An open letter to our community from Paul L.H. Ouyang and Stephen A. Ralph

Thirty years ago, during a period of substantial change for both Huntington Hospital and health care as a whole, Steve Ralph started his work here. In the decades that have followed, our community hospital has grown to become a regional leader that delivers innovative patient care and results on-par with the top hospitals in the nation. Steve has been instrumental in helping Huntington Hospitalrealize its potential as a leader in creating community well-being through world-class health care delivered with kindness and dignity.

Now, as we celebrate our 125th year of providing excellent care, Steve has decided that he will be stepping down as Huntington Hospital’s president and chief executive officer, concluding 22 years in this leadership role.

To find the best and most qualified person to lead Huntington Hospital into its next chapter, our board of directors has convened a search committee and retained a national search firm to find our hospital’s next CEO. We are confident we will attract an excellent CEO successor and anticipate having a candidate in place by year-end 2017 or early 2018.

Once the new CEO is on board, Steve will step down from his current role but remain with Huntington Hospitalas a senior advisor to his successor and the board of directors. To ensure a seamless transition, Steve will continue to work closely with the board, his successor and others for a period of time, leveraging his deep knowledge and important relationships with our employees and physicians, community and partners.

Throughout the last 20 years — and especially during the last 10 — hospitals have seen significant changes and challenges that have forced near-constant evolution. Huntington Hospital is proud of its history of facing challenges head on, and excelling.

In 2003, we recognized the need for new services and facilities to serve our community, so we launched our largest ever comprehensive capital campaign and raised more than $100 million to ensure excellent healthcare delivery through the creation of a state-of-the-art patient tower. In 2008, we saw the need to expand further, this time to meet growing demand as Pasadena’s last emergency room and the region’s only trauma center. Again, we looked to our community and raised $83 million from philanthropic support that ultimately allowed us to double our capacity to provide life-saving care with the most advanced technologies. And in the years that have followed, we have continued to evolve to meet the ever-changing needs of our community and remain focused on delivering the right care, in the right place, at the right time.

Our excellence is manifested in the outstanding team of talented and dedicated people who ensure we are here for our community 24 hours daily. Their expert, compassionate care has allowed our hospital to be honored in myriad ways. We are immensely proud to be designated as a Magnet® hospital by the American Nurses Credentialing Center, recognizing the very best in nursing care and professionalism in nursing practice. Our medical staff is among the best in the nation, covering all medical specialties. Over 1,500 volunteers ensure the hightouch, patient-centered care that is our hallmark. We have been celebrated numerous times by Healthgrades for being in the top-1% in the nation for clinical outcomes and ranked by U.S. News and World Report as a top-5 hospital in the Los Angeles Metro Area and a top-10 hospital in California overall.

And last year, our board of directors reaffirmed and refreshed Huntington Hospital’s vision, mission and core values, adding important words like collaboration, kindness and dignity that underscore our sincere commitment to providing compassionate community care.

These accomplishments under Steve’s leadership — alongside accreditations, designations and awards too many to list — give us the utmost confidence that Huntington Hospital is in a position of strength and poised to deliver compassionate and excellent health care to our community for decades to come.

We extend our most heartfelt thanks for being a meaningful part of the important work that is done by our hospital. We look forward to updating you as the search and selection process for Huntington Hospital’s next leader progresses.

Sincerely,

Paul L. H. Ouyang
Chairman, Board of Directors

Stephen A. Ralph
President and Chief Executive Officer

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