WVU Medicine’s Role in Local Economy Growing
Derek Redd Trending
WHEELING -- A decade ago, WVU Medicine had little presence in the Ohio Valley. Ten years later, it is the area's largest employer, locally affecting both health care options and the economy.
Representatives from WVU Medicine were among those speaking this week at the Economic Outlook Conference sponsored by the Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce at the Wheeling Island Hotel-Casino-Racetrack.
Much of the talk focused on WVU Medicine's plans to invest as much as $90 million and build a regional cancer center in Wheeling.
The facility will be constructed at the site of the former Ohio Valley Medical Center campus, and demolition of current buildings there is expected to take at least 14 months.
Douglass Harrison -- president and CEO of both WVU Medicine Wheeling and Reynolds Memorial hospitals -- said WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital already has "a robust cancer center."
Additionally, a medical oncology center at WVU Medicine Reynolds Memorial was started at that hospital shortly after it was acquired by WVU Medicine in 2016.
"Developing a regional cancer center approach, and taking these cancer centers into one location will allow us to expand our programmatic services and recruit additional positions," Harrison said. "It will also increase our clinical trials portfolio - which is important when we look at what is going on in Morgantown."
The proposed cancer center in Wheeling will tie in with an clinically integrated cancer network stretching across West Virginia, he explained.
Albert Wright, president and CEO of WVU Medicine, termed WVU Medicine an "atypical" hospital system. It is among the top 10% of hospital systems in the country, but is unique in that, unlike most hospitals in big cities, its 24 hospitals are located in rural areas. The overall health in these rural communities also is reported as among the worst in the nation, he added.
"If we are going to meet our mission - which is to improve the health trajectory of the state of West Virginia and the surrounding states we serve - if we do things the way we've always done them, we're not going to change those numbers," Wright said.
Wright said WVU Medicine is heavily invested in the Ohio Valley and the Northern Panhandle, having acquired Wetzel County Hospital, Reynolds Memorial Hospital, Wheeling Hospital, Harrison Hospital in Cadiz and Barnesville Hospital over the last decade.
"We have become the primary provider in this region with the hope of improving the health trajectory of the entire population," he continued. "The next decade is really going to have the breadth and depth and scope of services not only in Morgantown but in our hub cities - of which Wheeling is very much."
The location of the future cancer center close to Interstates 70 and 470 and West Virginia 2 is an ideal location for WVU Medicine's regional cancer center, according to Wright.
He noted It will have many of the same services available at the hospital in Morgantown. Not only will there be the standard care services of chemotherapy, radiation and oncology, but patients also will have access to ancillary services such as clinical trials they would get in Morgantown, according to Wright.
In addition to its local hospitals, an outpatient pediatric care hospital is going in at the WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital campus in the spot of the former continuous care center. It will have two entrances, Harrison explained, one for ill children and a second for well children coming in for immunizations and checkups.
Health education for the community and early prevention of illness is going to be a mission of WVU Medicine, he noted.
Harrison noted the hospital also plans to partner with local Dollar General stores and Grow Ohio Valley to place fresh fruits and vegetables in the stores.