Sutter Health has officially signed off on a seven-year strategic enterprise partnership with GE HealthCare which is geared towards increasing access to innovative imaging service, while simultaneously creating a more seamless and coordinated experience for clinicians and patients across the Sutter Health system.
According to certain reports, the stated collaboration will effectively scale up the availability of essential diagnostic care across California, providing patients with advanced technology in their own communities that can enable quicker appointment scheduling, accelerated diagnostic imaging scan results, early diagnoses, greater convenience, as well as more consistent and timely care.
More on the same would reveal how such a development makes it possible for Sutter to achieve faster access of novel equipment and technology solutions, alongside an innovative service delivery model with enhanced, reliable equipment availability. The whole setup actually draws its basis from specific goals, including expanded access to care, improved patient experience, more consistency regardless of care location, increased patient capacity, greater system integration and interoperability, and a timely refresh of needed equipment.
Beyond that, it also focuses on several areas of collaboration, including optimized technology, an innovative service delivery model, advancing service line care at destination centers of excellence, and digital integration.
“This strategic partnership is rooted in our commitment to providing innovative, high-caliber care to our 3.5 million patients across Northern California and the Central Coast,” said Warner Thomas, president and CEO of Sutter Health. “We’re responding to what we’ve heard from our physicians and making comprehensive upgrades with the latest technology to boost our capacity and expand access points. This collaboration ensures that no matter where patients enter the Sutter Health system, they’ll receive seamless and coordinated care.”
Talking about the given proposition on a slightly deeper level, one of its key considerations happens to be conducting an accelerated technology program across the Sutter Health system. The stated program will focus on some of the most advanced AI-powered imaging technology and digital solutions available to patients, These technologies will likely include PET/CT, SPECT/CT, MRI, CT, X-ray, nuclear medicine and ultrasound.
Apart from that, HealthCare’s interventional, mammography, diagnostic cardiology, maternal and infant care and anesthesia solutions will also be included in Sutter Health’s ambulatory care centers. The idea here is to address a growing need for care outside of the traditional hospital setting. Another detail worth a mention would be how this technology refresh covers the entire assortment of GE HealthCare’s portfolio of solutions so to provide clinicians with innovative options that meet changing patient needs at a quicker and efficient clip.
Next up, we must get into how the promised imaging and ultrasound solutions will be implemented across the entire healthcare system over several years, Now, we referred to what kind of technologies will be implemented within the current context, but what we haven’t yet touched upon is that they are going to include GE HealthCare’s Omni Legend PET/CT, StarGuide SPECT/CT and Vscan Air™ SL ultrasound with Caption AI™ software.
Beyond that, the partnership will look to deploy GE HealthCare’s AIR™ Recon DL MR image reconstruction, a solution which plans on leveraging deep learning algorithms to improve image quality and MRI scan times. You see, by optimizing image reconstruction, AIR™ Recon DL reduces artifacts, enhances image clarity, accelerates scan times, thus helping clinicians obtain high-quality diagnostic images, improve patient comfort, and scale up workflow efficiency.
Moving on, the partnership in question will also tread up a long distance to facilitate Sutter Health’s larger access strategy, which includes opening dozens of new care sites across Northern California over the next few years. Furthermore, it can be expected to support the health system’s expansion of advanced service lines and destination centers of excellence, including for areas like heart and vascular care, cancer care, and neurosciences.
Markedly enough, the development even covers significant investment in Sutter Health’s workforce development programs, including ongoing training and education for technologists, nurses and physicians through Sutter Health University. In essence, GE HealthCare will assist Sutter Health in designing a scalable workforce and talent development program which consists of talent pathway community outreach, collaborations with radiologic technologist schools, talent acquisition, development, and retention.
