A month after giving notice on Jan. 11 that they were moving their UPMC Mercy practice to rival West Penn Hospital, six obstetrics/gynecology physicians abruptly were locked out of their UPMC-owned offices.

During the next month, their patients did not know how to contact them, the doctors did not have new offices ready to see patients and UPMC prevented them from telling their patients what had happened.

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center lawyers informed the doctors on Feb. 1 that Feb. 15 would be their last day of seeing patients in UPMC offices.

Although this was at least two months earlier than the doctors had planned, they were not permitted, by contract with UPMC, to tell patients when or where they could continue their care.

Since UPMC owns the patients' records, the doctors had no phone numbers or addresses for their patients. The confusion and concern among the patients abated last week when the doctors and their staffs moved into their West Penn offices.

Monica Al, 34, on bed rest in the 26th week of her high-risk pregnancy, had to scramble to change her insurance plan so she could see her obstetrician at West Penn. The West View woman said last week she was so dismayed with UPMC's treatment of the doctors, staff and herself that "I would never recommend sending someone to a UPMC facility."

The six Greater Pittsburgh OB/GYN Associates physicians announced they would move to West Penn just days after UPMC officially took ownership of Mercy in January. According to two West Penn officials who deal in physician recruitment, the departing doctors had hoped to transition their patient care through May 1.

"They tried to give appropriate and reasonable notice," said Steve Brown, vice president of the physician service division at West Penn.

Instead, the doctors received a letter outlining a schedule of increasing restrictions in their practice of medicine, setting deadlines for scheduling deliveries and surgeries and seeing patients.

On Feb. 16, the doctors were locked out of their UPMC-owned offices, including five satellite sites.

"You can imagine the difficulty this was for the physicians," Mr. Brown said. "They were not allowed to say to the patients that they were leaving. You can imagine the confusion this created."

The doctors were permitted, until Feb. 29, to see patients in Mercy's Women's Health Center, perform scheduled surgical procedures and continue being on call for patients at Mercy. "Beyond that, they would not be needed," Mr. Brown said.

Some patients who wanted to stay with the doctors who left had no problem during this period, because news reports and ads led them to contact West Penn for information, and they didn't have to change from UPMC health insurance.

West Penn sought to reach the ob/gyn patients who remained in the dark with a mailing last week to 200,000 households.

The physicians involved declined to talk about the transition -- they did not want to jeopardize their medical staff privileges and surgical cases at Mercy, which continue through this month.

Ms. Al said she had to fight to maintain a connection with her physician, Dr. John C. Mellinger, during the past month, a huge concern because she originally was advised to terminate the pregnancy.

Her previous pregnancy, 14 years ago, gave her a son, but her Caesarean section was complicated by a rare but devastating infection known as necrotizing fasciitis. Scars from that delivery, added to changes to her uterus from a procedure done three years ago, lowered her chances of getting pregnant. Then last year she found she was carrying twins.

"It's overwhelming, but it's exciting," she said. Dr. Mellinger supported her in her decision to continue the pregnancy despite the high risk of miscarriage. She has gestational diabetes and is being monitored for high blood pressure.

"They were wonderful. They didn't give me any delusions," she said. "I knew I was probably not able to carry, but they were willing to be there for me."

Even after learning that the doctors were moving to West Penn, Ms. Al was assured by staff that the doctors' contract with UPMC was until May 1, long after they expected her to deliver. At her last appointment with Dr. Mellinger on Feb. 15, she found the old office staff was gone. She knew the staff in two of the five offices had been fired a week earlier, but she thought she had time to say goodbye.

"I had presents for the girls, cards and candy," she said.

After having difficulty reaching Dr. Mellinger, she tried to see Dr. David M. Badway, who remained at the Mercy office. She had originally sought out the two because of their reputation with high-risk pregnancies.

But she said she never felt comfortable with the new office staff, having to repeatedly explain the nature of her condition.

"I transferred this week [to the West Penn practice]," she said Friday. She was worried that someone other than Dr. Badway would perform her C section because "I had concerns about where they would cut me so they don't do permanent damage or kill me."

The whole experience has left her stressed, she said, adding that she had already been treated for anxiety before her pregnancy.

After the doctors told UPMC Mercy of their plan to leave, letters were sent to patients informing them that the Mercy practice had split and other changes would be in effect. Mercy spokeswoman Linda Ross said many were also contacted by phone. A toll-free phone number was given to patients interested in contacting the absent doctors.

Despite the changes, Ms. Ross said, ob/gyn patients coming to Mercy continued to get quality care. Three doctors remained in the practice at Mercy and three have been added.

"We recognize that this is a change for some of our patients," she said. "Patient care has not been compromised. Every patient who needs an ob/gyn will see one. UPMC is confident that patients will continue to receive exceptional ob/gyn care from respected, experienced, board-certified ob/gyns at UPMC Mercy."

Mercy officials declined to comment on the reason for evicting the departing doctors from hospital-owned offices.

Another patient, Marion Couch, 55, of Bethel Park, said what got lost in the shuffle was the importance of a trusting relationship among a patient, doctor and office staff. As a patient of one of the departing physicians, Dr. Andrew J. Sword, she said patients were left on their own.

"They gave us a number to call, which told us how to request our medical records," Ms. Couch said. "It was up to us to find our doctor."

Ms. Ross said patient requests for their medical records are being taken care of.