Source: Cottage Hospital
The American Hospital Association (AHA) in Washington D.C. has elected seven new members to its Board of Trustees, including Ron Werft, president and CEO of Cottage Health in Santa Barbara. The Board of Trustees is the highest policymaking body of the AHA and has ultimate authority for the governance and management of its direction and finances. The three-year board terms begin Jan. 1, 2020.
Mr. Werft is past chair of the California Hospital Association and Hospital Association of Southern California and serves on the board of Vizient West Coast. He was awarded the 2013 CHA Award of Merit for outstanding contribution to the California health care community and the 2015 Walker-Sullivan Fellowship presented by California Health Foundation & Trust. As an AHA Board member, he will chair AHA’s Regional Policy Board 9.
A graduate of the University of California, San Diego, Mr. Werft also holds a master’s in hospital and health care administration from the University of Minnesota.
“I’m honored to be elected to the Board of Trustees of the AHA, which represents nearly 5,000 hospitals and other providers,” said Mr. Werft. “The work of the AHA helps shape legislative policies to improve care for patients across the nation.”
Other incoming members of the AHA Board of Trustees include:
Michael Charlton, president and CEO of ICON Hospitality in Galloway, N.J.
Joanne Conroy, M.D., CEO and president of Dartmouth-Hitchcock and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health in Lebanon, N.H.
Wright Pinson, M.D., deputy CEO and Chief Health System Officer at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn.
Roxie Wells, M.D., president of Cape Fear Valley Hoke Healthcare in Hoke County, N.C.
Mary Maertens, regional president and CEO of Avera Marshall Regional Medical Center in Marshall, Minn.
Mary Mannix, FACHE, president and CEO of Augusta Health, a 255-bed health system in Fisherville, Va.
Sylvia Young, president and CEO of HCA Healthcare’s Continental Division, a health care system serving the Denver and Wichita, Kan. areas.
About Cottage Health cottagehealth.org
The not-for-profit Cottage Health is the leader in providing advanced medical care to the Central Coast region. Specialties include the Cottage Children’s Medical Center, Level 1 Trauma Center, Neuroscience Institute, Heart & Vascular Center, Center for Orthopedics, and Rehabilitation Hospital. The Cottage Health medical staff is comprised of more than 700 physicians, many with subspecialties typically found only at university medical centers. Last year, the Cottage Health hospitals in Goleta, Santa Barbara and Santa Ynez Valley provided inpatient care for 20,000 people, treated 79,000 patients through their 24-hour emergency departments and helped deliver 2,100 newborns.