Best Performing Medical Groups in State Found at Sutter Health

Sutter Health Affiliated Groups Score Highest in Report Card for Patients

More than half of the top-performing physician groups in Northern California are affiliates or aligned independent practice associations of Sutter Health, according to an independent and highly respected health care leadership group.

The Integrated Healthcare Association's second annual Pay for Performance (P4P) report card shows that patients of many Sutter Health physicians are receiving among the best health care in the entire state.

"The results of this report card underscore the extraordinary work physicians in the Sutter Health network are performing every day to provide the best care possible to patients," said Gordon Hunt, M.D., Sutter Health chief medical officer.

"Sutter Health affiliates are also proud to be among the first health care providers in the state to not only participate in these types of report cards but also embrace their results. They are valuable tools to help health systems such as ours identify opportunities to transform and improve care," added Dr. Hunt.

About 225 medical groups across California participate in the P4P program and are scored on a series of quality benchmarks including clinical quality, patient satisfaction and use of information technology. Six of the top 10 medical groups in Northern California are affiliated or aligned with Sutter Health. They are:

Alta Bates Medical Group in Berkeley – Aligned IPA

Camino Medical Group in Sunnyvale, part of Palo Alto Medical Foundation

Palo Alto Medical Clinic, part of Palo Alto Medical Foundation

Mills-Peninsula Medical Group in Burlingame – Aligned IPA

Sutter Medical Group in the Greater Sacramento Area

Sutter West Medical Group in Davis

The Integrated Healthcare Association is a California health care leadership group. Its P4P program is the largest in the country to provide medical groups with incentive payments based upon performance against quality benchmarks. The program's data is collected and analyzed by the National Committee for Quality Assurance, a Washington non-profit dedicated toward improving health care quality.

The P4P measures – and others – are used by the Office of the Patient Advocate to rate California medical groups. The ratings are available at http://www.opa.ca.gov

"Better communication among patients, nurses and physicians is an important ingredient to improve health care," said Dr. Hunt. "Our affiliated health care providers proudly contribute data to a variety of initiatives that are designed to make more and better information available to patients and consumers about the quality of hospital/physician care."

For more information, contact:
Kami Lloyd
(916) 286-6680 (work)
(916) 847-6621 (cell)
LloydK@SutterHealth.org