Michael Rulffes, now in charge of Clifton Springs Hospital and Clinic and Newark-Wayne Community Hospital, will focus on attracting more providers, increase services
By Mike Costanza
On June 30, Michael Rulffes became the new president and chief operating officer of Rochester Regional-Eastern Region and of the hubs of its medical care system, Clifton Springs Hospital and Clinic and Newark-Wayne Community Hospital.
“Clifton Springs Hospital and Clinic and Newark-Wayne Community Hospital are both vital to their communities and I’m honored to support the teams that make such a meaningful impact every day,” Rulffes said.
As he settles into his new job, Rulffes faces a number of challenges, including the need to attract new medical staff and to find ways to deal with a potentially huge decrease in federal Medicaid funding. The Eastern Region is part of the healthcare giant Rochester Regional Health.
Clifton Springs, which is located in the Ontario County town of the same name, and Newark-Wayne, which sits in Wayne County, serve patients from seven Upstate New York counties. Together, the healthcare institutions have a total of 216 beds and an annual budget of $200 million. In 2024 alone, 6,851 surgical procedures were conducted at the facilities, they discharged a total of 8,054 inpatients and patients visited their emergency departments 31,094 times.
In addition to heading Clifton Springs and Newark-Wayne, Rulffes also has charge of the eastern region’s numerous outpatient offices. The Canton native has a bachelor’s degree from SUNY Oswego and an MBA from Cleveland State University, with a specialization in health care administration.
Rulffes has spent about 18 years in progressively more responsible administrative positions in healthcare, including eight years with Crouse Health in Syracuse, where he was simultaneously executive director of medical practice and director of provider operations and business development. Before assuming his current position, he spent about 2 1/2 years as chief operating officer for Rochester Regional Health’s St. Lawrence Region and Canton-Potsdam Hospital.
“Michael’s focus on strategic growth, operational excellence and team development has had a significant impact on the performance of the St. Lawrence Region and the people we serve,” said Jennifer Eslinger, president of health care operations and COO for Rochester Regional Health at the time Rulffes’s promotion was announced.
As he settles into his new office, Rulffes faces a number of challenges. To begin with, Clifton Springs and Newark-Wayne face the shortages of medical professionals, particularly primary care physicians and nurses, that afflict most US healthcare providers.
“That’s a challenge that’s only expected to intensify over the coming years,” he said.
Rural providers have particularly been affected. In response, Rulffes has been working with Rochester Regional Health to find the means to attract more physicians.
“We’re actually exploring and supporting strategies like [medical school] loan forgiveness, signing bonuses, flexible scheduling and rural training tracks to make rural practice more attractive,” he said.
In addition, Rochester Regional Health has been expanding the range of services that are provided by its nurse practitioners and physician assistants to encompass more of the tasks that are performed by physicians. Under New York State law, licensed NPs and PAs can provide many, but not all, of the same services as physicians, though PAs must work under a physician’s supervision.
“By enabling NPs and PAs to practice at the top of their license within structured clinical governance frameworks, we are able to extend care, reduce wait times and enhance patient experience,” Rulffes said.
Rochester Regional Health has also sought to encourage more nurses to join its staff.
“We all need to start thinking about how to grow our own pipeline,” Rulffes said.
As part of that effort, the health system established satellites of its nursing school, the Rochester General Isabella Graham Hart School of Practical Nursing, at three of its facilities: the United Memorial Medical Center in Genesee County, Canton-Potsdam Hospital and Clifton Springs Hospital. By doing so, it hopes to encourage the school’s graduates to take jobs at those locations.
“We know we need to get younger people to look at nursing as a career,” Rulffes said. “Expanding and creating these satellites for the school of nursing, I think that helps you grow your pipeline.”
That effort might be bearing fruit. Over 15 graduates of the nursing school’s Canton-Potsdam Hospital satellite are now employed there.
Rochester Regional Health is also developing a way to recruit experienced nurses from outside the U.S. to work in its intensive care units and other important medical-surgical units.
“We hope to see the results of this effort by the end of 2025 going into 2026,” Rulffes said.
In addition to taking on the other tasks that come with his new job, Rulffes also hopes to make the specialized medical care and other services that Rochester Regional Health provides at other sites more available to those being treated at his hospitals and medical offices.
“How do we continue to grow off of that larger facility, leverage the good things that they’re offering to keep local care in the region?” he said.
Doing so would save local patients the trouble and expense of traveling out of the area for treatment.
Though staffing difficulties and the desire to expand services have caught Rulffes’ attention, the new federal budget could present another set of problems. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the budget that President Donald Trump signed on July 4 will reduce federal spending on Medicaid, Medicare and Obamacare by about $1.1 trillion by 2034 and cause 11.8 million Americans to lose their health insurance by that time.
Rulffes said Rochester Regional is determining how to respond to the new budget.
“We are reviewing impacts of the legislation closely and we’ll continue to advocate to protect the patients, providers and communities who depend on us every day,” he said.
The effects of that loss of revenue could transcend the operations of the Eastern Region’s medical facilities.
“Rural hospitals in general are lifelines for our communities,” he said. “We provide the healthcare services. We’re also an economic driver for these communities.”