Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Sutter Health has used the full breadth of our integrated system to help meet the needs of clinicians, staff and patients across Northern California. From investing in testing solutions at COVID-19’s onset, adapting swiftly to treat patients during even the largest statewide surges, to scaling to provide equitable access to vaccines, Sutter’s network stood up to each phase of the pandemic, helping to protect the communities and patients we serve.
Converted existing space to increase our system’s critical care capacity by 200-300% and moved patients across the integrated network to care environments best suited to their needs.
Doubled the capacity of our eICU system – providing patients access to an ICU team regardless of hospital location.
Launched in-house testing solution with the capacity to test up to 5,000 patients per day during surges – with a turnaround time of less than 2 hours for some of the sickest patients.
Acquired 35 million pieces of critical personal protective equipment (PPE), including masks, isolation gowns and face shields for patients and providers across our network.
We invested in innovations that prioritized quality to drive better health outcomes for our patients. Our integrated network allowed Sutter to expand existing investments and create new programs to respond to evolving patient and provider needs throughout the pandemic.
Rapidly expanded telehealth and provided over 1 million video visits in 2020.
Trained 5,000 clinicians in telehealth.
Reduced hospital length of stay for COVID-19 patients by 12 days – from 20 days at the start of the pandemic to 8 days by the end of 2020.
Conducted and partnered on more than 10 research projects that helped usher in the approval of convenient all-in-one tests, investigated cutting-edge treatments, provided patients access to a promising vaccine clinical trial and explored the pandemic’s impact on mental health.
Understanding that video visits and telehealth became a crucial tool during the pandemic, we are also working to scale digital care for the long-term to continue providing convenient, safe and seamless care – especially for hard-to-reach patients.
We worked to uncover and address critical issues facing the communities we serve throughout the pandemic. Our teams led and participated in key clinical trials and research, testing new treatments and promising vaccines. We also developed studies that identified disparities in how the pandemic was impacting diverse communities and worked to build local partnerships to meet the needs of the current crisis and as we look toward the future.
Identified that Black COVID-19 patients are 2.7 times more likely to be hospitalized – and partnered with local organizations to increase outreach and provide testing to Black Californians in the communities in which we operate.
Conducted 9 COVID-19-specific health equity research projects in the last year alone.
Studied COVID-19’s impact on maternal health across diverse patient populations.
Coordinated with the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services to safely move and care for some of the most at-risk patient populations, ranging from farm workers in the Imperial Valley to inmates from San Quentin State Prison.
As we build toward recovery, Sutter Health is focused on helping Californians – especially populations most impacted by the pandemic – access vaccines. To inoculate as many patients as quickly as possible, Sutter proactively prepared by deploying a scalable vaccine infrastructure that has provided more than 750,000 shots and growing to patients to date.
Learn more about how Sutter is effectively navigating the COVID-19 pandemic:
