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Hamot to stamp ‘footprint’ on Kane hospital |
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Written by Publisher
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Friday, 20 November 2009 |
For the most part, the official affiliation with the Hamot Medical Center will mean business as usual at Kane Community Hospital.
However, there will be some changes as Hamot begins to oversee its first-ever affiliate health-care facility.
“There will be changes to the way we do business,” Jim Fiorenzo, Hamot vice president and chief operating officer, said Thursday in candidly discussing the historic affiliation. He called the changes a move to “Hamotize” the Kane hospital operation.
Fiorenzo indicated that many of the changes would deal with business practices such as accounting, coding and purchasing.
But he said there also would be “a Hamot footprint” in Kane for other services such as the recruitment of physicians and professional staff. He said Hamot has a full-time recruiter.
Beginning in April, Hamot physicians will staff the emergency room at Kane Community Hospital around-the-clock. Hamot will continue to offer its 24-hour pharmacy service for the Kane hospital.
Fiorenzo said certain hospital staff members in Kane would have “counterparts” at Hamot for collaborative conversations.
“Through this affiliation, residents in the Kane region will have access to services they never had before,” Fiorenzo said.
Discussing the affiliation, Fiorenzo said the “consolidation” of medical facilities “is going to happen.” He said Kane is the first Hamot affiliate, but “it won’t be the last.”
Gary Rhodes, the chief executive officer at Kane Community Hospital, said the affiliation with Hamot creates “a feeling of comfort” for local hospital officials who are faced with rising costs, lagging revenue and declining reimbursements.
Rhodes said the link between Kane and Hamot is “all about relationship.”
“They know us well; we know them well,” Rhodes said. “They really care about their patients.”
Don Payne, chairman of the Board of Directors at Kane Community Hospital, said the announcement of the affiliation with Hamot is “a great day in history for our hospital.”
“We’re all committed to making this work,” Payne said. “We’re real comfortable with it. The time was right.”
Payne has first-hand knowledge of the quality of patient care at Hamot. In 2005, he underwent quadruple heart bypass surgery at Hamot.
His surgeon was Dr. Richard Long, who participated in Thursday’s program as chief Hamot medical officer.
Long called the link between Hamot and Kane “great for both sides.”
He said the affiliation would give Kane area residents “access” to Hamot physicians and would “build new relationships” between patients and doctors.
“Establishing relationships between patients and physicians is the key to all of this,” Long said. He said there are 400 physicians on the staff at Hamot. Many of the Hamot physicians are specialists.
Long also serves as chairman of the Board of Directors for Emergycare, which already provides ambulance service in Kane.
Long said Kane area residents will continue to receive “as much care locally” at Kane Community Hospital. When advanced care in needed, Hamot is there to “supplement” the local services, he said.
“Patients will continue to stay local when they can,” Gary Maras said. He is the senior vice president at Hamot for business development and also directs the Hamot Heart Institute.
When patients at the Kane hospital need advanced treatment, they will be “handed on to a physician at Hamot for continued care.”
Hospital spokesmen pointed out that the use tele-medicine over fiber optic lines vastly improves communications between physicians at the two hospitals, which are about 100 miles apart.
Maras said Kane became the first Hamot affiliate in part because of the “level of trust” between the two medical facilities. He called the affiliation “a leap of faith” between the hospitals.
“This day will go down in Kane history,” Kane Mayor Doug Caldwell said in praising the affiliation of Kane Community Hospital and the Hamot Medical Center. “This is a win-win situation for our people.”
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 10 December 2009 )
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