West Virginia Press Association
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Next week, May 11-17, 2025, is National Hospital Week, which presents an opportunity to celebrate and acknowledge the many community contributions made by hospitals and hospital-based clinicians, caregivers, and support staff.
“Community hospitals are essential to the people and places they serve, providing round-the-clock care to patients in need no matter the time of day,” said West Virginia Hospital Association (WVHA) President and CEO Jim Kaufman. “West Virginia’s communities’ pulse with the dedication of over 54,000 health care professionals serving in hospitals throughout the state. These caregivers embody unwavering commitment in their mission to safeguard the health and wellbeing of every West Virginian. Through their compassionate service, countless lives have been saved, families restored, and vulnerable individuals protected.”
Collectively, our hospitals provide acute care and specialty medical services, behavioral health, psychiatric and substance use disorder treatment, rehabilitation care, pediatric care, and more to meet the needs of patients across West Virginia. They also conduct research to achieve medical breakthroughs and provide a range of health care services for the residents of West Virginia and surrounding states, including welcoming nearly 16,000 newborns annually and accounting for 318,000 inpatient stays; over 5.6 million outpatient visits; almost 900,000 emergency department visits and 320,00 outpatient surgeries.
In addition to these important services, West Virginia hospitals are the largest component of the health care sector, helping power the state economy as major employers that contribute contributing roughly $16.9 billion in positive economic activity each year.
“Hospitals represent far more than physical structures—they embody the collective dedication of nurses, doctors, clinicians, technicians, maintenance staff and numerous other professionals who remain prepared to serve when needed,” Kaufman explained. “While our primary mission is health care delivery, we also drive economic prosperity within our communities. Hospitals throughout West Virginia are collaborating to enhance accessibility to exceptional medical services statewide. In the last decade, West Virginia’s hospitals have committed over $4.5 billion toward constructing new medical facilities, outpatient centers, and upgrading existing infrastructure to reinforce the state’s healthcare framework.”
Kaufman added, “while hospitals are large employers, we still face severe challenges. Like everyone else, we are seeing price increases for pharmaceuticals, food, and electricity, but we cannot adjust our prices to cover these increased costs since the majority of our payment rates are set by the government. We’re also facing significant workforce shortages in nearly every department, including non-clinical areas such as environmental services, nutrition, information technology and finance. We are very appreciative of the work by our Legislature and Governor this past session to help us better navigate these challenges. It takes this type of leadership to help put West Virginia hospitals in the best possible position to ensure all West Virginians receive the care they need and deserve. We look forward to our continued partnership with policymakers so we can deliver on our shared vision: a strong health care delivery system that also improves the economic condition of the state.”
Join us in celebrating National Hospital Week May 11-17, as we say THANK YOU to the health care heroes who make sacrifices to care for us every day. For more information about West Virginia hospitals please visit www.wvha.org, or contact a community hospital in your region as they celebrate National Hospital Week.
