Times Observer photo by Gregory Bacon UPMC President Tracy Gates speaks at a press conference with Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-NY 23. Also pictured is Chautauqua County Executive PJ Wendel.

JAMESTOWN – A little more than six months ago, it was announced that Warren General would no longer offer inpatient labor and delivery services due to a shortage of OBGYN physicians.

That decision has caused an increase of births at UPMC Chautauqua. But even with the increase, Jamestown hospital officials say the transition is going smoothly.

“This is something we addressed proactively with Warren General. We actually collaborated with Warren General to see how we could help them,” UPMC Chautauqua Hospital President Tracy Gates said. “From the days before to leading up to the transition, we helped them get communication out and those types of things. A lot of their patients were directed here.”

She made her comments during a news conference when Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-NY 23, visited Jamestown.

According to Gates, about 75 mothers have transferred their care to UPMC Chautauqua.

Gates said they are also providing clinic care in Warren for things like regular outpatient follow ups.

“It has impacted us positively, but we hope this has impacted their community positively as well,” Gates said. “I think it’s a perfect example of how we can collaborate across state lines. We can support each other and we can create areas that we can do better in rural healthcare, so that we’re not so combative in working against each other.”

To help provide care across state lines, Gates said they’re working with Langworthy on a number of topics including telemedicine, and having licensure restrictions and credential restrictions reduced, so care can be provided more easily.

Langworthy said he is glad to assist.

“We have a very unique circumstance here, being border communities. It’s not like there’s a wall between our two states and people, their center of commerce, their ability to travel freely to go back and forth, gravitates both ways,” he said. “Having Pennsylvanians come here for labor and delivery, the baby gets a birth certificate that says they were born in New York.”

Last month, Bradford Regional Medical Center switched from a full-service hospital to an outpatient health center.

Gates noted that UPMC also has health clinics in Bradford, so they’ve been able to supplement care there as well.