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Solve Healthcare Worker Shortage In W.Va.

Among the projects under West Virginia’s Rural Health Transformation Program is Mountain State Care Force, which is meant to address the shortage of healthcare workers in many of our communities. This week, the initiative awarded $201,403 to the WVU Medicine Center for Nursing Education, where it is expected to increase capacity for approximately 100 additional nursing students each year and increase access to nursing education for students from “rural and Health Professional Shortage Area communities, including Hancock, Ohio, Marshall, Tyler and Wetzel counties,” according to a ...

Cautious Optimism In Ohio

It’s easy to understand why Honda was reluctant to confirm reports out of Japan that it is planning to build a $2.5 billion hybrid vehicle plant in Ohio. Though the Nikkei Business Daily said the company is in final preparations to expand its manufacturing footprint in the Buckeye State, a Honda spokesman told Reuters “No decisions have been made at this stage regarding a new plant in the U.S.” At the same time, SK hynix is reportedly in talks with Intel about making memory chips in the U.S. for the first time with what MarketBeat called Intel’s “long-delayed ‘Ohio One’ ...

Address Ohio County 911’s Staffing Issues

The most important voice an Ohio County resident may ever hear is that of a stranger. It might come in the middle of the night, when a loved one stops breathing. It might come after a terrible crash, when someone is trapped inside a vehicle. Or it might come when a parent discovers a child is missing. It is the dispatcher’s voice on the other end of a 911 call. This past week, Ohio County residents learned that the people responsible for answering those calls are working through a significant staffing shortage. Ohio County 911 Director Rick Pritt told county commissioners that ...

A Family That Cares

The Contraguerro family and their company, Panhandle Cleaning & Restoration, once again showed their love and devotion to the Ohio Valley community with a $150,000 gift to the soon-to-be-built WVU Medicine Golisano Children’s Robert Sonneborn Family Pediatric Outpatient Center on the campus of WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital. That donation will sponsor the center’s new reception area. And that’s far from the first gift the Contraguerros and Panhandle have made to WVU Medicine or the Ohio Valley at large. The family and the company long have been champions of the community, ...

Is Deep Debt Worth It For A College Education?

It seems as though the school year has just gotten under way, but families across our region are beginning conversations about next steps with students who will graduate in the spring. Part of that conversation will inevitably be “Can we afford college?” For generations, part of the answer to that question has been student loans. Many young people believe they have bright futures ahead of them, and that post-high school education will give them what they need to bring home paychecks from which they can pay off those student loans quickly. Parents hope for the same. Reality is far ...

Save A Life Day Reminds Us To Remain Prepared

It’s no surprise an observance such as today’s Save A Life Day was born in West Virginia — a state ravaged to a greater degree than any other by the substance abuse epidemic that continues to plague us. From a humble pilot meant to increase access to naloxone and help prevent overdose death, the day has become a nationwide push to take action. In the Mountain State alone there will be 220 events today, with the West Virginia First Foundation noting the sense of urgency means the number of events could continue to grow. Access and awareness of naloxone is essential, as is ...