Photo by Ted Lutz
These are some of the officials who took part in a program Thursday to announce the affiliation of Kane Community Hospital with the Hamot Medical Center of Erie. The group includes, left to right: Gary Maras, senior Hamot vice president for business development and director of the Hamot Heart Institute; Halcolm Bard, treasurer of the Board of Directors for Kane Community Hospital; Gary Rhodes, chief executive officer for Kane Community Hospital; Dr. Linda Rettger, a local physician; Jim Fiorenzo, chief operating officer at Hamot;  Don Payne, president of the Board of Directors at Kane Community Hospital; John Malone, president and chief executive officer at Hamot; and Dr. Richard Long, chief of the medical staff at Hamot.

By Ted Lutz

Staff Writer

The Kane Community Hospital and the Hamot Medical Center in Erie have “dated” for the past decade.
Now they’re “married.”
Hamot, which is recognized as one of the nation’s top 100 hospitals, has had a “cooperative relationship” with the Kane medical facility for 10 years.
This successful and rewarding experience led Hamot to select Kane as its first affiliate in what appears to be the start of a major regional health care network.
The affiliation between Hamot and Kane was announced Thursday at a program at the Kane hospital. The forum featured the unveiling of a new sign on the Route 6 side of the hospital.
“The formal affiliation between the Hamot Medical Center and the Kane Community Hospital is a monumental event for the region,” Gary Rhodes said.
As the chief executive officer for Kane Community Hospital, Rhodes was deeply involved in talks with Hamot over the past 18 months that led to the historic affiliation.
“KCH is vital to the delivery of care to patients in its area and it is through Hamot’s support that we will be able to continue to provide and augment services,” Rhodes said.
Jim Fiorenzo, the executive vice president and chief operating officer at Hamot, said the Erie medical center is “pleased that we have been able to create an affiliation with one of our long-time regional partners.”
“Regional partnerships exemplify our commitment to providing patient care throughout the region,” Fiorenzo said.
The relationship between Hamot and Kane began a decade  ago when Hamot extended its cardiology services to patients in the Kane area. The link evolved over the years to include education and staffing, medical staff grand rounds, after-hours pharmacy coverage and a sophisticated tele-medicine communications program through a new fiber optic wiring system.
Last December, Hamot and Kane Community Hospital announced that the Johnsonburg Medical Park would be the first “official joint venture” between the two health-care organizations.
In trumpeting the affiliation with Hamot, Rhodes said “it only makes sense” that two hospitals with a “mutual mission to serve” can “come together” to spread fixed costs over a larger patient base.
Kane Community Hospital has 31 patient beds. Hamot, located on State Street near the Lake Erie harbor, has 351 beds and is highly regarded nationally for its heart care, neurological services, urology, orthopedics, gerontology and critical care medicine. Hamot’s new Women’s Hospital, located adjacent to the existing medical center, is under construction and is due to open in early 2011.
“Keeping abreast of the latest technology, continuously improving quality of care and delivering the care needed and where it is needed requires loyal partners,” Rhodes said. “And that’s what we have found in Hamot.
“We are very happy to be part of the Hamot team and look forward to working together for the betterment of health care in the communities we serve.”
Fiorenzo said the affiliation between Hamot and Kane will “strengthen the care delivered within your community.”
“Our affiliation will open up access to more highly specialized care at Hamot when it is required,” Fiorenzo said. “Working together, we will discover synergies in health-care delivery.
Fiorenzo also hailed the tele-medicine link between Hamot and Kane as “a technology that allows for the delivery of health-care from a distance via live, interactive video-conferencing.” He said this means “Hamot can bring high-quality, expert care to the region with less travel, ease of scheduling for follow-up appointments and increased patient satisfaction.”
Fiorenzo said the affiliation “solidifies a long-standing relationship and we look forward to what this will mean for patients from Kane and the surrounding area.”
John Malone, president and chief operating officer of Hamot, pointed out that Hamot serves the entire region — not just Erie.
He said “30 percent of our patients come from outside Erie County.”
Malone praised Rhodes for his “diligence” in shepherding the formal affiliation plan between Kane Community Hospital and Hamot. He said the affiliation ensures the “long-term delivery of health care” to the Kane area.
A canopy shielded Hamot and Kane hospital officials from rain for a brief program at the new sign.
Several Kane hospital employees also gathered at the site for the ceremony. After the sign was unveiled, officials took part in a brief tour before moving to a second-floor conference room in the hospital for a buffet lunch.