Modern Healthcare has ranked Sutter Health 66 in the providers/insurers category of its 2026 Best Places to Work in Healthcare list. Sutter was among less than a dozen honorees across the U.S. to be recognized as one health system. This national honor spotlights employers across the healthcare industry that are building strong workplace cultures, and recognition is based in part on employee feedback.

“What makes this recognition especially meaningful, is that it reflects what surveyed employees said about working here and the culture we’re building together as one Sutter team,” said Warner Thomas, president and CEO of Sutter Health. “When I joined Sutter at the end of 2022, we set out to make Sutter the best place in the nation to work, practice medicine, learn and receive care. We want our nearly 80,000 employees, physicians and clinicians to be proud to work here, have opportunities to grow and have the support they need to keep changing and saving lives.”

Making this list reflects the positive impact on Sutter’s culture over the past few years.

• Sutter is intentionally focused on supporting its care teams’ job satisfaction and well-being to counter the national turnover trend; Sutter’s employee turnover has fallen more than 45% to less than 10% since 2022, and medical group turnover has fallen to 3%.
• 86% of employees would recommend Sutter as a good place to work and 86% of physicians say they were satisfied practicing medicine at their medical group in 2025.
• Workforce experience metrics continue to outperform national healthcare benchmarks leading to record-setting engagement.
• Since 2024, Sutter has hosted eight Power of ONE employee experience events for more than 28,000 employees. These events, held three times per year, bring employees together to connect with colleagues, learn more about shared direction and experience what it means to work as ONE Sutter team.
• Sutter emphasizes inclusion and belonging, which is reflected by a membership increase in its 12 employee resource groups of 260%, for a total of more than 19,000 total memberships across each, since 2024.
• In August, Sutter hosted its first in-person Inclusion & Belonging Summit, drawing 600 attendees.
• Sutter established a systemwide mentoring program to connect employees with mentors within the organization. So far more than 2,500 employees have received or provided mentoring.

“The Best Places to Work in Healthcare recognition by Modern Healthcare marks a significant milestone for our organization,” says Deborah Yount, Sutter Health Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer. “Being chosen for the list provides external validation of the culture we are creating to ensure our employees and clinicians feel valued and heard. We are unwavering in our commitment to cultivating an organization where every employee and clinician can belong, thrive and reach their full potential.” (Hear Warner Thomas and Deborah Yount talk more about the progress we’ve made in this Q&A with Modern Healthcare.)

Modern Healthcare’s award selection process is rigorous. It includes a comprehensive employer assessment focused on culture, benefits and the employee work experience, plus a confidential survey that Modern Healthcare sends directly to a randomly selected group of Sutter employees.

Mary Ellen Podmolik, editor-in-chief of Modern Healthcare reflects on the importance of organizations that put their employees first, “Healthcare is changing rapidly as new technologies are adopted on both the clinical and administrative sides. Still, the most forward-looking companies understand that employees are the heart of their organizations. Creating the right culture, with the appropriate mix of financial rewards, training and career advancement opportunities—as embodied by our honorees of the Best Places to Work in Healthcare—will be imperative for long-term employee and employer success.”

Last month, Sutter was also ranked on Forbes Best Employer by State 2026 list as #21 among 102 California organizations and #2 among nine California healthcare and social services organizations. Last week, Sutter made Newsweek’s list of America’s Most Admired Workplaces for the first time. #MHBestPlaces