LOGAN, W.Va. — Three southern West Virginia healthcare providers have announced a collaboration aimed at providing improved healthcare to the southern coalfields of West Virginia.
Mountain Health Network, Marshall Health, and Logan Regional Medical Center on Friday announced a memorandum of understanding among the three entities to look at ways to enhance healthcare for Logan and the surrounding region.
Already, Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine and Marshall Health, its faculty practice plan, partnered with LRMC, among others, to launch the nation’s first separately accredited rural general surgery residency program. The new five-year program will welcome its first trainees in July 2023.
Marshall Health CEO Beth Hammers said those are the kinds of projects they are looking to create out of this MOU.
“Partnerships like this one are how we continue to build the skilled physician workforce West Virginia needs while meeting the health care needs of our communities today. Rural training programs are one way we know that we can help meet physician shortages happening in so many rural areas. Marshall Health looks forward to working alongside Mountain Health, LRMC and local physicians to bring more specialty care options to patients in southern West Virginia.” she said in a press release announcing the partnership.
“Logan Regional has a long history of providing high-quality, compassionate medical care to our friends, families and neighbors in the Logan area,” said David Brash, CEO of LRMC. “We have an exceptional team of physicians and caregivers and a wide scope of quality service lines we’ve established at our hospital. This collaboration makes us part of a network that will improve patients’ access to advanced specialty and sub-specialty care both here in Logan, as well as Mountain Health Network and Marshall Health facilities. It also connects us with an academic partner critical to developing graduate medical education and teaching programs.”
“Mountain Health and Logan Regional Medical Center have held a longstanding mutual respect and common purpose of providing high-quality medical care for patients, close to home,” stated Kevin Yingling, R.Ph., M.D., F.A.C.P, president and CEO of Mountain Health Network. “We are honored the Logan and ScionHealth teams have chosen Mountain Health and our academic medical center partners, Marshall Health, to provide access to highly-specialized heart, pediatric, and cancer services so patients and families do not need to travel long distances for advanced medical care.”
The next steps look to enhance care in the areas of cardiology, pediatrics, and oncology based in Logan. Meanwhile, the groups are also looking for programs in maternal fetal medicine, neuroscience, and telehealth services.