By Yanet Luna, Vitals contributor

Access to healthcare is a nationwide challenge and in California, it is proving to be one of the most significant health policy challenges we face. According to the U.S. Bureau of Health Workforce an estimated 8 million Californians live in areas that are experiencing primary care shortages, where care capacity cannot meet demand. Limited access to care can negatively impact an individual’s health and the health of the overall healthcare ecosystem.

One of Sutter Health’s strategic priorities is to increase clinical capacity by enhancing existing care centers, opening new ones across its footprint, and recruiting more physicians and advanced practice clinicians so that patients can access both preventative and urgent care services closer to home. As part of this effort, Sutter hired 700+ new physicians and clinicians in 2023 with plans to add over 800 more this year. Additionally, with new facilities and services strategically located, the aim is to increase timely access to primary and specialty care doctors, reducing wait times for appointments and travel times for patients.

Sutter has made great progress on this bold plan. Work is underway to open more than 27 new ambulatory care sites, 27 urgent care sites, and 22 ambulatory surgery centers over the next few years. This year alone, Sutter expects six new centers in 2024 and 24 more in 2025. A brief summary of the progress to date includes:

Greater Sacramento

• Expanded the Natomas Care Center in June by converting an additional 1,500 square feet of unused space to double family medicine capacity.
• 42 new adult inpatient rooms to be added by end of 2026 will enhance inpatient care at Sutter Medical, Sacramento.
• Work underway at Sutter Roseville Medical Center will yield 24 additional medical-surgical patient rooms, an expanded intensive care unit, 12 more beds for critical-care patients, and a new advanced hybrid operating room.
• A new Folsom multispecialty center will include outpatient surgery services and a Sutter Cancer Center at buildout.
• Land acquired in Placer County for a New Primary Care Center will eventually house Sutter Medical Group physicians.

Greater Central Valley

• A new, four-story 165,000-square-foot cancer center, planned in collaboration with Gould Medical Group physicians, will be added to the Sutter Memorial Medical Center campus, expecting to welcome patients by 2029.
• Construction of a new teaching and training facility has begun in Modesto, where resident physicians in Sutter Memorial Medical Center’s Family Medicine and Internal Medicine residency programs will collaborate with Gould Medical Group physicians to offer primary care.
• Cancer care options in the Central Valley have expanded with the acquisition of two radiation oncology centers.
• In Manteca, a 17,000-square foot facility that will provide primary care, imaging and lab services is now under construction.
• Ground has been broken on a new primary care and urgent care center in Tracy.

Greater East Bay

• A 167,000-square-foot joint venture cancer center with Stanford Medicine at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland will open in 2025.
• A comprehensive plan to best meet the needs of the East Bay region, including the I-80 corridor, is now being finalized with several options under consideration, including an ambulatory care center that offers urgent care, primary care and specialty care on land purchased in Hercules.

Greater San Francisco

• A 129,000-square-foot neuroscience advanced care center on CPMC’s Mission Bernal campus will be complete and officially welcome patients in 2028.
• A new primary and urgent care center will open in Rohnert Park in Sonoma County in spring 2025.

Greater Silicon Valley

• A new medical center is coming to Morgan Hill will begin offering providing primary care and imaging services in phases starting with MRI services before the end of 2024.
• Two new ambulatory care centers will open in Pleasanton starting in 2026. Leases for the two buildings two blocks from each other have been finalized, and full renovations will begin next year.
• Renovations have begun on a new care center in Livermore that will offer internal medicine, family medicine, pediatrics, lab and imaging services by summer 2025.

Greater Central Coast

• Two new operating rooms at Sansum Clinic’s Foothill Surgery Center were recently completed, with one outfitted for a new spine surgeon.
• Cancer care options in the Central Coast have expanded with the acquisition of two radiation oncology centers.