Vandalia Health continues efforts to bring high-quality health care through CAMC, Mon Health facilities, telemedicine

“It’s been quite heartening for us to see the interest other communities, other boards and other hospital leadership have shown to want to be part of what we’re creating with Vandalia,” Ramsey said.

There is a clear need and purpose for Vandalia Health, which is divided into Vandalia South and Vandalia North. South is anchored by CAMC facilities, while North is anchored by Mon Health, Ramsey said.

“We serve primarily rural communities, but we have referral hubs in Charleston and Morgantown … working every day to take care of more and more West Virginians as close to home as we can.”

In 2023, the 17 facilities in the Vandalia footprint had more than 13,000 employees, 1,530 beds, 2,000 providers and 190-plus ambulatory locations spanning West Virginia, as well as parts of Virginia, Western Maryland and Pennsylvania.

Combined, the system had more than 1.6 million patient contacts in 2023, including 210,000 ER visits and 650,000 outpatient procedures.

Vandalia officials said their specialists had performed 1,100 open heart procedures, 100 kidney transplants and 3,889 births.

Vandalia South’s facilities include CAMC Memorial Hospital, CAMC General Hospital, CAMC Women’s and Children’s Hospital, CAMC Charleston Surgical Hospital, CAMC Teays Valley Hospital, CAMC Greenbrier Valley Medical Center and CAMC Plateau Medical Center.

CAMC President and CEO Dr. Glen Crotty directs Vandalia South’s efforts, which include not only strengthening brick-and-mortar and staffing, but also expanding telemedicine efforts.

Vandalia has nine telemedicine centers, as well as an additional seven mobile unit locations, to help bring high-quality medical care closer to residents, including those in rural parts of the Mountain State.

A native of Mullens, Crotty knows the challenges faced in providing that care to small, rural communities that are often lucky to have just one or two medical providers as well as minimal broadband access.

“We’ve created telemedicine hubs, like in Greenbrier County, Summersville, Jackson County, that patients can go to those hubs and do a regular telemedicine visit with very high quality camera connections,” Crotty said. “Patients can be seen by the specialists required” and receive treatment without having to drive a couple hours to Charleston.

“So a lot of things we are focused on are about reaching out to patients where they are,” Crotty said.

Vandalia also is investing $30 million in upgrades to Teays Valley Hospital, Crotty said, adding “some procedure rooms, vascular lab … and put in radiation oncology to better serve can patients in the Teays Valley area.”

They also plan to eventually expand that 70-bed facility to closer to 100, adding private rooms.

Vandalia North, led by Mon Health President and CEO David Goldberg, has seen great growth, both by building facilities as well as encouraging new members to join.

Mon Health’s footprint includes the main campus in Morgantown, as well as the Marion Neighborhood Hospital in White Hall, Preston Memorial in Kingwood, Stonewall Jackson Memorial in Weston, Davis Medical Center in Elkins (which also includes Broaddus Hospital in Philippi and Webster Memorial in Webster Springs), as well as affiliate members Grafton City Hospital, Highland-Clarksburg Behavioral Hospital, and Minnie Hamilton Health System in Calhoun County.

Goldberg said he was excited to see the growth and improvement the merger with CAMC has brought to the communities that Mon Health serves in the northern part of the state. He mentioned the addition of Davis Health System, as well as the growth and stability of Preston Memorial and Stonewall Jackson.

The strength of the Marion Neighborhood Hospital is apparent, Goldberg said. It has 13,000 to 15,000 emergency room visits per year and continues to grow in scope of services.

Its success has led Mon Health to plan a similar facility in Harrison County, which will be located in the Charles Pointe development near the recently opened Menards.

“We expect to be breaking ground on it this year and have it open by the beginning of 2026,” Goldberg said. “We’re excited to be bringing more emergency room access, medical access, diagnostic access to Harrison County.”

Mon Health also hopes to get approval to build a new Mon Health Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital facility in Lewis County.

Currently tied up in litigation in front of the state’s Intermediate Court, with a Supreme Court challenge possibly following, the new facility would provide a more modern footprint that would be right-sized for the changes that have occurred since the current SJMH was built more than 50 years ago.

He said Mon Health will continue to work with Vandalia to improve facilities and care for residents served in the northern part of the state after enjoying great success in 2023.

“2023 was a blur. There were so many wonderful things that have happened,” Goldberg said. “We’ve made significant investment in technology with the da Vinci robotic surgery, minimally invasive approaches ... so it’s not only buildings, but the technology that we are keeping up on, providing the doctors with the tools needed.”

Ramsey, Crotty and Goldberg re-emphasized the goal of providing more services and state-of-the-art, high-quality care closer to home for the system’s patients.

“You do have to have nice facilities to recruit and retain staff to our communities, especially the rural ones where we’re expanding services,” Ramsey said. “Our goal is to provide those services close to home to reach more patients who don’t have the wherewithal and the ability to drive even 45 minutes to an hour, let alone two or more hours for that care.

“So we’re really trying to expand our capabilities at every one of our locations, so we can do more to take care of patients locally.”

Goldberg said that is noticeable in the Mon Health system at places like Preston Memorial, which added bariatric surgery as well as oncology in the past year.

It’s also indicative of the effort to expand OB-GYN services and continue to deliver babies in Preston, at Stonewall Jackson and to continue the David Health System’s efforts in those areas.

“We are working to bring the experts and technology closer to home in our hospitals, to limit time spent inpatient, to lessen blood loss, to shorten healing time to promote best outcomes,” Goldberg said.

The system also has found great success in recruiting the doctors and health care professionals needed to provide high-quality care. Mon Health and Vandalia both support nursing training programs at many of the state’s colleges and universities, as well as at the CAMC Center for Learning and Research in Charleston.

“That’s what we’ve been doing for the last year, and I’m actually bullish about what the future is going to look like the next time we talk next year.”