About Cottage Health
Thank you for choosing Cottage Health (CH) for your healthcare needs. For over 130 years, our not-for-profit health system has been providing advanced medical care for patients throughout California. Today, our nationally recognized services provide families with the patient-centered care they deserve.
In 1888, a group of 50 Santa Barbara women recognized it was time for the growing community to have a hospital — a not-for-profit facility dedicated to the well-being and good health of all residents, regardless of one’s ability to pay.
Our mission is to serve our community with excellence, integrity, and compassion. Every day we touch thousands of lives in many different ways, resolute in our mission to put patients first. We take pride in helping our patients get back to living their lives - in the places they love.
Whether it's our exclusive designation as the only cardiac STEMI receiving station in the South Coast or our commitment to stroke prevention and treatment, we move swiftly in emergencies when every minute counts.
Cottage Health is guided by a volunteer board of directors from the greater Santa Barbara community and provides the residents of the Central and South Coast with exemplary health care, continuous improvements in advanced medicine, and a commitment to our communities.
Our medical staff of more than 600 physicians includes specialists in all major clinical areas, many of whom participate in the training and education of some of the top medical residents in the country in our internal medicine, general surgery, and radiology residency programs.
Mission – Vision – Values
Mission Statement
To provide superior health care for and improve the health of our communities through a commitment to our core values of excellence, integrity, and compassion.
Vision Statement
Cottage Health is a trusted partner for those who seek and deliver care, recognized as the destination for exceptional healthcare.
Core Values
Excellence — What we do
Integrity — How we do it
Compassion — Why we do it
Our History
Since its opening on December 8, 1891, when Santa Barbara’s population was less than 5,000, Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital has provided high quality, community focused care and has operated as a not-for-profit — founded, built and supported by the community it serves. Today our hospitals — in Santa Barbara, Goleta, and the Santa Ynez Valley — provide a comprehensive range of services and are consistently ranked among the most efficiently managed healthcare providers in California.
Our Community
A volunteer board of directors brings a breadth of expertise to providing strategic direction and fiscal management for the System.
These women and men are not paid for their service and leadership in support of our hospitals. For more than a century, the vision of the board has helped to keep Cottage strong. More than 1,000 community members volunteer at our hospitals. The value of their volunteer hours exceeds $3.5 million annually.
Recent capital campaigns through the hospital foundations reflect strong community support for the rebuilding of our hospitals, with more than 6,725 donors and campaign totals of $110 million for Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, $7.5 million for Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital, and $14 million for Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital.
Our communities continue to support Cottage Health, with more than $15 million donated through our philanthropic foundations in 2013.
Educating Future Caregivers
More than 225 students have completed the San Marcos High School Health Careers Academy, which includes an internship at SBCH. Cottage strongly supports nursing education in our community through partnerships with Santa Barbara City College and with CSU Channel Islands, which offers a BSN program for 66 students.
Since 1923, SBCH has also been a community-teaching hospital for physicians, now with over 70 resident physicians across four ACGME-credentialled programs, including diagnostic radiology, internal medicine, pediatrics and general surgery.
Employment
Cottage is the region’s largest private employer, with 3,500 employees. The health system is designated as an American Heart Association “Fit Friendly” workplace and offers childcare services to its employees. More than 81 employees have affordable homes at Bella Riviera, a development initiated by the SBCH Foundation.
More than 650 physicians serve on the medical staff of Cottage hospitals.
Community Outreach
Through charity care, shortfalls in government reimbursement and a broad array of community programs, Cottage Health annually provides approximately $144 million in services for the benefit of those most in need.
Population Health
Population Health is a new initiative from Cottage Health. It’s designed to improve the health outcomes of all our communities by keeping people healthy and helping them prevent unnecessary illness and more expensive health care.
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