The chairman of the board guiding the mandated union of Erie County Medical Center and Kaleida Health later this week will ask state officials for guidance since a consensus of the merging partners was not reached by the year-end deadline.

Buffalo businessman Robert Gioia said he will travel to Albany to meet with Department of Health officials to ask for their "advice and counsel." After four months' work, the board has a memorandum of understanding that was approved by a majority of the board and Kaleida, but turned down by ECMC representatives. ECMC submitted a separate MOU that was rejected by the new organization board.

Gioia said the ultimate agreement to merge is to involve three parties: ECMC, Kaleida and the new board.

"We don't know legally what the governance is if ECMC does not sign on to it," Gioia said.

Kaleida and ECMC were mandated a year ago by the state Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century to form a joint governance arrangement that included the University at Buffalo medical school. When negotiations broke down between the parties, the state appointed a board headed by Gioia to direct the talks. Their work is expected to create what is anticipated to be a premier health-care and medical-research organization.