Almost 20 years ago, in 2007, Scott Berlucchi, FACHE, NHA signed a two-year contract to be the President and CEO of Auburn Community Hospital (ACH). He didn’t intend to stay in Auburn for very long, and certainly didn’t think he would relocate his family from Pennsylvania to Central New York – however, almost two decades and a successful career later, that’s exactly what happened. Today, Berlucchi leads the same hospital in the same capacity, although much has changed over those twenty years: he helped lead a financial and operational turnaround that brought ACH out of bankruptcy and has grown it into a bustling, multi-specialty healthcare hub.
Originally from Pennsylvania, Berlucchi developed the passion and skills for leading small, rural hospitals before he arrived at ACH. Serving as the President and CEO of a few different healthcare systems in Pennsylvania between 1995 and 2007, such as Elk Regional Health System and Lancaster General Susquehanna Division, Berlucchi developed a keen understanding of the importance of local access to quality, specialized care in a small hospital setting. One of the first projects he undertook at ACH was rebuilding and enhancing OBGYN and Women’s Health, which was on the verge of being eliminated.
“In Lancaster, I learned at the feet of some brilliant people who built one of the only women and baby hospitals in Pennsylvania. They were so ahead of the curve with their comprehensive dedication to women and maternal health,” Berlucchi said. In just one example of many, he developed and executed a plan that brought OBGYN and Women’s Health at ACH from the verge of nonexistence into a thriving and growing specialty within the hospital system.
In 2010, the Becker Report named ACH a top ten hospital turnaround, and in 2019 Berlucchi was featured on a list of the top 60 rural CEOs by the same publication. Helping to reinvigorate struggling hospitals is a passion and a skillset Berlucchi has embraced over the decades, he said.
“I’m not a doctor, but I can help heal broken hospitals and health systems. I’m able to take particularly small, rural hospitals that are struggling in any way, shape, or form, and strategically transform them into healthcare systems that meet the needs of the communities they serve,” Berlucchi explained.
Building Blocks of Success
Looking back over the transformation of ACH since he took the helm, Berlucchi highlighted several accomplishments that were achieved along the way. The recent opening of the hospital’s Cancer Center, the Auburn Cardiovascular Institute and the Women’s Imaging facility are all exciting specialty additions to ACH that were made possible by several years of hard work and strategy. ACH’s Leapfrog score, a safety grade given to hospitals across the nation, has improved from a D to a B, almost attaining an A rating, which reflects strong enhancements made over time. In addition, ACH’s nursing home, Finger Lakes Center for Living, recently received a five-star rating from Care Compare.
“These are just ratings,” Berlucchi said, “but the work that goes into them is all about patient safety and quality of care.”
The work to achieve these milestones is structured in a strategic way, Berlucchi explained. He and his team always have a three-year plan that guides their operations, which is updated each year. The one-year operating plans are then broken down into 90-day increments, in which accomplishments and successes are reported and analyzed. Berlucchi emphasized the role his team plays in making sure the work gets completed with quality and efficiency.
“I’m very, very proud of my management team, the board, the medical staff, and the workforce. In all of those regards we have very dedicated professionals, physicians, allied health, maintenance workers, and office staff. Our community of workers are extremely dedicated to ACH and to the Auburn community. I’ve learned you can build buildings, recruit doctors, and start programs, but it won’t work unless you have a dedicated workforce to make it all happen,” Berlucchi explained.
During COVID and in the years since the pandemic, he said, there have been many challenges facing the healthcare sector that ACH has had to navigate alongside other hospitals and health care facilities. Rising demands for medical care mean that many hospitals have been operating at or over capacity, leading to strain and stress on existing systems and infrastructure.
“In my 40-year career, the post-COVID years have been some of the most challenging,” Berlucchi said. “It just changed the landscape of traditional healthcare. We’re being asked to see about 30% more patients with the existing infrastructure, and therein lies the need for creativity and innovation because we don’t necessarily have more dollars to make things happen. The Cancer Center we recently opened is already at capacity. We’re only five months into our Cath Lab being opened and it’s tripled and quadrupled our volume estimates. Thankfully, we have a great group of doctors, nurses and personnel that rise to the occasion and meet the needs of the community.”
