CARTHAGE â As North Country Orthopaedic Groupâs affiliation and privileges with Samaritan Medical Center end, a new partnership has formed between the group and both Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center and Carthage Area Hospital to bring a regional approach to orthopedic surgery in the north country. In addition to caring for patients at its Watertown office and outpatient surgery center, the group is now seeing patients in the Ogdensburg community and will soon perform surgeries at both partner hospitals, anticipated to begin before the end of the month. According to Richard A. Duvall, president and chief executive officer of both Carthage Area Hospital and Claxton-Hepburn, this plan has been in the works for about six weeks, though its something that North Country Orthopaedic Group and Carthage Area Hospital have talked about for a number of years: the potential of finding a way to develop a regional approach to orthopedics.