The announcement and the Q&A that followed were in monotone. There was little joy in that antiseptic, white-walled conference room at Oneonta’s Foxcare Center at 4:15 p.m. Friday, Oct. 16.
Looked at one way, that should be surprising: The affiliation of A.O. Fox Memorial Hospital and Bassett Healthcare has been vigorously pursued by some for 15 years.
Still, the announcement – that the boards of each hospital that day had approved formal affiliation by year’s end or sooner – signaled the end to more than a century of worthwhile community striving, lately in the face of unrelenting competition by a stronger rival.
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Oneonta’s Fox is actually the older of the two institutions, founded in 1900 with a $10,000 gift from Col. Reuben Fox in honor of his wife, Aurelia Osborn.
Cooperstown’s Bassett wasn’t founded until 1922 and had a shakey first few years. Edward Severin Clark built the hospital for Dr. Mary Imogene Bassett, whom he admired, but she died of a stroke later that year.
Too big for the community to support, the hospital closed in 1925, but Dr. Henry S.F. Cooper – father of Henry S.F. Cooper Jr., the revered environmentalist – convinced Stephen C. Clark Sr., Edward’s brother, to reopen Bassett in 1927.
For decades, the two hospitals were on a par in many ways, until the expansion – visionary expansion, some would say – under Bill Streck, Bassett president & CEO, launched in the 1990s.
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Everyone knows that big is not necessarily better, and Fox’s board was right, in many ways, to resist its absorption into the growing medical behemoth, even as hospitals in Cobleskill, Little Falls, Delhi and Sidney succumbed.
From an economic-development perspective alone, is the lack of an independent hospital a deterrent? How important is it for a community to be master of its own fate in terms of healthcare?
Happily, it appears not to be an unconditional surrender. While Fox President & CEO John Remillard becomes a Bassett employee, Fox continues as a “certified Article 28 hospital corporation” with its own board. Two Bassett directors will serve on Fox’s board, and one Fox director on Bassett’s.
Conceivably, if Bassett’s orbit becomes too Cooperstown-centric, what’s done can be undone. Better, of course, would be a respectful collaboration that benefits Bassett’s corporate interests and Oneonta’s community ones.
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In the end, the announcement of 4:15 p.m. Friday, Oct. 16, resulted from the changing realities of the medical industry, and it promises to change even more radically in the months ahead.
Regardless of who happened to be on the other side of the chessboard, Bassett has made masterful moves to strengthen its institutional position.
In the face of physician shortages, its affiliation with Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center has flowered into a full-fledged last-year medical college at Cooperstown, certainly an aid to future recruitment.
Likewise, the affiliation with Hartwick College to pay future nurses’ tuitions in exchange for a commitment to serve in the Bassett system has minimized nursing shortages.
Putting doctors on salary, long a Bassett policy, is one that has come into its own as young physicians no longer want to be on call 24-7, or even every other day.
Inability to recruit physicians – particularly in orthopedic, cancer and cardiac care – was one of the final straws on Fox’s crumbling resolve.
Bassett’s initiatives in fundraising and in myriad technological advances – Dr. Henry Weil’s early embrace of the Electronic Medical Record among them – have further strengthened its relative position.
While patients inevitably have mixed experiences with any institution, Bassett is routinely ranked among U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Hospitals,” an honor received by just 3.6 percent of the nation’s 4,861 such facilities.
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While some may see the affilation as an affirmation of Bassett’s Weltanschauung, it’s simply the closing of one chapter and opening of another.
Shortterm, collaboration will result in cost savings and efficiencies, but monopoly will tend to erode both. As Adam Smith had it, “Monopoly is a great enemy to good management.”
Happily, Fox’s mixed approach – it has physicians on salary, plus it grants privileges to doctors who wish to remain independent – remains, and works against that.
Going forward, it may be found such a mixed system is preferable, that competition in some form should be maintained and will work in the patient’s favor.
Whether the Bassett model goes the way of GM or Ma Bell remains to be seen. (After all, IBM was able to right itself.)
Shortterm, to the degree this final affiliation – wait, there’s still Chenango Memorial in Norwich – can contribute to better health in Bassett’s eight-county region, so be it.

