Sansum Clinic and Sutter Health marked the first year of their partnership this week, celebrating new operating rooms, new clinicians and expanded patient care.
“We’re going from being all by ourselves as we were to being part of a much bigger organization, and that’s just a cultural change, but it’s good,” said Dr. Kurt Ransohoff, the former CEO of Sansum who is now president of Sutter Health Greater Central Coast Division.
“I think we’re finding that Sutter has been a really good partner, has lived up to everything that they said, that they would do, and more, and we’re looking forward to the future.”
Sansum Clinic became part of Sutter Health last year, which gave the organization more solid financial footing, according to Nicole Young, Sutter Health’s communications manager.
Ransohoff said that before the partnership, they had a hard time recruiting enough doctors, but in the past year, they’ve recruited nearly 40 doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants.
“The addition of nearly 40 new clinicians by the end of the year will have real meaning for patients on the Central Coast, as the demand for health care continues to rise,” Sutter Health President/CEO Warner Thomas said.
“This success feeds into our ambitious goals to expand access to care across California. We’ve added nearly 850 physicians and advanced practice clinicians at Sutter Health this year and are investing a significant amount of capital into ambulatory expansion throughout the Sutter footprint.”
In the past year, wait times for new patients have dropped nearly 50% thanks to added weekend hours and expanded weekday hours.
“With Sutter’s help, which would have been challenging for us to do on our own, we started a program where we’re seeing new patients in the evening and on the weekend,” Ransohoff said. “These are doctors who are working a full schedule all week long, and then are saying that they’ll come in and work some weekend days just to try to get backlogs down.”
Sutter Health also helped to fund three new outpatient operating rooms at the Foothill Surgery Center. Ransohoff said the rooms have been busy as they recently added a new spine surgeon and they hope to add more doctors and surgeons soon.
Last year, Sutter announced that it wanted to expand its graduate medical education programs over the next several years.
Ransohoff said Sutter has been expanding the residency program significantly in Northern California and is considering one day bringing residents to Santa Barbara. Ransohoff said it is common for people in training to spend a month or so in another location.
“It’s a way for some young doctor to spend some time in Santa Barbara and realize what a great medical system there is here and what a great place to live, and maybe that doctor would want to come and stay when he’s or she’s done,” Ransohoff said.