Could the Cleveland Clinic be talking to Hamot Medical Center in Erie, Pennsylvania, about a merger or affiliation?
The Clinic wouldn’t say on Tuesday. However, Hamot officials told the Erie Times-News over the weekend that the foundation behind the Pennsylvania medical center is talking not only to the Clinic but to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. One official from that institution is talking.
“We have had a long and mutually beneficial relationship with Hamot and look forward to further discussions,” Paul Wood, vice president of public relations for the Pittsburgh medical center, told the Times-News. “We are investigating ways to expand that relationship to the benefit of patients in the Erie-area community.”
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The Cleveland Clinic has aggressively grown its geographic footprint over the years, acquiring several Northeast Ohio hospitals and building Cleveland Clinic Florida; managing heart, brain and organ transplant operations at a handful of hospitals in other states; and managing one Abu Dhabi hospital while preparing to manage another.
Some Erie leaders are leery of outsiders — especially those from Ohio. They watched hundreds of jobs slip away after STERIS Corp. in Mentor, Ohio, bought Pittsburgh’s American Sterilizer Co. and its Erie operation in 1996. STERIS transferred 450 manufacturing jobs to Monterrey, Mexico, from Erie in 2006. Late last month, STERIS said it would shutter its Erie operation by the end of next year, transferring most of its remaining 240 jobs to Mentor.
The Erie hospital is still evaluating its options. Hamot’s chief executive, John Malone, told the Times-News that he isn’t sure what kind of affiliation would help his hospital the most. “We’re considering a whole spectrum, from a clinical affiliation to a merger,” Malone told the newspaper. “And we might decide not to affiliate at all.”
Many hospital mergers happen because one of the partners is under-capitalized. Hamot has affiliated with several smaller hospitals, over the years, according to the Times-News.
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But Hamot began exploring an affiliation or merger in 2008 even though it was doing well, the newspaper said. The health system earned more than $400 million treating patients in fiscal 2009. The medical center has a profit margin of 4.92 percent, one of the highest rates in the state, the newspaper reported.
“We thought that exploring these types of affiliations when we’re in a position of financial stability would be more beneficial than if we were in a position of financial turmoil,” Scott Kern, chairman of Hamot’s board of trustees, told the newspaper.
Hamot is Erie County’s second-largest employer with about 3,150 workers, according to the Times-News.