From left, Lorraine Diggs, Cecil Miller, Kimberly Fish, Jessica Green, Amber Frame, Dr. Eric Arnone and Catherine Caster celebrate UPMC Chautauqua WCA hospital's 133rd birthday Wednesday. Hospital administrators presented cupcakes to employees at the hospital's headquarters along Foote Avenue and to their satellite locations. P-J photo by Dennis Phillips

Jamestown’s hospital might have a relatively new name, but UPMC Chautauqua WCA celebrated its 133rd birthday Wednesday.

On May 23, 1885, the first charter for the Woman’s Christian Association of Jamestown was passed, which started the one-room hospital in a boarding house for young, working women. On Wednesday, hospital administrators celebrated the anniversary by delivering cupcakes to employees at their headquarters along Foote Avenue and at their satellite locations.

“It was a fun day today, with the executive managers delivering cupcakes,” said Cecil Miller, UPMC Chautauqua WCA vice president of operations. “We went around to the satellite centers and talked about our history. Even with the new name, we have the same doctors who care about the community and their patients.”

Miller said even with the merger with UPMC, which was finalized in 2016, and their new name, WCA officials are grateful to the hospital’s long history. He said by integrating with UPMC, hospital officials have ensured that the facility should be around for at least another 133 years. He added that by being part of a larger health care system, they have new access to training, additional education opportunities and improved physician recruitment.

“We’re proud of our history of caring and being committed to the community,” he said. “With UPMC, we are still committed to keeping health care here in Jamestown.”

Miller said without the merger with UPMC, the new addition to the hospital would not be in the process of being constructed. In March 2016, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that WCA Hospital would receive a $26.4 million state grant. The award was made possible through the state Capital Restructuring Financing Program and Essential Health Care Provider Support Program. Both programs were created by Cuomo to support the Delivery System Reform Incentive Program, the main mechanism for investing $7.3 billion in Medicaid savings from a waiver between New York and the federal government. The goals of the program includes reducing health care costs, improving the health of New Yorkers and reducing avoidable hospital admissions and emergency room visits by 25 percent by 2020.

Around $20 million of the state grant is going toward the construction of the 42,000-square-foot, two-floor addition to UPMC Chautauqua WCA that will add a women’s and maternity care center and inpatient adolescent and adult mental health units above the hospital’s emergency department.

Miller said during his 22 years of service at the hospital he has seen several changes, which includes the new emergency department that opened six years ago. He has also witnessed several health care centers opening throughout the community to expand the health care services hospital officials are able to provide to local residents. He added that the rural hospital is one of the few to offer robotic surgeries as well.

“It all ultimately improves the health care services we are able to provide,” he said.