WVU Medicine will invest nearly $400 million in West Virginia’s healthcare infrastructure

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University (WVU) Health Care System Board of Directors on Wednesday (April 17) approved a nearly $400 million strategic capital budget that will accelerate the growth of the health care system and provide West Virginia with several new health care facilities. across multiple parts of the state, including Morgantown, Fairmont, the Elkins corridor, Princeton and Bluefield. The projects are all subject to regulatory approval.

“Individually, these are all transformative projects; collectively, they represent a quantum leap as we continue to build a best-in-class health care system for the people of West Virginia and the broader region,” said Albert L. Wright, Jr., president and CEO of the WVU Health System, . “Our true north remains our commitment to our patients and our ability to serve them in a caring and healing environment, and by expanding the breadth and depth of our programs and infrastructure, we will ensure that the health care system thrives in the long term.” is positioned to meet the needs of our patients. the needs of our patients.”

Preliminary details of the projects follow:

• Morgantown – $233.5 million for a new multi-center outpatient facility and surgical suites for the WVU Eye Institute. The new structure will be located on the site of the former Fieldcrest Hall at the intersection of Van Voorhis Road and Elmer Prince Drive. The project also includes a multi-storey parking garage with more than 1,100 spaces.
• Fairmont – $44,000,000 to construct and renovate new operating rooms at WVU Medicine Fairmont Medical Center, as well as a new pharmacy, cafeteria, dialysis unit, infusion center and other facility upgrades.
• Elkins Corridor – $37,300,000 to construct a 38,000-square-foot multi-specialty outpatient facility associated with WVU Medicine United Hospital Center. A “hospital without beds,” the facility is expected to offer walk-in medicine and emergency care; cardiology; orthopedics; oncology and infusion services; ear, nose and throat; urology; infectious diseases; pain management; lung diseases; rheumatology; and laboratory and imaging (mobile CT and MRI), among other services.
• Princeton and Bluefield – $64,500,000 to build a comprehensive cancer center on the campus of WVU Medicine Princeton Community Hospital and invest in Bluefield by relocating the full-service emergency department and imaging and laboratory services to the Bluefield Pavilion campus and 10 observation beds, adding MRI and ultrasound.

The announcement comes two weeks after WVU Health System announced it is in the early stages of updating its master campus plan in Morgantown with the goal of building a multi-story cancer hospital as part of the JW Ruby Medical Complex. The Hazel Ruby McQuain Charitable Trust made a $50 million gift to catalyze that project, which is also subject to certain board and regulatory approvals.

The health care system has many other new construction and expansion projects underway across the state, including ones in Charleston, Ripley, Morgantown, Martinsburg, Glen Dale and Ranson, among others. In 2022, the health care system announced it was investing $177 million in its infrastructure.