Podcast Summary

Podcast: Advancing Health
Episode: A Lifeline for Rural Communities: Sutter Health’s Bold Behavioral Health Access Expansion
Date: November 19, 2025
Host: American Hospital Association
Guests:

• Dan Peterson, CEO of Behavioral Health Services & CEO, Sutter Center for Psychiatry, Sutter Health
• Dr. Matthew White, Chair, Behavioral Health Service Line, Sutter Health
• Moderator: Rebecca Chicky, Senior Director of Behavioral Health, American Hospital Association

Overview

This episode explores Sutter Health’s ambitious strategy to expand behavioral health services in Northern California’s rural communities. Instead of focusing only on building new facilities, Sutter Health combines capital investments, community partnerships, and innovative care models—including telepsychiatry—to overcome critical access challenges. The discussion highlights the severity of the mental health workforce shortage in rural America and details Sutter’s multipronged efforts to deliver accessible, patient-centered behavioral health care.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Rural Behavioral Health Crisis

• Workforce Shortages:
  • 65% of rural counties lack a psychiatrist; 70% have no child and adolescent psychiatrist.
  • Suicide rates in rural America have been consistently higher for nearly two decades.
  • (00:35–01:30)
• Sutter Health's Role:
  • Large, integrated system with 23 hospitals across diverse geography—from urban San Francisco to remote Crescent City.
  • Presence in rural areas and commitment as sole provider in certain communities.
  • (01:53–02:45, Dan Peterson)

2. What Is a Critical Access Hospital?

• Definition & Importance:
  • Critical Access Hospitals are the primary, sometimes sole providers in isolated, rural areas.
  • Patients often can’t travel to other hospitals; care must come to them.
  • (02:46–03:45, Dan Peterson)

3. Capital Investments to Expand Access

• New Facilities:
  • 18,000 sf office/urgent care building in Crescent City, near Oregon border.
  • Launching an Empath unit—a therapeutic crisis care facility for patients in behavioral health crisis, adjacent to the emergency department (3,000 sf).
  • 7,000 sf medical office building at Lakeside Hospital, Lake County ($5.5 million investment).
  • New rural health clinic to open in Los Banos, outside Modesto, next summer.
  • All facilities aim to integrate primary and behavioral care.
  • (04:03–05:20, Dan Peterson)

4. The Empath Unit: Crisis Stabilization Reimagined

• Design & Purpose:
  • Inspired by a state grant for crisis care—Empath units offer a more therapeutic, less clinical experience compared to standard ERs (soothing design, chairs instead of gurneys, less stimulation).
  • Demonstrated to reduce hospitalization rates and length of stays.
  • Memorable Quote:

    “It’s really just a much more soothing environment. And it's shown to have significant reduction in hospitalization rates and reduced lengths of stay.”
    —Dr. Matthew White (05:32–06:20)

• Impact:
  • Unlike typical ERs, most patients can be stabilized within 23 hours or less instead of waiting days for rare inpatient beds.
  • (06:52–07:23, Dr. White)

5. Community Partnerships: The Rural Advantage

• Collaboration for Solutions:
  • Empath project grew from ongoing work with behavioral health and tribal entities; early seeds grants led to successful, “shovel-ready” state funding.
  • Building relationships is easier in rural settings, with all stakeholders able to collaborate closely.
  • Notable Quote:

    “You truly can bring the whole community together and come up with a dream and a vision…in a way that is far more difficult in a metropolitan area.”
    —Dan Peterson (08:28–09:16)

• Personal Touch:
  • Rebecca Chicky shares her own rural upbringing, affirming the unique strengths of rural collaboration.
  • (09:16–09:50, Rebecca Chicky)

6. Virtual Care, Workforce Maximization & Collaborative Care

• Telepsychiatry & Collaborative Care:
  • Use of virtual behavioral health models (including Concert Health as a partner) to embed behavioral care in primary clinics.
  • Primary care physicians get remote psychiatric/nursing support for medication management and therapy.
  • In Los Banos, nurse practitioners are now available in the rural health clinic.
  • (09:50–10:37, Dr. White)
• Workforce Efficiency:
  • Collaborative care enables clinicians to “practice at the top of their license.”
  • Allows for maximal impact of a scarce psychiatric workforce.
  • Models let community physicians continue managing care with expert consult support—crucial where recruitment of psychiatrists is nearly impossible.
  • Notable Quote:

    “By embracing other care models…it helps you sort of maximize the impact of the workforce that you do have available.”
    —Dan Peterson (11:05–11:30)

• Positive Outcomes:
  • Integrated, collaborative models not only improve patient and workforce satisfaction but also help reduce stigma in small communities.
  • (12:06–12:55, Rebecca Chicky & panel)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Critical Access Hospitals:

  “You really are the provider that those residents have to depend on…The communities really depend on these providers…to do a great job for them.”
  —Dan Peterson (02:48–03:40)

• On Rural Community Engagement:

  “It is logistically possible to bring together all the stakeholders…get them all physically at the same table and co-develop some of these ideas.”
  —Dan Peterson (08:28–09:16)

• On Empath Unit Impact:

  “Folks don’t end up getting hospitalized quite as frequently and can get the care they need right then and there, instead of going a long distance after a long stay.”
  —Dr. Matthew White (06:52–07:23)

• On Maximizing Workforce:

  “It really allows our clinicians to work at the top of their license…those models really lend themselves towards virtual support.”
  —Dan Peterson (10:37–11:10)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Rural Behavioral Health Access Context: 00:35–01:30
• Sutter Health’s Rural Footprint: 01:53–03:45
• New Facilities & Investment Details: 04:03–05:20
• Empath Unit Explained & Patient Experience: 05:25–06:52
• Community Partnering & Grant Funding: 07:36–09:16
• Virtual Care, Collaborative Care Model: 09:50–11:10
• Benefits of Integrated Care: 12:06–12:55

Tone and Final Thoughts

The conversation is practical, innovative, and hopeful—acknowledging the real, persistent struggles of rural behavioral health while highlighting Sutter Health’s creative, community-centered solutions. The theme of “meeting patients where they are,” both literally and figuratively, runs throughout, reinforced by concrete investments, cutting-edge care models, and heartfelt partnership. The episode underscores not just the need, but the possibility and power of collective action to address rural health inequities.

Listeners interested in resources for National Rural Health Day can find more information in the episode show notes.