Physician, Geriatrics (Sutter Senior Care) (Sacramento, CA)

Opportunity Information

Sutter Medical Group (SMG) is seeking Primary Care Physicians to join Sutter Senior Care, a new senior-focused primary care model serving older adults with complex and changing healthcare needs throughout the Greater Sacramento area.

Sutter Senior Care is designed around a different approach to primary care for older adults.

Rather than focusing primarily on visit volume, the model emphasizes panel ownership, longitudinal relationships, proactive outreach, care coordination, and meaningful touchpoints between the care team, patients, and caregivers.

The goal is to help patients maintain quality of life while reducing avoidable emergency department visits and hospital utilization when those interventions do not align with the patient's goals of care.

Physicians will join Sutter Senior Care during an important stage of its growth, with the opportunity to help shape a care model specifically designed around the needs of older adults.

A Primary Care Practice Designed Differently

• Sutter Senior Care gives physicians the time, flexibility, and team structure to provide comprehensive, relationship-centered care. Practice highlights include:
• Approximately 10 pre-scheduled appointment slots per day, using a mix of 30- and 60-minute visits
• Flexibility to add same-day visits when an urgent patient need arises
• 60-minute new-patient and complex visits
• 30-minute routine follow-up visits
• Dedicated administrative time per week
• Monday-Friday outpatient practice
• Same-day and next-day access incorporated into the care model
• Shared 1:3 phone call, which is expected to include evenings, weekends, and holidays.
• Interdisciplinary, team-based approach to complex senior care
• Focus on prevention, chronic disease management, medication safety, care transitions, and maintaining quality of life
• Opportunity to help develop and shape a growing senior-focused service line

The model recognizes that caring effectively for older adults extends beyond countable office visits. Physicians should be comfortable managing a patient panel collaboratively and using different types of clinical and care-team interactions to respond proactively as patient needs change.

• Panel-Based, Team-Oriented Care
• Sutter Senior Care is structured around shared accountability for a patient population rather than traditional visit-volume expectations. Physicians will collaborate with an interdisciplinary care team designed to include:
• APCs
• Nurses
• Licensed Clinical Social Workers
• Care coordinators
• Community health workers
• Clinical pharmacists
• Dietitians

Physical and Occupational Therapists

Other clinical and community-based partners This approach is intended to address both the medical and social factors affecting an older adult's health while supporting coordinated care throughout the aging journey.

Ideal Candidate

We are looking for physicians who want to practice relationship-centered primary care and who view panel ownership as more than the number of patients seen in a day.

The ideal candidate enjoys building long-term relationships with older adults and their families and is comfortable caring for patients whose medical, functional, and social needs may be complex.

Candidates should embrace flexibility, proactive patient management, collaborative decision-making, and working alongside APCs, nurses, social workers, care coordinators, pharmacists, and other professionals. Physicians with geriatrics training or experience are particularly well suited for this model.

Physicians with strong Internal Medicine or Family Medicine backgrounds and a genuine interest in caring for older adults are also encouraged to apply.

Why Sutter Senior Care?

Primary care for medically complex older adults requires time, continuity, and teamwork. Sutter Senior Care is being developed around those realities, giving physicians longer patient visits, a daily schedule of up to 12 visits, dedicated administrative time, and access to an interdisciplinary care team.

For physicians who entered primary care to know their patients, manage the whole person, partner with families and caregivers, and intervene before a changing health need becomes a hospitalization, Sutter Senior Care offers an opportunity to help build a different kind of primary care practice within Sutter Health.

Qualifications

MD or DO degree from an accredited institutionBoard certified or board eligible in Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, Geriatric Medicine, or another applicable primary care specialtyEligible for an unrestricted California medical licenseStrong clinical diagnostic, communication, and patient-engagement skillsInterest in caring for older adults with complex or changing healthcare needsAbility to practice effectively within an interdisciplinary, team-based environmentUnderstanding of population health and preventive care principlesExperience in primary care, geriatrics, or value-based care preferredGeriatrics fellowship training or equivalent experience strongly preferred, but not required

• Join Us and Enjoy
• Relocation assistance
• Sign on Bonus
• PSLF eligible
• Excellent benefits, including zero-cost medical insurance
• Paid medical benefits for employees and dependents
• CME allowance
• Award-winning, 100% 401(k) match + profit sharing contribution
• Cash Balance Pension Plan
• Customizable schedule and appointment slots
• Advanced practice technology, including EPIC
• A positive work-life balance and Northern California's natural beauty and lifestyle

Organization Details

Sutter Medical Group (SMG) is a vibrant and talented community committed to delivering safe, affordable and high-quality care. Our multi-specialty medical group is comprised of over 1,600 clinicians practicing in seven counties in northern California, most within a 50-mile radius of Sacramento.

SMG contains primary care and specialty Physicians and Advanced Practice Clinicians -- nurse practitioners, physician assistants, certified nurse midwives, licensed clinical social workers and licensed marriage and family therapists, who make up about 20% of our group.

Our clinicians not only excel in clinical practice but are also actively engaged in teaching, research, leadership, community outreach, and volunteer work. SMG has earned both local and national recognition for excellence in patient care and experience.

Community Information

Sacramento, the capital city of California, is a vibrant hub of government, history, and agriculture located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers. Known as the "America's Farm-to-Fork Capital," it boasts a thriving culinary scene supported by the region's vast surrounding farmland.

The city blends rich Gold Rush history, preserved in its Old Sacramento waterfront district, with a rapidly growing modern culture driven by diverse neighborhoods and urban tree canopies.

Equal Opportunity Statement

It is the policy of Sutter Health and its partners to provide equal employment for all qualified individuals; to prohibit discrimination in employment because of basis of race, color, creed, religion, marital status, sexual orientation, registered domestic partner status, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, ancestry, national origin (including possession of a driver's license issued to individuals who did not present proof of authorized presence in the U.S.), age, medical condition, physical or mental disability, military or protected veteran status, political affiliation, pregnancy or perceived pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding or related medical condition, genetic information or any other characteristic made unlawful by local, state or federal law, ordinance or regulation.

We promote the full realization of equal employment opportunities through a positive continuing program within each medical group, company, hospital, department, and service area. Equal employment opportunities apply to every aspect of Sutter's employment policies and practices.