CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia hospitals continue to look for ways to best serve patients around the state, and many are working together to do it.
Healthcare providers gathered at the Capitol last week for Hospital Day at the legislature, and West Virginia Hospital Association President Jim Kaufman said that they share information frequently.
“Our quality committee, we’re always sharing best practices. How do we make things better? Yes, hospitals compete, but they set that competition aside to improve access and improve quality, and that is something, as West Virginians, we do very, very well,” he said on MetroNews Talkline.
Marshall Health Network President and CEO Scott Raynes echoes that sentiment. He said he speaks consistently with his counterparts at other major West Virginia hospitals about what they can do together to provide the best care possible.
“None of us are capable of taking care of every need of every West Virginian or anyone in our region, but all of us collaboratively are, and so you’ll hear more, and I think you’re hearing more, and you will see more where we are sharing patients, and it’s not a competition,” he said.
Part of the cooperation between the hospital systems is focused on developing innovative ways to provide care to patients in more rural or less populated areas. Kaufman believes getting creative is a necessity to best serve the state.
“How do we expand services through virtual services, mobile clinics?—Really looking at how to get creative in the delivery of care,” he said.
Hospitals around West Virginia are taking that mindset to heart and developing new ways to reach people in need. In Keyser, WVU Medicine Potomac Valley Hospital received the 2026 Rural Hospital Excellence in Innovation Award from the American Hospital Association for its virtual ICU program.
“A couple years ago they were looking to have to close their ICU because they didn’t have the services that they could provide. However, they partnered with Ruby (Memorial Hospital in Morgantown), part of the system, where they are providing virtual services so they have the expertise at the ICU at Ruby that’s providing support to the clinical team,” Kaufman said.
Marshall Health Network is taking a unique approach in hopes of training surgeons to work in West Virginia’s rural hospitals. Logan Regional Medical Center houses the only rural general surgery residency program in the country.
“It’s the only one of its kind in the country. We literally are training general surgeons in a rural setting because it’s a very different way of providing care than at a Level 1 or Level 2 trauma center where you have all kinds of specialties and subspecialties and disciplines around you,” Raynes said.
Creativity extends beyond what goes on inside the walls of the hospitals, with technological advancements allowing doctors to provide care remotely. Telehealth is becoming a powerful tool on any hospital’s belt.
“We can use wearables to see and assess what your blood pressure is, how your sleep patterns are, what your heart rate is, et cetera, and if we have multiple people using wearables and we have one doctor who can see that data coming in, that is an efficient way of rendering care at a cost-conscious way,” Raynes said.
Concerns remain over the ability for hospitals to recruit and retain doctors, as many surrounding states offer significantly higher salaries for the same positions. Kaufman said hospitals are finding ways to bridge the gap.
“I may not have enough patients in one community to have, hypothetically, a cardiologist, but I can partner and share that cardiologist so that clinician may be going to a small town one day a week, going to another town another day a week, but providing virtual services,” he said.