§ 3626. Legislative findings and declarations. The legislature hereby
finds and declares as follows:

1. Currently, the Erie County Medical Center is a public hospital
owned and operated by the county of Erie.

2. The Erie County Medical Center healthcare network includes a
general hospital, the Erie County Home, and several clinics in Erie
county.

3. The Erie County Medical Center is a tertiary care facility for Erie
county and the seven other counties in western New York and an
affiliated hospital of the health science center at Buffalo of the state
university of New York. As such, the Erie County Medical Center serves
as an integral part of the education and research mission of the state
university and fulfills an important public purpose. The Erie County
Medical Center provides the health science center at Buffalo with the
clinical settings essential to the fulfillment of its public mission to
educate and train physicians, nurses, and other health care
professionals, conducts critical research, and delivers health care
services to the residents of the western New York region.

4. The Erie County Medical Center is the only major public hospital in
western New York and provides certain sophisticated and specialized
patient care services not available in other area hospitals. As the
regional level I trauma center for the eight counties of western New
York, the Erie County Medical Center has earned a reputation for high
quality care. The comprehensive program also features the region's only
burn treatment center, a designated spinal cord injury unit, and a head
trauma unit. Trauma services are supported by a broad scope of
rehabilitation, home care, and outpatient services. The Erie County
Medical Center also is the designated AIDS treatment center for the
eight counties of western New York, the central point of admission into
the local mental health community, and the largest acute care mental
health hospital program in western New York. The Erie County Medical
Center is the leading provider of inpatient and outpatient medical
rehabilitation services in western New York, a major center for
undergraduate and graduate medical education, and a productive source of
clinical and basic science research in rehabilitation medicine. The Erie
County Medical Center also is a recognized leader in providing quality
medical care to the elderly. The Erie County Medical Center healthcare
network's geriatric services program includes the area's only acute
inpatient geriatric unit and nearly eight hundred long term care beds at
both the Erie county home in Alden and a skilled nursing unit at the
Erie County Medical Center.

5. The needs of the residents of the state of New York and of the
county of Erie can best be served by the operation of the Erie County
Medical Center healthcare network through a public benefit corporation
having the legal, financial, and managerial flexibility to take full
advantage of opportunities and challenges presented by the evolving
health care environment.

6. In order to accomplish the purposes recited in this section of
providing health care services and health facilities for the benefit of
the residents of the state of New York and the county of Erie, including
persons in need of health care services without the ability to pay, as
required by law, a public benefit corporation to be known as the Erie
County Medical Center Corporation shall be created to provide such
services and facilities and to otherwise carry out such purposes. The
creation and operation of the Erie County Medical Center Corporation, as
provided in this title, is in all respects for the benefit of the people
of the state of New York and of the county of Erie and is a state,
county, and public purpose. The exercise by such corporation of the
functions, powers, and duties provided in this title constitutes the
performance of an essential public and governmental function.

7. In authorizing the Erie County Medical Center healthcare network to
be operated through a public benefit corporation, it is intended that
the hospital continue as a general, municipal hospital available to the
residents of the city of Buffalo, county of Erie, and western New York
state generally, that the health care services provided by the Erie
County Medical Center healthcare network's hospital, clinics, long term
care facilities, and ancillary facilities by dedicated public employees
who treat tens of thousands of New York residents annually will
continue, and that the network's role as a leading provider of services
to medicaid patients will also continue.