Growing and Innovating into the Future
In addition to meeting the needs of the wider community in Auburn, the needs of the 65-plus population are quickly increasing. Many of the added services and facilities ACH now offers have an eye toward the present and future needs of this specific, growing population.
“I see a tremendous growth opportunity in meeting the needs of the aging population, particularly around chronic illness and disease. We’re a full-service hospital, but our older community members are accessing cardiology-related services in particular,” said Berlucchi, highlighting a growing need for cancer services, orthopedics, neurology, and services related to movement disorders within this population, as well.
Alongside other small, rural hospitals, ACH is also innovating and growing to meet increasing patient needs by partnering with larger, academic medical centers. Berlucchi shared that ACH partners with several nearby health centers to enhance its service offerings. ACH partners with SUNY Upstate for several service lines including cancer care, intensive care, and critical care; with the University of Rochester for neurology and cardiology; and with Rochester Regional Health for anesthesia.
“No man is an island, and no small hospital is an island. It’s good to build those clinical affiliations, and sometimes those affiliations can mature into joint ventures along service lines,” Berlucchi said.
Finally, recruiting top talent for ACH is a major priority for Berlucchi as he and the team continue to strive to meet the community’s needs.
“You always have to be trying to recruit the best and the brightest to your community,” he stated. “At the end of the day, medical professionals rely on one another. It’s always a multidisciplinary approach. It’s very important for physicians that your colleagues are as strong as you are for the best patient care. Recruitment and retention of a quality workforce is critical to our core mission.”
Purpose-Led Community Leadership
Reflecting on almost four decades of leadership at small, rural hospitals and health centers, Berlucchi highlighted the men and women who shared their own experience and made it possible for him to bring success to hospitals in Pennsylvania and now ACH.
“I’m very proud of the role of mentoring in my career, particularly the men and women who mentored me and have made me the person that I am. My family, of course, and my faith, first and foremost, but there are a lot of men and women and professionals who have helped shape me along the way,” said Berlucchi.
Now, as he continues through a phase of his career where he has decades of experience under his own belt, Berlucchi enjoys passing on the knowledge he’s gained with young professionals who will take over the reins in years to come.
“I’m trying to pave the road forward now, where I get young professionals or middle-aged professionals who are new at ACH or in a new role, and I try very hard to mentor the next generation. My thought process is that once upon a time, somebody was kind enough to show me the ropes, and in turn I became a better professional to serve the community. At this stage of the game, I feel a duty and a responsibility to coach, train, and mentor the next generation of healthcare leaders. All the trials and tribulations and the experiences I’ve had cannot be learned in a book. I think all professionals owe that to their profession, to not hold onto knowledge, but to release it for others to pick up,” he said.
However, Berlucchi is not yet ready to leave his work behind and for a very simple reason: he loves it too much. Roughly quoting a phrase from the Pennsylvania Dutch, he said, “If you’re fortunate enough in life to wake up one day and know what your purpose and your passion are, and if you’re lucky enough to find work that is synonymous with your purpose and your passion, then you’ll never work another day in your life.
“I’m just very blessed to understand what my passion is and what my purpose is, and very lucky to be afforded an opportunity to have a leadership role in a healthcare organization,” Berlucchi continued. “I’ll be providing healthcare leadership in some way, shape or form for a very long time because I love what I do, and it doesn’t feel like work.”
And although he never intended to stay in Auburn for longer than two years, let alone two decades, his love for the community and for ACH also keeps him going.
“I guess I’m right for Auburn and Auburn’s right for me,” he said. “Look at all the wonderful things we’re doing together. ACH has been here for 150 years, and I’m sure it’ll be here another 150 years because we’ve built a strong program and a strong legacy, and we’re doing very good work for the community.”
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Interesting conversation with a patient last week about their mounting health care debt. Higher premiums, higher deductibles, higher co-pays, more out-of-formulary uncovered meds all adding up to $45,000 in annual out-of-pocket costs.