MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – At its regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 24, the West Virginia University Health System Board of Directors approved $177.4 million in capital projects to expand patients’ access to healthcare; renovate its existing hospital facilities in Morgantown, Glen Dale, and Keyser; and create a job training program in Keyser to bolster the region’s healthcare workforce.
“People always have been and always will be our focus, and these investments reflect and reaffirm our ongoing commitment to both the people and communities we serve,” Albert L. Wright, Jr., president and CEO of the WVU Health System, said. “We are passionate about caring for our patients while growing economic opportunities in the communities where we are located.”
For Morgantown, the Board approved the $155 million Phase 3 portion of the WVU Hospitals’ Master Campus Plan, which will include the backfill of the sixth floor of WVU Medicine J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital following the opening of the new $215 million, 150-bed WVU Medicine Children’s Hospital in late September. The backfill will add adult inpatient beds and operating rooms.
Phase 3 will also include renovations to improve materials management on the fourth floor of Ruby Memorial Hospital and physician office and support space on the sixth floor of the Physician Office Center, expansion of the second-floor endoscopy suite at Ruby Memorial, and build out of a physical therapy hub at the outpatient center at University Town Centre.
In Glen Dale, the operating rooms at WVU Medicine Reynolds Memorial Hospital will undergo a $16.7 million renovation that will replace the HVAC system, standardize the size of the operating rooms, and add two new Urology and endoscopy procedure rooms.
In Keyser, the $2.5 million clinical development of Potomac Plaza will result in the creation of an Urgent Care clinic that can be easily accessed by public transportation, a combined behavioral medicine and preventive medicine suite to allow for greater coordination of care for patients, and a specialty physician outpatient clinic to allow for the additional sharing and recruitment of specialty providers among the WVU Health System, WVU Medicine Potomac Valley Hospital, and WVU Medicine Garrett Regional Medical Center.
The Board also approved $3.2 million to create a healthcare workforce development and training center in Keyser that will provide education and training in healthcare certification programs, such as behavioral health technician, phlebotomist, community health worker, certified nursing assistant, central sterile technician, and others. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has designated Keyser, Mineral County, and the surrounding area as a Medically Underserved Area and a Health Professional Shortage Area for primary care, mental healthcare, and dental care. The area also suffers from high unemployment.
The 12,100 square foot facility will also house clinical services areas for new specialty providers and a dedicated telemedicine suite.
The approval of these projects brings the total spend for capital projects approved to begin in the second half of 2022 to approximately $250 million, subject to necessary government approvals. Other recent capital projects include a $24.8 million clinical and operating room expansion project at WVU Medicine Berkeley Medical Center in Martinsburg and a $30.2 million addition for WVU Medicine Jackson General Hospital in Ripley, for which ground was officially broken on Aug. 19.
For more information on WVU Medicine, visit WVUMedicine.org.