SYRACUSE — Kathryn Ruscitto says she is “almost at the end of all the goals that I set for myself” since joining St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center in 2001. Ruscitto, the health-care organization’s president & CEO since 2011, has announced her decision to retire at the end of 2016, following six years at the helm. […]
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SYRACUSE — Kathryn Ruscitto says she is “almost at the end of all the goals that I set for myself” since joining St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center in 2001.
Ruscitto, the health-care organization’s president & CEO since 2011, has announced her decision to retire at the end of 2016, following six years at the helm.
“I feel the organization has preserved its mission in joining Trinity [Health], has really begun to develop the right framework for the future and responding to health-care reform, and is able to engage the community in a way that is going to help us respond to community needs,” says Ruscitto.
She spoke with CNYBJ on March 11, the same day that the hospital announced her upcoming retirement.
Ruscitto is St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center’s 13th president and CEO. She replaced Theodore Pasinski on Jan. 1, 2011.
In her time at St. Joseph’s, Ruscitto helped to lead the facility through a multi-year, multi-phase capital project that included a new emergency department; a new 73,000-square-foot surgical suite; and the new Christina M. Nappi Surgical Tower, which the hospital formally opened in September 2014.
Ruscitto also guided the organization through the installation and May 2014 launch of SJLinked, an electronic health-record (EHR) system across the entire organization, including the hospital, clinics, and the primary-care offices of St. Joseph’s Physicians.
Besides the capital project and EHR project, St. Joseph’s Health in July 2015 formally joined Livonia, Michigan–based Trinity Health, which describes itself as “one of the largest multi-institutional, Catholic health-care delivery systems in the nation.”
St. Joseph’s Health, which is the new name for St. Joseph’s Hospital and its affiliates, transferred the nonprofit sponsorship from the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities to Trinity Health’s Catholic Health Ministries.
Finances
When asked if she expected St. Joseph’s to improve its financial position in her remaining months as CEO, Ruscitto replied, “That’s already happening.”
St. Joseph’s has reported operating losses in 2014 and in part of 2015, which Ruscitto says the hospital expected when it “made the commitment to continue down the road of community access to care.”
She also points to the $20 million grant the New York State Health Department awarded St. Joseph, which she contends “was in direct recognition” of “putting in place the right services to improve the health of the community.”
St. Joseph’s is using the $20 million award for “debt restructuring and program reinvestment,” according to a March 4 news release from area state lawmakers.
That funding came from the essential health-care provider support program (EHCPSP).
The St. Joseph’s EHCPSP grant is the “largest grant that St. Joseph’s has ever received,” the organization said in a news release.
“The funding has lagged the investment we made,” she says.
Ruscitto defends St. Joseph’s involvement in Primary Care Center – West clinic, which she says provides the neighborhood primary care, pediatric care, care for pregnant women, and mental health treatment.
Primary Care Center – West at 321 Gifford St. in Syracuse was previously known as Westside Family Health Center, according to the St. Joseph’s website.
“We certainly expect to get back to where we were prior to some of those investments with the state support,” she says.
She also notes the Trinity Health sponsorship is helping to reduce overhead costs.
Looking back
When asked what she’s most proud of during her time as CEO, Ruscitto pointed to the hospital’s efforts to “change the way in which it engages the community.”
“The organization got behind the West Side and building the West Side Family Health Center. We have a primary-care practice out in Cazenovia that serves the rural community. We’re helping the Lewis County hospital up in the North Country. We’ve really done a number of things that we have developed really into a system of care,” she adds.
As for what she would’ve done differently, Ruscitto said she would’ve started developing more formal leadership training earlier, even in the decade before she became CEO.
Ruscitto joined St. Joseph’s in 2001 as senior VP for development and governmental affairs. The hospital named her executive VP in 2009.
In the years before joining St. Joseph’s, Ruscitto served as administrator for human services for Onondaga County in 1988 and oversaw the development of the emergency communications center on Onondaga Hill.
St. Joseph’s will soon begin a national search for a new president, the hospital said.
The hospital’s local board of trustees and representatives from St. Joseph’s constituent groups, including physicians and nurses, will help lead the search.
Ruscitto will work with the board of trustees and the Trinity leadership team as they search for the next CEO.
“Our board will still very much be in control of that process in choosing the next leader and I’ll be able to focus more of the rest of this year on the last few things that I want to make sure get completed,” says Ruscitto.
She has also offered to remain in her position until a new leader is in place, the hospital said.