WVU Hospitals named Best Regional Hospital for Equitable Access by U.S. News & World Report

January 3, 2025

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – WVU Hospitals, which includes WVU Medicine J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital, WVU Medicine Children’s, and WVU Medicine Fairmont Medical Center, has been named a 2024-25 Best Regional Hospital for Equitable Access by U.S. News & World Report. It is the only hospital in the state to receive this recognition. 

Health equity is the absence of unjust and avoidable differences among groups of people, regardless of social, economic, or demographic identification. U.S. News evaluates hospital performance in health equity by analyzing data on various dimensions of equity for historically underserved patients. 

This year’s measures evaluate hospitals and hospital service areas in four areas of equity related to healthcare access: 

  • Socioeconomic representation in access to care, which is defined as how well the surrounding community is represented in the population treated by the hospital.
  • Representation by race and ethnicity, which is the percentage of patients treated by the hospital for elective procedures compared to the community (not including county and state percentages).
  • Racial disparities in outcomes, which is defined as how successful the hospital is in enabling Black patients to live at home during the first 30 days of recovery compared to White patients. Recovery at home, rather than at a hospital or nursing home, is preferred by most patients and families.
  • Charity care, which is how well hospital spending on free and discounted care for uninsured patients aligns with the proportion of uninsured in the surrounding community. 

The goals of the health equity ratings are to measure disparities in healthcare that impact the health of vulnerable patients how have been historically underserved, underrepresented, or marginalized; to inform patients of these disparities; to identify opportunities where hospitals and healthcare organizations can intervene; and to incentivize hospitals to compete on measures of equity. 

Only 98 hospitals out of the more than 4,000 across the country that were evaluated received recognition.  

“Eliminating health disparities is part of the mission of WVU Medicine and ensuring that everyone who seeks us out for care receives the services they need when and where they need them regardless of their ability to pay is a big part of that,” Michael A. Grace, Ed.D., M.B.A., president and CEO of WVU Hospitals, said. “We are grateful for this recognition and honored to care for those from across West Virginia and the surrounding region.” 

To view the 2024-25 U.S. News rankings, visit Health.USNews.com. For more information on WVU Medicine, visit WVUMedicine.org.  

For media inquiries: Angela S. Jones, WVU Health System Assistant Vice President of Media and Marketing Communications, 304-285-7259 - [email protected]