The campaign to build a new Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital entered its public phase Wednesday with a packed kickoff breakfast for the community’s business leadership.
Ron Werft, president and CEO of the nonprofit Cottage Health System, and top backers provided a progress report on the $700 million fund-raising campaign and called on the more than 150 assembled community leaders to help them complete the task.
To date, Werft said, more than $85 million has been donated by area philanthropists and foundations, and another $600 million has come from hospital operations, current Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Foundation assets and tax-exempt bonds.
That leaves $15 million to be raised from community donations.
Werft emphasized the hospital’s unique role in the community and its record of care as reasons for optimism.
“Significant quality indicators,” he said, “show Cottage Hospital is a community-owned asset.”
He added that the acute-care hospital is one of just four nationwide in communities with populations of under 500,000 to offer such a range of comprehensive health services, which include a vibrant teaching program and the only trauma center between Los Angeles and the Bay Area.
Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital — established in 1888 in a gas-lit, cottage-like building — is facing the monumental task of retrofitting its campus to comply with state seismic standards. The deadline originally was set for 2013.
A number of improvements are planned as part of the 42-month project, including a doubling in size of the emergency room and its Level II Trauma Care Center, expanded surgery facilities with space for robotic and other state-of-the-art technology, private rooms for all 337 patient beds and a family area in each room, more space for gardens and meditation areas, and a helipad for ambulance transport.
In addition, children’s medical services will be consolidated on the hospital’s third floor, creating Cottage Children’s Hospital within the complex. The campaign also will create a nursing endowment to assist in recruiting and retention of nurses in the face of a nationwide shortage.
Hospital officials held a formal groundbreaking for the project in 2005 and the first milestones in the “pre-construction” construction were two new parking garages and the new Orfalea Children’s Center. A major storm drain was completed earlier this year. “Just in time,” Werft quipped.
Chuck Slosser, president and CEO of the Santa Barbara Foundation, which made a $1 million leadership gift to the Campaign for Cottage Health System, explained why area foundations have been so supportive of the project.
“All of us know a good thing when we see it,” he said at the business breakfast, held at Fess Parker’s DoubleTree Resort.
Peter MacDougall, chairman of the fund-raising campaign and the retired president of Santa Barbara City College, thanked his co-chairs, Palmer Jackson, Leslie Ridley-Tree and Michael Towbes. Then he outlined the next steps.
First, he asked those in attendance to share the hospital’s story — and the campaign plans — with others. Then come referrals for and introductions to friends of the hospital and potential donors. Finally, personal financial support is critical.
“Each day, we’re given the opportunity to do good things,” MacDougall said in making his appeal, “and the choice to do exceptional things.”
As of January, the largest gifts received by the campaign are $10 million from Ridley-Tree and her late husband, Paul; $5 million from the Orfalea Fund for the Orfalea Children’s Center; $3.2 million from the John Lea family; and $2.5 million each from the Stephen Haselton family, the Kommerstadt Family Trust, the Harold McAlister Charitable Foundation and Sage Publications.
Chad Dreier, president and CEO of homebuilder Ryland Group Inc., summed up the personal connection Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital has with its community.
“My grandson was born at Cottage Hospital 11 weeks ago today,” he said. “My hope is that 60 years from now, he’ll have access to high-quality health care at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.”
Trailing behind the Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital project is a seismic-related rebuilding of Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital, a $103 million undertaking that is expected to begin in early 2009.
For more information on how you can help with the Campaign for Cottage Health System, contact Suzanne Dalston, vice president of development, at 805.879.8980. To request a free copy of a campaign DVD, contact Kathryn Williams.
