CHARLESTON, W.Va. –A group of over 300 health care professionals, policymakers and experts coming together to discuss the current challenges health care faces and potential solutions for the future.
The 2025 Vandalia Health Network Conference: Embracing Innovation and Driving Change was held at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center Tuesday.
The conference is in its fourth year, where they aim to bring together, clinical, operational, and quality leaders and staff from practices, hospital systems, Federally Qualified Health Centers, Rural Health Clinics, community organizations, post-acute community and payors, to discuss these important challenges and how to alleviate them in the best way they can.
Vandalia Health Network President Michelle Coon says that it’s important to bring all of these partners together in order to see how they can help connect the dots on how they can continue providing quality healthcare to patients.
“We’re very excited about bringing all our health network members that are located throughout the state and that serve over 135,000 beneficiaries or residents of West Virginia that there working to help improve their health outcomes on,” Coon said.
One organization that they team up with is Facing Hunger Foodbank which is located in Huntington. The foodbank aims to feed over 130,000 people in West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky.
CEO Cynthia Kirkhart says that with the food bank they make and give out boxes of food to 1,800 people a month.
She said that it’s important to provide these foods because “food is medicine” in the effort to become healthier.
“When you have enough to eat you feel better, you have more energy, statistically it’s been proven that if you have a chronic disease like diabetes or hypertension the easiest way to affect it is a better, healthier diet,” Kirkhart said.
The organization was also a part of one of the breakout groups during the conference. Kirkhart said during that they would talk about food insecurity and how food impacts health.
She also said that it was great to be able to attend the conference this year after being partners with Vandalia for a while, so they help educate those struggling with food.
“Really glad to show up and give folks information, similar to everyone else, to really show the services available and then how we fit in some of the areas in the state,” she said.
Another partner they had at the conference was the West Virginia Health Information Network, who help make sure that all of the electronic health records in the state can talk to each other to ensure continuity remains throughout all of the records and systems, so health care systems know when and where their patients have had care.
Executive director Sonia Chambers said that having the opportunity to be at the conference was important for them because they would be able to talk closely with those who were attending.
“It’s great for us to be able to also be able to talk with and see those folks because we work with all of them,” Chambers said.
She also said while it was a great opportunity to network with those they work for; it was amazing to be able to support and be a partner with Vandalia because of the efforts being made to help health care.
“It’s been great to partner with them and to make sure that we help them provide the best care for patients,” she said.
During the event they had many guest speakers, break out groups for a more focused discussion and they had a mobile roundup which brought in the different mobile health units around the state, including Mon Health’s Mammography and Lung CT units, Family Care’s Miles of Smiles dental unit, Boone Memorial Health’s behavioral health unit and the new West Virginia Health Right’s Mobile Teaching Kitchen.