MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Summersville Regional Medical Center has entered into a management agreement with WVU Hospitals effective Monday (June 18).
“As the academic medical center of West Virginia’s land-grant university, we have a responsibility to ensure that the state’s citizens have access to the healthcare they need in their communities, and we are committed to doing just that in Summersville,” Albert L. Wright, Jr., president and CEO of the West Virginia University Health System, said. “We are committed to making sure that Summersville Regional Medical Center remains the vital community resource it has been for five decades.”
Summersville Regional Medical Center has been serving Nicholas County and southern West Virginia since the late 1960s. Its 105 beds include the county’s only nursing home beds. 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, Summersville Regional Medical Center Board chairman, said they appreciate the opportunity to work with WVU Hospitals.
“This hospital is critically important to the city, county, and region, and entering into this agreement with WVU Hospitals means that our patients will not have to travel outside of our area for care,” Shafer said. “For that, we are very grateful.”
Karen Bowling, vice president of care delivery transformation for the West Virginia University Health System, has been named the interim CEO of Summersville Regional Medical Center. Prior to joining the System, she served as cabinet secretary of the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources.
“I look forward to working with the dedicated staff at Summersville Regional Medical Center and to making sure the residents of Nicholas County have access to the care they need when they need it,” Bowling said. “We are here to help in any way that we can.”
WVU Hospitals has also agreed to provide the expertise and services of additional management personnel on an as-needed or as-requested basis.