Longtime Cottage Health President & CEO Ron Werft is retiring next year, the Santa Barbara-based healthcare system announced Monday.
Werft has been with Cottage Health for 37 years and has been its leader for the past 24 years. The organization will start a national search for his successor “to continue his strong stewardship,” spokesperson Cristina Cortez said this week.
Cottage Health operates Santa Barbara, Goleta Valley and Santa Ynez Valley hospitals; the Cottage Children’s Medical Center; Cottage Rehabilitation Hospital; primary care clinics; urgent care clinics; and virtual care services.
“On behalf of Cottage Health’s Board, we thank Mr. Werft for his many contributions that will continue to benefit this community for generations,” Chair Steve Zola said in a statement. “He is a skilled and compassionate leader with extraordinary vision and understanding of health care.”
“The opportunity to lead Cottage Health has been and continues to be a joy, privilege, and honor,” Werft said in a statement. “Cottage is an extraordinary organization, and every day I see why – it’s an incredible team of employees, physicians, executives, board members, donors and volunteers who are always working to make Cottage even better. They carry forward Cottage’s 132-year legacy of caring in our community.”
Under Werft’s leadership, Cottage Health built a new Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital in phases, within the footprint of the old buildings, while keeping services open to patients. The system also built a new Goleta Valley hospital and plans to move the rehabilitation hospital to that campus.
It was during Werft’s tenure that Cottage Health established The Center for Population Health and the Health Research Institute.
The system has expanded its residency programs and outpatient services, including 13 urgent care clinics in the tri-county area.
During the COVID pandemic, Cottage Health organized huge vaccination drives for local residents, including a drive-through location at the Goleta hospital.
Cottage Health infectious disease experts including Dr. Lynn Fitzgibbons regularly spoke at public health events and in media interviews to help inform the public about the virus.
Last year, the Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Foundation received its largest single gift in history, a $50-million donation from Richard and Mary Compton. It will be used to create the Compton Center for Medical Excellence and Innovation.
The Comptons believe Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital “has the wherewithal to be one of the best teaching hospitals in the country,” Werft told Noozhawk at the time. “That’s an inspiration to us and a wonderful challenge to us to make the very best use of their trust in us.”
Weft’s community involvement extends to his volunteer service on boards and committees over the years including Partners in Education, CenCal, Santa Barbara Fighting Back Coalition, Vizient West Coast, United Way, and World Telehealth Initiative. He has also served as a board member for the American Hospital Association, California Hospital Association, and Hospital Association of Southern California.