FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DATE:  May 19, 2005

Mount Kisco Medical Group, Massachusetts General Hospital Announce Collaboration

BOSTON and MOUNT KISCO, NY - Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization (MGPO) and the Mount Kisco Medical Group (MKMG) in New York today announced an agreement that will extend the expertise, care and services of New England's leading academic medical center to patients of one of the most comprehensive medical groups in Southern New York.

The agreement, which establishes the MKMG as a clinical affiliate of the MGH and the MGPO, will help MKMG as a clinical affiliate of the MGH and the MGPO, will help MKMG patients who need highly specialized medical care gain easy access to the highly respected physicians and breadth of sophisticated services of the MGH.

Under the agreement, a designated physician based at the MGH and the MGPO, will be available to respond to MKMG requests for medical care and consultation as well as coordinate various services for MKMG to participate in specific clinical trials under way at the MGH aimed at identifying new and better treatments for complex disorders.

Under the agreement, educational program, conferences and training opportunities at the MGH will be available to physicians at MKMG, and MGH and MKMG staff will jointly provide health information programs to the Mount Kisco community.  Also, upon request by MKMG, the MGH through its relationship with the Harvard Medical School will help identify physicians completing their training programs who may be interested in relocating to the Hudson Valley. 

"The MGH is a widely respected academic medical center and patients from around the world are drawn to the expertise of its physicians and its extraordinary care," says MKMG President and CEO Scott D. Hayworth, MD.  "Now, through this new relationship, patients of the Mount Kisco Medical Group will have enhanced access to the kind of highly specialized care that the MGH and its physicians can offer.  We are very fortunate that this level of medical excellence is within a very manageable drive from our community."

While this new clinical affiliation will expand and facilitate the opportunity for MKMG physicians to make referrals to the MGH for patients with complex problems, MKMG's association with the MGH is not meant to displace long-standing relationships with other health care facilities or providers.  MKMG physicians will maintain relationships with hospitals they have used in the Mount Kisco area as well as continue their long-standing relationship with Mount Sinai Medical Center, an academic medical center in New York City.

The MGH's collaboration with the premier practice in the Hudson Valley region will also benefit the growing number of patients who live or work in New York but who have traveled to Boston for specific kinds of care.  These patients may find it more convenient and practical to establish a relationship with an MKMG physician who can help manage that patient's care in coordination with caregivers at the MGH.

"We have seen an increasing number of patients who have been traveling from neighboring states to the MGH to get specialized kinds of care, therapies or procedures or to participate in clincal trials," says MGPO Chairman and CEO David Torchiana, MD.  "We see this affiliation with the MKMG as an important way not only to enhance our ability to serve the needs of patients in New York, but also to make the services that the MGH can provide available to a broader community.  We are enormously pleased to be associated with the talented physicians and staff of the Mount Kisco Medical Group, who are focused on providing the best possible network of services to their patients."

MGH President Peter L. Slavin, MD, agrees, calling the MKMG a practice that is truly embedded in the life of its community.  "The providers of the MKMG are clearly dedicated to ensuring that the patients and families they serve can get excellent care right in the community in which they live and work," Slavin says.  "These caregivers, however, have reached far beyond that high standard, giving their patients access to a comprehensive network of very specialized services that a teaching hospital like the MGH can offer.  We are delighted to welcome the MKMG patients and providers to our extended family."

Established in 1946, MKMG is comprised of nearly 100 physicians who work in three separate locations, the main offices in Mount Kisco as well as multispecialty offices in Carmel and Yorktown Heights.  In addition to the many primary care physicians - internists, pediatricians and obstetricians/gynecologists - the practice includes physicians representing more than 30 medical and surgical specialties and subspecialties.  The practice also includes nurses, technicians and support staff.  Radiology and laboratory services physical therapy, sports rehabilitation, endoscopy and infusion services are available.

Massachusetts General Hospital, founded in 1811, is the third oldest general hospital in the United States and the oldest and largest teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, where nearly all its active staff physicians hold faculty appointments.  The 900-bed hospital offers sophisticated diagnostic and therapeutic care in virtually every specialty of medicine and surgery.  Each year the MGH admits approximately 45,000 inpatients and records more than 1.5 million visits in its extensive outpatient programs at its main campus and satellite facilities.  Its Emergency Department handles more than 75,000 visits a year, its surgical staff performs more than 32,000 operations, and the MGH Vincent Obstetrics and Gynecology Service delivers more than 3,600 babies annually.  The MGH conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United States, with annual research expenditures of more than $450 million.  Massachusetts General Hospital has consistently been named one of the nation's best hospitals by US News and World Report, ranking third in the most recent survey.