Sutter Health CEO Patrick Fry to retire, Krevans named successor

Sutter Health CEO Pat Fry announced Tuesday that he will retire after over 30 years with the major Northern California health system.

Fry, 57, will serve his last day at the 25-hospital system on Jan. 4, 2016. Sutter Health COO Sarah Krevans will succeed him.

Fry has been with Sacramento-based Sutter since finishing graduate school in 1982. He started as an administrative resident at Sutter General Hospital in Sacramento and climbed the ranks to become CEO of Sutter General and Memorial hospitals just 10 years later.

Fry held several regional and division executive leadership positions at Sutter before becoming the system's COO in 2000 and then CEO in 2005. He has been on Modern Healthcare's 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare list for the past two years, ranking at No. 73 in 2014 and No. 42 in 2013.

Sutter's annual revenue climbed by more than 50% under Fry's leadership, from $6.7 billion to over $10 billion, according to the company. During one of the largest facility infrastructure improvement projects in the country, Fry has overseen the construction of over a dozen new or replacement hospitals, as well as major outpatient facilities and clinics throughout Northern California.

The Sutter Health Plus health plan was created under Fry's leadership. He also led the establishment of the Sutter Medical Network, which includes the system's 5,000 aligned and affiliated physicians.

Fry was responsible for launching several systemwide quality initiatives, including the advanced-illness-management program, which Sutter says daily helps over 2,000 patients with chronic illness monitor their conditions to limit unnecessary hospitalization.

Sutter has spent over $9 billion over the past decade on the continued implementation of its electronic health-record system throughout its physician care centers and hospitals. My Health Online, Sutter's online portal for patients to access their personal health records, was established under Fry.

Fry said he's confident that he'll leave Sutter in good financial health.

“We are extraordinarily well-positioned for the shift to value-based care,” Fry said. “We have very good coverage over Northern California.”

Krevans, 56, joined Sutter in 1999 and has been COO since 2012.

Early in her career, Krevans was appointed deputy director of the Bureau of Medical Services for the state of Maine, and went on to be appointed the state's acting director of Medicaid, health planning and licensure programs at age 29.

Before working at Sutter, Krevans joined Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente in 1987 as assistant administrator at its South San Francisco Medical Center. She went on to work as administrator of the Permanente Medical Group Sacramento and as senior VP and area manager of Kaiser's busy, six-county Valley Service Area.

Krevans joined Sutter 16 years ago as senior VP of managed care and was later named regional executive officer and president of the Sutter Health Sacramento Sierra Region, overseeing operations throughout the San Joaquin Valley and Greater Sacramento Valley.

“I feel incredibly both grateful and excited for the opportunity to lead Sutter Health at this time,” Krevan said in an interview. “I think Pat has worked to build an incredible team and an incredible organization.”

As COO, Krevans has led several major initiatives, including a $20 million three-year commitment in 2012 to form a systemwide team tasked with developing new products and care solutions. She also oversaw the establishment of a shared-service center to consolidate functions no related to patient care, such as finance, billing and human resources.

As a former state bureaucrat herself, Krevans said she respects the decisionmakers at the state and federal levels, but acknowledged that it's still a difficult environment for healthcare organizations in regards to issues like consolidation and reimbursement.

“I think healthcare is incredibly complex, and as you bring together federal and state regulations that don't often match up, it can be challenging for providers,” Krevans said. “There's a lot of experimentation going on at the federal level and it's going to continue to be a very challenging time for provider systems.”