Aspirus Lake View President Tackles Rural Healthcare Challenges in Two Harbors

Greg Ruberg has spent more than two decades working to keep quality healthcare rooted in Two Harbors, and the challenges he navigates today are more complex than anything Lake County has seen before. A feature published this week in the Lake County Press profiles the Aspirus Lake View Hospital president and his approach to what the publication calls a "perfect storm" facing rural healthcare.

Ruberg was promoted to administrator at Lake View Hospital after joining the staff in 1998, beginning in the positions of Director of Rehabilitation Services and then Director of Rehabilitation/Nutrition Services and Risk Management. More than a decade later, he holds a Fellow designation from the American College of Healthcare Executives and was named the Lake County Chamber of Commerce's 2021 Citizen of the Year.

The profile arrives as Ruberg and his team have been managing the pressures that define rural hospital leadership: workforce shortages, Medicaid funding uncertainty, and the ongoing work of integrating into a larger health system. Aspirus Lake View Hospital launched a pilot certified nursing assistant training program as rural hospitals across the Northland face mounting challenges from recent federal Medicaid cuts and workforce shortages. Ruberg has been direct about the community stakes of the effort. "We know if we train people here, we hope they'll stay here. But again, we have not limited this. If we train people at Lakeview and they take a job in our local skilled nursing facility, in a group home, an assisted living, that's a win for our entire community," he said. The first cohort of six students began training in February, with a second cohort planned for late spring, and if the program proves successful, healthcare leaders hope to implement the training model in rural hospitals across the state.

Despite the headwinds, Aspirus Lake View's performance record has been exceptional. The hospital has been named a Top 100 Critical Access Hospital in the United States by the Chartis Center for Rural Health for two consecutive years, one of only 11 hospitals in Minnesota to achieve the national recognition and among the top 7% of critical access hospitals in the country. The hospital was also named one of the top 20 critical access hospitals for patient perspective in the United States, out of more than 1,350 such hospitals nationally.

That recognition has come amid a significant organizational change. St. Luke's Hospital in Duluth and Lake View Memorial Hospital in Two Harbors officially affiliated with Wisconsin-based Aspirus Health after filing assumed names with the Secretary of State on February 28, 2024. Aspirus St. Luke's Hospital and Aspirus Lake View Memorial Hospital then unveiled new names and logos during ribbon-cutting ceremonies in Duluth and Two Harbors. At that event, Ruberg framed the merger's promise for North Shore residents plainly. "As part of the Aspirus Health family, we now have access to expanded resources and support, allowing us to further invest in care models and services that are vital to providing great care in more rural areas," Ruberg said. "We are excited about this new chapter and are looking forward to continuing to serve our patients as part of the Aspirus family."

Aspirus Health is a nonprofit system based in Wausau, Wisconsin, operating 18 hospitals and 130 outpatient locations with nearly 14,000 team members, serving patients across northeastern Minnesota, central and northern Wisconsin, and Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Aspirus Health committed to investing at least $300 million in St. Luke's over eight years under the merger agreement.

Ruberg has also carried Two Harbors' rural healthcare concerns to the federal level. His LinkedIn profile shows that he and Minnesota Hospital Association CEO Rahul Koranne met with U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, though details of that meeting's agenda were not publicly disclosed.

Founded in 1956 with donations and Hill-Burton Fund assistance, the Two Harbors facility opened in July 1957 and has grown steadily since. Under Ruberg's leadership, it has done something few rural hospitals its size can claim: remained competitive, nationally recognized, and rooted in the community it was built to serve.