Sutter Health Named Among Top 5 Best Workplaces for Innovators by Fast Company

NORTHERN CALIF. - Sutter Health has been recognized by Fast Company as one of America's Best Workplaces for Innovators in 2025. Sutter ranked fourth on the list of just 100 top businesses and organizations that empower their workforce to harness innovation to tackle big challenges and advance bold new ideas.

"Healthcare is changing fast, but at Sutter we're not waiting for the future to arrive. We're building it," said Warner Thomas, president and CEO of Sutter Health. "Being located in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, the epicenter of innovation and the AI revolution, gives us a unique opportunity to lead in this area. We're doing that by tapping into bold ideas from physicians, nurses and teams within our organization and by forming strategic partnerships with cutting-edge innovators outside our walls. Together we're driving breakthroughs in how we care for patients, support our teams and reimagining the future of healthcare for generations to come."

Sutter's collaborative approach to innovation not only helped the not-for-profit earn this latest honor, it's on display across the 60,000-person strong organization.

• System-wide Innovation Challenge: Sutter hosts an annual Innovation Challenge that asks employees and clinicians for their ideas to improve care for the more than 3.5 million Californians the health system serves. More than an idea-gathering exercise, the challenge is built to translate creativity into measurable impact, with funds, mentorship, technical assistance and implementation support allocated to the winning idea. The 2024 winner, a self-administered, home-based digital test to help screen for early signs of cognitive impairment, has already been piloted with Sutter patients.
• Revolutionary Digital Care Program: Sutter Sync, launched earlier this year, helps patients monitor their health from anywhere while giving clinicians real-time insights to tailor care. The program empowers patients to take charge of conditions like high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes, backed by a dedicated team providing proactive and ongoing support.
• Center for Innovation: Steps from San Francisco's historic Ferry Building, Sutter's Innovation Center is a hub where clinicians, staff, students and strategic partners can collaborate, incubate and test new ideas for healthcare products and services. Sutter is also leveraging its position in San Francisco to convene top health and tech leaders for solution-focused discussions on how thoughtful AI can improve patient outcomes, support clinicians, and advance scalable, responsible innovation.
• New and Next-Generation Care: Driven by a commitment to innovation, Sutter care teams combine advanced medical technology with expert clinical care to provide patients with opportunities for treatments and outcomes that were once out of reach. From sound wave therapy to robotic cardiac surgery, Sutter is improving safety, precision and recovery with investments in state-of-the-art equipment and the professionals who use it.
• Tomorrow's Therapies, Today: Sutter clinicians and visionary scientists have always used rigorous research to advance medical care. With a renewed culture of curiosity, and even greater institutional investment, Sutter now gives patients greater access to leading-edge clinical trials and novel, evidence-based medical therapies.

When Teams Feel Supported, Patients Feel It Too

One year into a multi-year digital transformation, Sutter has proven that innovation can benefit both patients and providers alike.

"We're reimagining what's possible for patients and our people," says Laura Wilt, Sutter's chief digital officer. "By modernizing tools and processes, we're creating a more connected and convenient experience for patients and a more intuitive experience for our teams. Investing in digital and virtual solutions helps streamline administrative tasks, makes work more fulfilling, and empowers our clinicians to focus on face-to-face care."

In 2024, Sutter "gave back" over 1 million hours to employees and physicians through automation, technology enhancements and more efficient workflows - time that could be reinvested in patient care. Today, more than 1 million patients actively use Sutter's digital portal each month, 63% of Sutter patients are digitally engaged and the organization has seen a sixfold increase in online appointment scheduling since 2023.

Finally, patients don't just benefit from the team dedicated to meeting their immediate needs, but also from systemwide coordination across programs. In the years ahead, Sutter will leverage technology to deliver care that is more holistic, predictive and integrated through programs like Sutter Sync.

"Giving patients the tools to capture at home weight, blood pressure or blood sugar readings over time, not only allows individuals to track their progress and receive insights tailored to their health journey but provides their care team with actionable data to manage care," says Dr. Richard Milani, chief clinical innovation officer for Sutter Health. "When providers are able to view the full picture of their patient's condition, they're empowered to deliver more data-driven, proactive care, which improves patient health outcomes and makes care more efficient."

Frontline Insights Drive Human-Centered Design

Beyond bringing the best possible care to patients, clinicians also help drive innovation at Sutter.

Clinicians are encouraged to use their experience, knowledge and expertise to help prototype, test and deploy new solutions. Teammates are challenged to learn from other industries and consider how external partners could provide new capabilities.

"Our doctors have spent decades exploring the frontiers of medicine through hands-on care, and we deeply value their frontline insights," says Chris Waugh, Sutter's chief innovation officer. "That's why our clinicians, medical staff and others are now working directly with early-stage companies and strategic partners to co-develop solutions that address some of healthcare's most persistent challenges."

Headquartered in Northern California - a center of innovation - Sutter is also investing in early-stage digital health startups and collaborating with venture capital firms through its strategic ties to Silicon Valley and San Francisco. By engaging care teams and the local ecosystem, Sutter is in a position to help transform early-stage innovations into solutions that reach patients.

Several of Sutter's recent strategic investments have focused on unlocking the power of clinical AI:

• Real-time AI Alerts: Through an investment in Aidoc, Sutter is piloting a new AI-driven system to help detect strokes and other life-threatening conditions faster.
• Improving Provider Wellbeing: Sutter's use of Abridge, an ambient AI documentation tool tested and refined by research at Sutter, has been shown to improve physician well-being by reducing documentation time and easing mental workload.
• AI-Powered Imaging: In collaboration with GE HealthCare, Sutter is accelerating the rollout of AI-enhanced imaging to help detect cancers and heart and vascular issues earlier.
• AI in Primary Care: Sutter is using AI-assisted cameras to help screen for diabetic retinopathy in primary care visits - offering patients faster, dilation-free eye exams in under a minute.

Sutter was also named one of California's Best-in-State Employers for by Forbes this year and one of America's Most Innovative Companies by Fortune in 2023.

The 2025 Best Workplaces for Innovators list ranks 100 winners across healthcare, tech, finance and beyond. To be considered, applicants detailed their investment in innovation, internal programs and company culture. Final selections were made by Fast Company's editors, who evaluated every application and conducted extensive research to generate a score for each company. A distinguished panel of judges then reviewed the top-rated companies.

To see the complete list of Best Workplaces for Innovators, go to https://www.fastcompany.com/best-workplaces-for-innovators/list.

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