California-based Sutter Health, which hired Ochsner Health executive Warner Thomas as its CEO in 2022, has added another Ochsner Health executive to its leadership team.
Oschner CIO Laura Wilt has been named Sutter’s senior vice president and chief digital officer. She will oversee all aspects of a unified digital strategy from information services to design and innovation to data analytics.
Sacramento-headquartered Sutter has approximately 50,000 employees, 12,000 physicians and 2,000 advanced practice clinicians.
“We are excited about our digital future, and this new role will accelerate Sutter Health’s digital innovation and initiatives aimed at delivering a connected, convenient and high-quality patient experience,” said Thomas in a statement. “Laura Wilt is a dynamic leader with a proven track record of implementing award-winning digital strategies within complex health systems. Laura and Sutter’s experienced team will expand our digital solutions to simplify access and navigation for patients across all care settings, from their homes to virtual care to our care facilities.”
Wilt comes to Sutter Health after 10 years at Ochsner, where she was most recently system vice president and chief information officer. At Ochsner, Wilt worked with innovation teams to develop and support new care delivery solutions, digital tools and build patient management capabilities, including virtual nursing units and patient engagement apps.
Prior to Ochsner, Wilt was president of Intellistar Consulting for nearly three years. Before Intellistar, she advised health systems across the country as part of Epic Systems’ implementation services team.
In addition to building better digital consumer connectivity to create more options for patients to interact with Sutter Health, Wilt will focus on easing the physician and caregiver experience within Sutter Health. Specifically, she will lead the system’s effort to improve the electronic health record (EHR) user experience for Sutter-aligned physicians, clinicians and care teams by building the system’s capabilities in AI and machine learning to make it easier for physicians and caregivers to care for patients by, for example, making Epic easier to use and improving in-basket workflows.
“I’m excited to join Sutter Health to integrate and maximize the use of digital technologies in transforming healthcare for millions of patients and clinicians,” said Wilt in a statement. “Technology should help us improve the patient experience and ease physician and care team workloads. We must take a people-centered approach and constantly innovate to improve access for our patients as well as streamline how our clinicians deliver personalized care.”
