Sacramento-based Sutter Health announced Wednesday that it will open an administrative service center in Roseville to support its Northern California health care operations – a move it said will reduce staff but concentrate as many as 1,000 jobs in the Sacramento area over the next 18 months.

Scheduled to open in early 2013, the center will be in a nearly 300,000-square-foot office building at 9100 Foothills Blvd., near Highway 65 and Blue Oaks Boulevard.

It will function as a central administrative service hub, with finance, billing, human resources and other non-patient services moving into the site. Currently, those services are spread out over dozens of locations stretching from the Central Valley to the Bay Area.

Bill Gleason, a Sutter Health spokesman, explained that the prolonged consolidation process ultimately will result in a reduction of Sutter's overall workforce spread out over Northern California.

"We don't know the exact number of jobs that will be affected," he said, adding that some employees might opt not to relocate to Roseville.

Gleason said the streamlining move was designed to help Sutter operate "in the most efficient way … . When we combine efficiency, we lower our overall costs, and lower costs are passed along to those who use Sutter doctors and hospitals."

Sutter said the first group of 200 to 300 employees will move into the facility in the first quarter of 2013. Additional employees will follow in phases. Sutter said the center is expected to employ more than 1,000 administrative support staff over the next 18 months.

The lease includes an option to expand the Roseville site to accommodate additional employees, as needed.

"The selection of Roseville for our service center represents another significant long-term commitment to support and grow within Northern California," said Pat Fry, Sutter Health president and CEO.

Sutter's announcement was warmly received on multiple fronts. Barbara Hayes, president and CEO of the Sacramento Area Commerce and Trade Organization, called it "a tremendous win for the region." She cited the prospect of adding hundreds of local jobs over the next few years.

Hayes noted that Sutter's choice of Roseville was fostered by a collaboration that included SACTO, the city of Roseville, Gov. Jerry Brown's office, the California Employment Training Panel, the Golden Sierra Workforce Investment Board and real estate brokers with Cushman & Wakefield and Cornish & Carey Commercial Newmark Knight Frank.

Mike Rossi, Brown's senior adviser on jobs and business development, said Sutter's new center "will provide a wide array of high-quality jobs for the region's workers."

"We're thrilled," said Ray Kerridge, Roseville's city manager. "This brings new jobs, new revenues and provides opportunities for other businesses and industry sectors, like retail and construction, to experience new growth as well."

The building Sutter Health is moving into used to be occupied by Hewlett-Packard Co. Quality Investment Properties bought the building last year.

Existing Sutter Health system offices will remain in Sacramento.

Sutter Health doctors, not-for-profit hospitals and other health care service providers serve patients in more than 100 Northern California locales.

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