WVU Medicine United Hospital Center announces new 'hospital without beds' in Elkins, set to open next year

The facility will be located right off Corridor H at Elkins.

“It’s very visible, it’s flat, it’s open. It’s going to be a magnificent facility that is going to be one of the first things people see when they come into Elkins,” Hess said. “It’s going to be a gem.”

The concept of a hospital without beds was the “brainchild” of West Virginia University Health Systems CEO Albert Wright.

Wright wanted to offer a comprehensive medical center just shy of a full-scale hospital, Hess said.

“Just like our hospital at WVU Medicine United Hospital Center, you can come on our campus and you can see a nephrologist, an ear nose and throat specialist, a cardiologist, a pulmonologist. We wanted folks in Randolph and surrounding counties to walk into this WVU Medicine facility and say, ‘Wow, any given day of the week I can see any subspecialist I can think of, right here in my own area, right here in my own town,’” Hess said.

The need for a medical center in Elkins was relayed to WVU Medicine by members of the community, as well as doctors already working in the area.

“We have a very busy cardiology clinic there with Dr. John McKnight,” Hess said. “He constantly hears from his patients, ‘We need more WVU Medicine in the community.’”

The Elkins medical center will also provide CAT scans, MRIs, labs and urgent care services seven days a week.

“We want to be as comprehensive as we possibly could,” Hess said. “We want to offer as many specialties as possible in that community.”

Not being a full hospital means major trauma injuries will not be treated at the Elkins facility.

“We will not be offering true emergency room care here. We’ll be offering urgent care type issues. If you have minor, minor trauma — if you have cuts that need sutured up,” Hess said. “We won’t be offering high-level trauma — like gunshot wound care — there. If somebody’s bone is sticking through their skin, we don’t recommend them going to urgent care.”

There is plenty of room for expansion at the site of the proposed Elkins medical center.

“Based off the needs of the community ,we can certainly expand and do more on this site,” Hess said. “This is one of the reasons that we chose this (site),” Hess said.

Growth throughout Randolph County and the surrounding region has been projected by local officials, Hess said.

“That Beverly four-lane is wildly busy, it’s very well-traveled, and it serves as an artery for people in many parts of the state,” he said. “As Randolph County grows, certainly WVU Medicine and United Hospital Center will grow with them,” he said.