ONEONTA – Ronald Pidgeon, 83, a retired officer in the city Fire Department, passed away on Friday, Oct. 16, 2009, at the Oneonta Nursing & Rehabilitation Center.
He was born Dec. 22, 1925, in Oneonta, the son of Peter and Carrie (Richards) Pidgeon. When Ron was a young boy, his father died in an accident on the D&H Railroad. His mother then married John Emmett, who raised him.
Ron was a Navy veteran, serving during World War II.
He married Thelma Ferguson on Aug. 14, 1948, at the Main Street Baptist Church in Oneonta.
Ron retired from the Oneonta City Fire Department as a captain in August 1983, after serving close to 30 years.
He was one of the founding members of the Catskill Fly Fishing Center & Museum in Roscoe. He was an avid fisherman, and enjoyed his summer fishing trips out West. He also liked to hunt.
Ron is survived by his loving wife of 61 years; two brothers and sisters-in-law, Jack and Jean Emmett of South Edmeston and Gordon and Ann Emmett of Uniondale; nieces and nephews Lynn Emmett, Ronnie and wife, Laura Emmett, Shelly Emmett, Gary Emmett, Rebecca Emmett-Fraser, Joe Pidgeon, Marlene Pidgeon, Darlene Pidgeon-Lance, Gregory Molatch, Steven Molatch, Walter Molatch, Andy Molatch, Barbara Molatch-Yano, Dedria Cox, Shirlene Burnside, Dennis Pidgeon, Sam Pidgeon and Cherie Starling; and many great-nieces and great-nephews.
He was predeceased by his brother, Gerald Pidgeon, and sister, Joyce Molatch.
Rev. Alex Smith, pastor of the Capital District International Church in Albany, officiated at the funeral Tuesday, Oct. 20, at the Lewis, Hurley & Pietrobono Funeral Home, Oneonta. Interment was in the Ouleout Cemetery.
Memorial donations may be made to the Residence Council of the Oneonta Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, 330 Chestnut St., Oneonta, NY 13820.

Agencies receiving funds include the Oneonta Community Christian School for classroom supplies and playground equipment, Opportunities for Otsego for the Building Healthy Families program, Greater Plains Kindergarten for field trip expenses, Girl Scouts for membership funding assistance, Oneonta Family YMCA for yoga mats and classrooms supplies for its Jumpstart program and Catholic Charities for Environmental Rating Scale materials for its Child Care Connection program.

The Salvation Army received funds for its youth Sacred Dance program, the Main Street Children’s Center money to purchase a science discovery table, Delhi Campus Child Care Center for its swim program, Tri-County Association for the Education of Young Children for “Week of the Young Child” activities, SUCO Children’s Center for a tricycle, and Hancock Community Education Foundation to purchase an early language development system.


THE TIMES:

Sean Scherer, who teaches two-dimensional design in the Art Department of the SUNY College at Oneonta, was featured in the Oct. 8 Home and Garden section of the “New York Times” in a story entitled “An Artful Clutter.” A painter residing in New York City until the events of September 11, 2001, Scherer now lives in a farmhouse in Walton that he bought in 2002 and has renovated. The article explores his life in the area and how his home expresses his decorative
vision.

Better Health Must Be Goal At Fox, Bassett

To the Editor:
Re: The headline “Burns overturns Bernier on Tickets” on Page 3 of the Oct. 10 Daily Star:
This is not the first time Otsego County Judge Brian Burns has overturned a decision made by Judge Lucy Bernier in Oneonta City Court. In this case, Bernier ruled that the system used by almost every police unit in the state is not valid. This is the ticketing system that is approved by the Department of Motor Vehicles, state police and mandated by state law.
Other decisions that have been overturned involve small claims court. In a recent decision, Judge Burns said, “Cross-examination of adverse witnesses is a matter of right in every trial of a disputed issue of fact … Although the procedures in small claims court are relaxed, the rules of substantive law must be followed and a person’s Constitutional right to due process of law include the basic right to cross-examine witnesses.”
It is clear that the law was not followed. Judge Bernier permitted one party to submit evidence AFTER the trial was over.
Imagine yourself in small claims court, you present all the evidence and feel you should win, but later you get a letter from the court indicating that the other party was permitted to submit more evidence so you lost. You were not permitted to review the evidence, or ask any questions. You just lose.
I wonder, “Are there other cases that exist, where due process was denied in Judge Bernier’s courtroom? How many other cases are out there?”
Mike Getman has served as city prosecutor, assistant district attorney, currently serves as the chief assistant district attorney for Otsego County, an assistant county attorney, a law guardian representing children, and assistant public defender.
Professionally, he has prosecuted cases and been a public defender.
The CLEAR choice is Mike Getman on Nov. 3 for City Court judge

BARBARA JASS
Oneonta