In the first of a planned series of affiliations with community hospitals outside Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Health System and the Hopkins School of Medicine yesterday announced a long-term alliance with hospitals in Harford County.

The alliance with Upper Chesapeake Health System, the parent company of Fallston General and Harford Memorial hospitals and a group of family care centers, allows the two sides to develop a variety of services, including a new full-line community health care facility in Harford County, and to bid for managed-care contracts.

The alliance will allow the partners to meet "the mandates of the new era of managed care and cost containment," said Constance F. Row, president of Upper Chesapeake.

Both sides will keep their existing corporate structures under the agreement.

For Hopkins, the affiliation is part of an effort to forge links with primary care doctors and community hospitals in the region, from which it would receive referrals for patients who need specialized care at the Baltimore institution.

"It signals our intention to partner with others to a greater degree," said Michael E. Johns, dean of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Hopkins also is discussing affiliation with a separate group of five hospitals -- Howard County General in Columbia, Carroll County General in Westminster, North Arundel Hospital in Glen Burnie, St. Joseph Hospital in Towson and Sinai Hospital in Baltimore.

If that alliance is established, Hopkins would have agreements with medical providers in the city and all its surrounding counties.