Bay Area Business Leaders Named To Sutter Health Board Of Directors

SACRAMENTO, Calif., February 22, 2006 – Sutter Health, a family of not-for-profit hospitals, physician organizations and other health care service providers in Northern California, welcomes two longtime Northern California community and business leaders to its board of directors. Geraldine R. Brinton and Richard M. Levy, Ph.D., who also have served as trustees of their local Sutter-affiliated organizations, bring extensive expertise in business and a sincere commitment for their local communities to the Sutter Health board.

Ms. Brinton and Dr. Levy will join the Sutter Health board as it seeks to preserve and enhance access to critical health care services in the face of a rapidly changing health care marketplace.

"Without a doubt, the Sutter Health network and the entire health care industry will face many interesting challenges this year," said Michael Roosevelt, chair of the Sutter Health board of directors. "With Sutter's leaders, we continue to work hard on quality improvement, improved access to services, and better ways to make health care as affordable as possible. We welcome our new board members as they assist and guide us in this important work."

Ms. Brinton is a former board chair of Sutter Health-affiliated California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. Throughout her career, Ms. Brinton has worked in management consulting and direct business management. In addition to health care, her current business interests are in property management and winery development.

Dr. Levy is the first vice-chair of the Sutter Health-affiliated Palo Alto Medical Foundation board of trustees. He is the non-executive chairman of the board and former CEO of Varian Medical Systems, a leading Silicon Valley-based company providing high-energy radiation equipment and the associated hardware and software for treating cancer, as well as X-ray tubes for diagnostic radiology. Dr. Levy is also a member of the boards of directors of Pharmacyclics, Inc. and the California Healthcare Institute.

The Sutter Health board of directors oversees the not-for-profit organization, which supports the delivery of health care in more than 100 Northern California communities. It is comprised of community leaders from throughout the region. In addition, local or regional boards, whose members include unpaid volunteers representing the communities served, independently govern each of Sutter's affiliated hospitals and medical foundations.

"Health care is in the midst of a massive transformation as patients take a more active role in their own care. Sutter Health and its board of directors are dedicated to being a leader during this time of change so that patients will continue to receive the highest levels of quality, access and affordability," concluded Roosevelt.

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Media Contact
Karen Garner
Communications Manager
(916) 286-8297
garnerk@sutterhealth.org