Q & A: Get to Know Scott Wester, Cottage Health’s New President and CEO
The respected leader talks about his career path and keys to success in healthcare.
Scott Wester, MHA, will join Cottage Health as its new President and CEO on April 7, 2025. Mr. Wester is a nationally recognized, experienced executive who has led large health organizations for more than 30 years.
He recently took some time to talk about his journey to healthcare, the pillars of success for healthcare systems, and trends he’s watching that will shape the future of Cottage Health.
Q: Looking back on your career, what have been the most satisfying parts of your work as a healthcare leader?
Scott Wester: It’s when you know you’ve made a direct impact. Those moments come in different shapes and forms. It could be something as simple as letting a staff member know how much they’re appreciated for doing a great job and promoting that person into a new role. Giving positive reinforcement back to the staff and seeing someone grow is fulfilling. This work at its core is all about helping people. I've been blessed to be in positions in which I could influence patient care and people’s access to opportunities. The work we do is about improving lives and people’s wellbeing — often in their time of greatest need.
Q: How did you get started in healthcare? You majored in chemistry and classical humanities at Saint Louis University. Were you planning to become a physician?
Wester: I had every intention of going to medical school. I had a grandfather who was a physician and thought it would be a good career. As I was considering it, my father — a clinical psychologist — suggested I speak to Ed Arlinghaus, a pioneer in health administration at Xavier University. I talked to him and he inspired me to go into health administration. I pivoted my career path and never looked back. It gave me an opportunity to help advance medicine and care in other very rewarding and impactful ways.
Q: Is it accurate that you became the CEO of a hospital as you were finishing your Master of Hospital and Health Administration degree?
Wester: Yes. I was in my fourth month as an administrative resident in the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System in Louisiana. I was 24!
An administrator had left, so the COO of the health system came to my office and said, “We need you to do something: We need you to run this small, rural hospital as interim CEO.”
And of course, my eyes were as big as saucers.
They told me I had one task — to make sure the staff got paid until the team found someone for the permanent role — but I ended up doing much more during my time there. It turned into a 5- or 6-month engagement, and they offered me the position full time. I went to my mentor Bob Davidge — the CEO of Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center — and told him they wanted to hire me. I’ll never forget it. He said, “Don’t do it. You’re too young. You don’t know enough about this business. You need to learn more about it before you step into a role like this.” It was good advice about gaining experience to understand all aspects of healthcare administration, which I’ve done.
Q: Now, more than 30 years later, you’re becoming the leader of Cottage Health. What role in your past has prepared you most for what you’ll be doing at Cottage?
Wester: When you become a CEO, you have the accountability to guide an organization and its strategy. You're the person everybody looks to. You put actions in place, and you see those actions making a difference.
During my time at Our Lady of the Lake, we had milestone achievements that meant a lot. We transformed from a community hospital to a major academic teaching hospital and tripled our revenue, which allowed us to add medical staff and expand our services in ways that were critical to our community. Becoming one of only eight national centers in the U.S. to participate in the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education’s Pathway to Excellence was significant. We also completed major capital projects, including a heart and vascular institute and a freestanding children’s hospital.
And then, of course, I was able to take all the knowledge I gained during my decades in Louisiana and transfer it to a new community in Florida and make a significant, positive impact in its services and workforce in a relatively short time.
Q: What's been your biggest challenge in leading a hospital or health system?
Wester: I would say the healthcare industry itself is a big challenge. It's always in flux, always quickly evolving – and responding to factors like the pandemic.
When you come down to it, it’s all about providing excellent care. What’s central is that we meet the needs of the community and that they have confidence in us. We also need to make sure that we have an outstanding relationship with the physicians of our community and they trust in the care we’re providing for their patients when they refer them to us.
Q: What are some of the key ways that you see the healthcare industry changing?
Wester: Artificial intelligence and electronic health records (EHR) are probably the most exciting new technologies in our industry for improving the delivery of patient care. Historically, we've been aggregators of data. We used electronic health records to move data from paper into the electronic record, and we aggregate, aggregate, aggregate. Well, now, with AI and the knowledge base we have, we’re able to take that information and gain even more meaning from it.
We can use data to better understand the quality and efficiency of care and our engagement with patients and consumers. And I'm so excited, over the next 5 to 10 years, to see how well Cottage and other organizations lean into this new paradigm of how healthcare will be delivered.
I think it's going to enable our clinicians and care teams to spend more time thinking about their patients. How do we use technology to support some of their daily tasks so that they can spend more direct clinical time on the patients, both on the ambulatory side and the inpatient side? We want to let the system help the clinicians and others provide even better care.
Through research at places like the Compton Center for Medical Excellence and Innovation, we want to find ways to use patient data for predictive analytics. There’s a belief that healthcare organizations could improve outcomes if we're able to predict future problems in patients before they happen. That’s just one of the goals. I’m looking forward to working with the team at Cottage on this.
The healthcare industry itself is also at a critical juncture, especially with the rapid changes underway under the new administration. We are going to have to anticipate change and stay a step ahead of it.
Q: What do you see as the keys to success for Cottage Health?
Wester: I believe every health system stands on three crucial pillars to be successful: culture, strategy, and talent. These are all incredible strengths of Cottage. We have a strong strategic plan and I’ll be working with the executive team to continue the momentum on bringing it to bear. This organization also has an excellent collaborative and empowering culture. It’s something that we have to nourish, day in and day out. In terms of talent, we need to ensure that the people who wear the Cottage Health badge have all the resources they need to apply their skills and provide optimum service. We need to continually ask how can we help them be successful professionals as they continue to work within Cottage. We want Cottage to continue to be the employer of choice. Workforce development and expanded partnerships with academic institutions are also going to be critical.
Q: What can the Cottage Health community expect from you in your first few days and weeks?
Wester: It's my responsibility to deeply understand the organization and what makes it unique and special. I will be very visible within the organization and very accessible. I plan to visit different locations to see Cottage in action. I expect to have group discussions with people who work at all levels and points within the organization. And I plan to visit patient care areas and talk to patients and families for their critical perspectives.
Over time, I’ll spend a lot of time with physician leaders and members of the medical staff. I want to hear what’s working well in each service line, what we should focus on for improvement, and where there are gaps of care we should consider. I like to do patient safety rounds and ask the clinical teams, “What can we do to be better tomorrow than we are today? What does that look like?” It’s important to have engaged conversations with clinical teams to improve processes and reduce variations in care and safety events.
I hope that I’ll be able to add to this culture through my knowledge and experience. At the same time, I’m immersing myself in getting to know the people, organization and community, I will be working with the executive management team to keep up the momentum with our strategic priorities and building out the rest of the executive leadership team.
Q: Since you’re moving from the Southeast, do you have a plan on how best to settle into your new Santa Barbara County community?
Wester: I’ve found that the warmth of the people I’ve met in the Santa Barbara County area is very similar. Even sitting in restaurants, we’ve had such great conversations already. And my wife, Nicole, will be a very active participant in this community. We’re looking forward to becoming part of it.
