Across Sutter Health, we made our charity care policies even more generous.
We extended substantial financial discounts to every uninsured hospital patient regardless of their financial status.
Our network's new policy ensures no uninsured patient will be billed at full hospital rates.
Innovating to Advance Patient Care
Patrick Fry
Sutter Health's eICU®, bar-coding system and electronic health records were featured in a national videoconference report by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO).
The federal accrediting agency selected Sutter Health for this prominent recognition because our network is an excellent example of how a health system can use technology to enhance and improve patient safety.
"Our eICU® system truly is just one example of the broad range of patient safety initiatives we are investing in that advance safety and clinical quality to improve patient care. We are committed to making every patient experience the very best it can be."
Gordon Hunt, M.D.
Senior Vice President and Chief
Medical Officer, Sutter Health
Research about Sutter Health's bar-code technology system, which was completed by Sutter professionals, received an award from the Association of Health System Pharmacists Foundation. The study was honored for "outstanding contribution to biomedical literature describing an innovation in pharmacy practice."
Bar-code technology is part of Sutter's commitment to patient safety and our network's investment in patient-oriented information technologies to improve care.
First implemented in May 2003, Sutter Health's bar-coding technology has prevented thousands of medication errors across millions of administrations throughout 11 hospital facilities.
We connected another physician organization to our electronic health record (EHR) system.
Five medical foundations are now using this advanced technology to further improve clinical outcomes, enhance patient safety and reduce the cost of high-quality care.
Our network also began offering electronic access to test results for other doctors in independent practice who work with us. This includes 150 physicians affiliated with Mills-Peninsula Medical Group, Brown & Toland Medical Group in the greater San Francisco Bay Area and Marin IPA.
"As leaders in the health care industry, we believe that quality should permeate everything we do and that the way we deliver care should be consistently great. As a part of achieving this goal, we are actively looking for better ways to do business. This includes how we implement information technology across our system."
Jon Manis
Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer
Sutter Health
These Sutter hospitals were named as among the top 50 acute care hospitals in the United States by the Leapfrog Group:
- California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco
- Sutter Memorial Hospital campus of Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento
The Leapfrog Group is a consortium of some of the nation's largest employers. It's challenging health care providers to make significant "leaps" in quality and patient safety.
More than 1,200 hospitals nationwide were surveyed.
"Innovation, technology and patient convenience and service at an outstanding value will continue to reshape health care, and Sutter Health intends to lead the way."
Patrick Fry
President and Chief Executive Officer
Sutter Health
Sutter Health became one of the first health care systems in California to make critical quality data available to everyone online by creating a special section on our Web site.
The section openly shares information about how our network stands up to key measures of quality in comparison to state and national standards.