UPMC Chautauqua is no stranger to dealing with the closure of neighboring hospitals’ labor and delivery units.

First, it was Westfield Memorial Hospital, then Brooks-TLC just a few years ago. Now, Warren General Hospital is closing its labor and delivery unit amid a shortage of OB/GYN physicians. Starting next week, pregnant women will either be sent to UPMC Chautauqua or Erie’s UPMC Hamot or Allegheny Health Network. Given Jamestown is roughly 40 miles closer for Warren residents, we’d be surprised if most of Warren’s roughly 175 births that previously took place in Warren now take place in Jamestown.

UPMC Chautauqua’s Women’s and Maternity Care Center underwent a 42,000 square-foot expansion that opened in 2019 and includes four labor and delivery suites and three triage rooms and 12 postpartum private rooms where patients will be able to heal. The expansion project was made possible by a $26.4 million state grant, part of a $1.5 billion commitment made by the state in 2016 to assist health care providers fund capital improvements and further develop health systems.

The expansion at UPMC Chautauqua makes even more sense now than it did then as labor and delivery services shrivel around the Jamestown area. At the same time, we can’t help but wonder if changes in the Jamestown area are a question of when rather than if, because what’s happening in Warren right now could just as easily happen here in the future. Warren General Hospital officials aren’t having a problem with money, after all. The problem is a lack of OB/GYN doctors. It’s not as if Warren didn’t try to recruit doctors to staff handle labor and delivery. Hospital officials said they contacted 28 OBGYN residency programs nationwide, including all 16 OBGYN residency programs in Pennsylvania, six in Western New York and six in Eastern Ohio – in attempts to connect with potential OBGYN physician candidates. The hospital has used 10 recruiting agencies to try to locate OBGYN candidates from around the United States, reached out to every available candidate on Practice Link, the nation’s leading physician job board, and engaged with state and federal officials for help. Nothing helped.

“Despite our exhaustive efforts and the support of our legislative leaders, the national shortage of OBGYN specialists has made it impossible to secure the staffing levels required to safely maintain a 24/7 labor and delivery unit at this time,” said Dan Grolemund, Warren General Hospital CEO. “Our priority is, and always will be, the safety and well-being of our patients.”

As a generation of trusted doctors prepares to retire it’s reasonable to question if Jamestown is going to be able to continue to recruit the next generation of OB/GYN doctors.