![\"Sacramento-based](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/SUTTER-STOCK.jpg\" "\\"Sacramento-based")
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Sacramento-based Sutter Health operates 24 hospitals and more than 200 clinics across Northern California, including its flagship Sutter Medical Center in midtown Sacramento.<\/p>\n
Andrew Seng<\/p>\n
Sacramento Bee file<\/p>\n
Sutter Health on Friday announced plans for the health system\u2019s first dedicated medical school, in partnership with Santa Clara University.<\/p>\n
The announcement was the latest in a series of expansion efforts by the Sacramento-based health system<\/a>, which has opened dozens of new ambulatory centers in the past few years and hired more than 2,500 clinicians in Northern California. Sutter opened its Arden Care Center in December, and has major projects in Elk Grove and Folsom, plus a planned, 120,000-square-foot sports medicine center downtown<\/a>.<\/p>\n In March the health system announced plans to combine with Minneapolis-based Allina Health<\/a>, a deal that will represent Sutter\u2019s largest out-of-state footprint yet.<\/p>\n Sutter Health President and CEO Warner Thomas said many of the system\u2019s expansion moves have been driven by leaders\u2019 recognition that there are \u201caccess challenges\u201d for patients in Sacramento and \u201creally everywhere in our system.\u201d The move to establish a dedicated medical school, similarly, was motivated by doctor shortages, particularly as the aging U.S. population needs increasingly complex care, and as the health system works to backfill retiring clinicians.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to really build the pipeline of physicians that are coming into Sutter Health,\u201d Thomas said in an interview.<\/p>\n The Mark & Mary Stevens School of Medicine will be named for the couple who have gifted $175 million to its endowment. Mary Stevens attended the university, and serves on the board of trustees.<\/p>\n The campus will be five miles from the university, near the hospital system\u2019s Sutter East Santa Clara Campus, and near its Sutter West Santa Clara Campus, a planned, 272-bed medical center expected to open in 2031.<\/p>\n The east campus will include classrooms and simulation labs, and students will do clinical training at the west campus hospital.<\/p>\n Sutter has more than 30 physician residency and fellowship training programs already, with schools including UC Davis, Dartmouth College, Touro University and others.<\/p>\n But Friday\u2019s announcement signals the health system\u2019s intent to more aggressively grow its academic programs.<\/p>\n It has already expanded its graduate medical education programs over the past few years, Thomas said, and plans to have 800 to 900 residents and fellows by 2030, from around 200 in 2022. Sutter has a large and growing residency program at the Roseville hospital, another in Modesto, and leaders want to expand residencies at Sutter Medical Center in Sacramento, Thomas said.<\/p>\n Many of the students at the Santa Clara University medical school will do residency programs in the Sacramento area.<\/p>\n \u201cEven though this medical school is in Santa Clara, there will be ancillary benefits to the Sacramento area,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Sutter Health said the medical school\u2019s students and faculty will work with the health system\u2019s tech innovation center in San Francisco, the university\u2019s center for \u201cApplied AI and Human Potential\u201d and colleges of ethics, theology and business, among others.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a societal need, and it\u2019s the university\u2019s responsibility to meet that need,\u201d said James Glaser, provost and executive vice president at Santa Clara University.<\/p>\n Admissions likely won\u2019t begin for a few years, Glaser said, as the school must first secure its accreditation. The university will begin with smaller numbers, but will eventually have around 400 to 500 students.<\/p>\n Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n![\"Rendering](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Rendering-of-the-Mark--M.jpg\" "\\"Rendering-of-the-Mark--M.jpg\\"")
Rendering of the Mark & Mary Stevens School of Medicine, which will be Sutter Health’s first dedicated medical school. SUTTER HEALTH Sutter Health <\/p>\n
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