Sutter Medical Group

Five Sutter-aligned medical groups received four stars or a “very good” rating, in patient experience.

• Palo Alto Foundation Medical Group
• Sansum Clinic
• Sutter East Bay Medical Group
• Sutter Independent Physicians
• Sutter Medical Group of the Redwoods

Medicare HMO Report Card Results

The 2023-2024 edition of California’s report cards rated 173 medical groups that care for patents enrolled in a Medicare advantage or Medicare HMO plan in the state. The report card’s quality of care rating – a composite of 12 measures – reflects the work of medical groups to keep these patients healthy or help them get well in calendar year 2022.

Six Sutter-aligned medical groups received four stars or “very good” in the quality of care category, on these report cards.

• Gould Medical Group
• Mills-Peninsula Medical Group/Mills Peninsula Division
• Palo Alto Foundation Medical Group
• Sansum Clinic
• Sutter Independent Physicians
• Sutter Medical Group