The American Hospital Association has announced that Bob Letson, CEO of South Peninsula Hospital, has been recognized as a “Grass Roots Champion.”
It is an award given each year to a state’s health care leader who “effectively and reliably delivers our collective message to elected officials, and who advocates tirelessly for the hospitals and patients they serve,” said Dale A. Kirby, executive director of AHA’s Region 9.
Letson will be formally recognized at the eighth annual Breakfast of Grass Roots Champions in Washington, D.C., on April 30, during AHA’s annual membership meeting.
Letson has been the hospital’s CEO since 2008. During that time, the hospital has experienced improved revenues, increased services, conducted two community health needs assessments, championed one community health improvement plan, developed a five-year strategic plan, added specialists and improved patient satisfaction, according to information provided by the hospital.
Letson responded to a 2009 community health needs assessment that showed 43 percent of 1,488 surveyed felt the community lacked medical specialists by expanding the hospital’s specialty clinics and recruiting additional medical and allied practitioners. He is a member of the Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Association’s leadership team, has served as chair of the Small Hospital Network and is Alaska’s alternate state delegate to the American Hospital Association. At SPH, he led the effort to obtain Critical Access Hospital and Emergency Level Trauma IV designations.
Within the community, Letson serves on the Homer Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center board of directors, plays on a local softball team and during the 2012 holiday season entertained audiences as Ebenezer Scrooge in the Long Term Care facility’s production of “A Christmas Carol.”