Ron Werft may have announced his retirement, but he’s not going anywhere soon.

The Cottage Health president & CEO will stay at work until his successor is hired, and help with the transition, he told Noozhawk.

That shows the longtime leader’s commitment to the institution, Board President Steve Zola says.  

“He’s as dedicated as we are to find the right person.”

The Board of Directors met on July 30 to talk about the hiring process, just a few days after Werft announced his plans. They formed a search committee and hired an executive search firm.

There will be a large interview panel for finalists, and a lot of input solicited from Cottage Health staff and stakeholders, Zola said.

He expects the field of candidates will narrow by the end of the year and someone will be selected next spring.

Werft and Zola both expect this to be a highly sought-after position with possibly dozens of qualified applicants to choose from.

Ron Werft Spent Decades in the Role

Reflecting on his 37 years at Cottage Health, and 24 years as its leader, Werft is grateful and proud.

“It really has been the professional joy and privilege and honor of my life, and now I’m getting kind of emotional,” he said.

He talked about the culture of Cottage Health, which comes from commitment to its mission, shared governance, and “an amazing group of people totally engaged in the place.”

“That is why patients have such a positive experience here, and that is why the community opens up their hearts and their pocketbooks and supports us taking this hospital to the next level,” Werft said.  

Cottage Health expanded its outpatient services in recent years, including primary care and urgent care clinics in three counties. It also has its Center for Population Health, which develops a regular community health needs assessment.

The organization changed its mission statement nine years ago to reflect this “look outward,” Werft said.

“That’s been almost like a second half for me to the career here, is really identifying and responding to healthcare disparities in our communities and develop programs that get at that,” he said. “There’s still a lot of work to be done in that area.”

What Kind of Person Will Cottage Hire?

“I think that a successful leader anywhere and certainly in our hospital industry needs to really embrace a culture of shared governance,” Werft said. “It really has been the secret sauce of this organization.”

Werft said the next CEO “needs to be someone who listens to the staff and acts on what he or she hears.”

The best ideas, he says, “don’t come out of the C-suite, they come from the front lines.”

Cottage Health has important industry relationships across the state and the country – in no small part due to his involvement on association boards – and the new person should keep developing and supporting that, Werft said.

Zola said the next leader should be someone “committed to Cottage’s culture for the long term.”  

Someone involved in legislative work or other efforts outside of Santa Barbara would bring the organization “great perspective in what’s happening in healthcare elsewhere,” he added.

“And it has to be somebody who works well with the extraordinary team at Cottage and partners in the community who put patient care first,” he said. “That’s the minimum.”

Zola said the Board of Directors wants Werf to stay as long as he wants to. “He’s an extraordinarily effective leader. At the same time, he made his decision, and we take the responsibility (of hiring a successor) seriously.”

The Board of Directors sees this as an opportunity to bring someone on while there’s a strong executive and management team that Werft built, Zola said.

Board members are “enthusiastic and energized” for the hiring process, he said.