Brett Spenst, a veteran of Adventist healthcare, has joined the team at Littleton Adventist Hospital as chief executive officer. Since graduating from Loma Linda University (LLU) with a bachelor’s degree in accounting, he has served 18 years in a variety of positions with Adventist Health, and most recently was chief operating and financial officer for Kettering Medical Center System. Along the way, he also earned a master’s degree from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
Building on Littleton’s already outstanding reputation and the work of his predecessors, Spenst aims to run a hospital that not only treats injury and disease, but prevents illness through community education. He looks often to the historical roots of Adventist healthcare and its legacy of promoting wellness. “Sometimes I think we hide that light under a bushel,” he said. “We should be taking the lead on healthful living. As a Seventh-day Adventist faith-based organization, we are called to a higher standard for the care we deliver.” Spenst said that means getting things right for patients the first time, avoiding return hospital visits and helping people learn how to stay well in the first place.
“I’ve had many opportunities over the years to leave this profession,” he added. “What keeps me here is the great alignment between what our business is—taking care of people as Christ did—and my own personal goals for my time here on earth.” His background in finance has helped keep that healthcare mission viable wherever he’s served through careful stewardship of resources.
Spenst sees strong partnerships with local churches as critical to accomplishing these objective in the community Littleton serves. “We each can leverage the other much further and more effectively than we can alone,” he stated, “and that’s the kind of impact that makes our work so special.”
Information submitted by Stephen King, senior vice president for mission and ministry for the Rocky Mountain Adventist Health System/Centura Health, serving the five Adventist hospitals in Colorado.
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