Sutter Considers New Hospital for Elk Grove

By Loretta Kalb, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

Mar. 7–Sutter Health has amassed 43 acres in Elk Grove and is “seriously exploring” building a community hospital to meet the needs of the fast-growing city.

If the Sutter Health board of directors expresses support for the proposal later this month, the $6.3 billion not-for-profit health care network is expected to begin studying the project in earnest.

“We are seriously exploring it,” hospital spokeswoman Nancy Turner said. “We have not made any formal decision about it.”

The proposal for an Elk Grove hospital comes as several competitors eye growth in Elk Grove. Along with Sutter Health, UC Davis Medical Group and Kaiser Permanente already have medical office buildings in the city. And two of them are considering expansion.

Elk Grove City Manager John Danielson on Friday expressed satisfaction over what would be the city’s first hospital.

“Obviously a primary care hospital here would be absolutely fantastic,” Danielson said. “And more importantly, we’re really appreciative that Sutter has recognized and has the confidence in this area that additional medical facilities are warranted.”

Population growth is pushing Sutter’s interest. Only two years ago, the city’s population stood at 109,100. Last year, Elk Grove jumped to 121,600, and some city officials now estimate the city has about 130,000 residents.

“Elk Grove is growing rapidly and, with it, the need for high-quality community-based care,” Turner said.

In 1993, Sutter’s first full year of operating its medical office building in Elk Grove, there were 10,000 patient visits. In 2005, she said, the number jumped to nearly 153,000.

Even so, if Sutter gets a preliminary nod from its governing board, a hospital would be years away.

“Typically, a hospital project in this state takes an average of five to six years from the time they submit the project for review and approval (to the state) to the time they get a license to open the doors,” said Jan Emerson, spokeswoman for the California Hospital Association. “If they are thinking in terms of 2013 or 2014, they are not too soon in beginning their planning. It’s an extensive process.”

John Gillengerten, a deputy chief for the state facilities development division of the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, said the state’s review of projects moves more quickly than Emerson describes.

Although it could take five to seven years to plan and build a hospital, the state review should typically run 14 to 18 months, Gillengerten said.

Turner said the size of a hospital in Elk Grove has not been decided and will depend on a community needs assessment. But, she said, the hospital is in the process of hiring an architect.

Two other medical systems also are seeing opportunities to do more in Elk Grove.

“We’re looking to put something out there,” said Adriane Varozza, spokeswoman for Methodist Hospital of Sacramento. “Nothing has been set in stone, but we want to be able to expand into Elk Grove-Laguna.”

Methodist is operated by Catholic Healthcare West. The hospital, west of Highway 99 and less than a mile north of the Elk Grove city limits, treated 36,000 patients in 2005, Varozza said.

And Kaiser Permanente continues to look at Elk Grove.

“It’s an important market for us, because we already are there,” said Kaiser spokeswoman Kathleen McKenna. “We are evaluating additional services in general for that south Sacramento County area, but we have nothing to announce yet.”

Kaiser opened its 102,000-square-foot Elk Grove Medical Offices in 2003. Nearly 75,000 Kaiser members reside in Elk Grove.

Kaiser also plans a $251 million expansion of its south Sacramento Medical Center, less than two miles north of the Elk Grove city limits, to increase its capacity to 273 beds. The project will be the largest expansion since the hospital opened in 1985.

Both Kaiser and Catholic Healthcare West are expected to compete for county approval to open the region’s fourth trauma center at their south county locations.

The UC Davis Medical Group expanded its Elk Grove presence in November 2004 when it moved to a 25,000-square-foot site that now serves 15,400 patients, said David Ong, spokesman for the UC Davis Health System.

Sutter also has expanded in Elk Grove. The health care system opened its first medical office building there in 1992, three years after it purchased its first 21 acres of land southeast of Big Horn and Laguna boulevards.

Sutter opened a second building in the Sutter Medical Plaza last July. The plaza now has 29 physicians, physicians’ assistants and nurse practitioners, along with a support staff of 90. That’s nearly half of what the space can accommodate.

A Sutter hospital would be constructed south and southeast of the existing medical plaza. Sutter’s most recent purchase, 14.3 acres, occurred in January at an undisclosed price. That brings the total of the Sutter property at the site to 43.3 acres.

An Elk Grove hospital would add to Sutter Health’s existing 26-hospital system in Northern California and its six in the Sacramento Sierra region.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

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