MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Summersville Regional Medical Center (SRMC) officially joined the West Virginia University Health System on July 1.
WVU Hospitals entered into a management agreement with the City of Summersville Building Commission in June 2018. On July 1, a subsidiary of WVU Hospitals, The West Virginia Health Care Cooperative, Inc. d/b/a Summersville Regional Medical Center, began operating the hospital and now leases the facility from the City of Summersville Building Commission.
“We have received such a warm welcome from the people of Summersville and the surrounding region since we entered into the management agreement last year, and we are looking forward to strengthening and building upon our relationship with them,” Albert L. Wright, Jr., president and CEO of the WVU Health System, said. “Our goal has always been to ensure that the residents there have access to the care they need close to home, and we will continue to make good on that promise.”
Karen Bowling, vice president of care delivery transformation for the WVU Health System, will continue as the interim CEO of Summersville Regional Medical Center.
Summersville Regional Medical Center has been serving Nicholas County and southern West Virginia since the late 1960s. The hospital employs 500 professional staff. WVU Medicine Children’s has provided pediatric specialty outreach clinics at Summersville Regional Medical Center for several years.
Summersville Mayor Robert Shafer and Stephen Boone, SRMC Board chair, said they have already seen the benefits of being part of the WVU Medicine family.
“When we needed a partner to ensure this hospital and the services it provides would be here for years to come, WVU Medicine answered the call. When we launched a fundraising campaign to establish our long-term financial stability, WVU Medicine answered the call,” Shafer said. “We firmly believe that Summersville Regional Medical Center has a bright future ahead of it as part of the WVU Health System.”
The West Virginia University Health System, the state’s largest health system and largest private employer, is comprised of 10 hospitals – its flagship academic medical center, West Virginia University Hospitals in Morgantown; Berkeley Medical Center in Martinsburg; Braxton County Memorial Hospital in Gassaway; Camden Clark Medical Center in Parkersburg; Jefferson Medical Center in Ranson; Potomac Valley Hospital in Keyser; Reynolds Memorial Hospital in Glen Dale; St. Joseph’s Hospital in Buckhannon; Summersville Regional Medical Center; and United Hospital Center in Bridgeport. It also provides management services to Wetzel County Hospital in New Martinsville; Jackson General Hospital in Ripley; Wheeling Hospital in Wheeling; Garrett Regional Medical Center in Oakland, Maryland; and Barnesville Hospital in Barnesville, Ohio. The WVU Health System also includes five institutes – the WVU Cancer Institute, the WVU Critical Care and Trauma Institute, the WVU Eye Institute, the WVU Heart and Vascular Institute, and the WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute.