CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The WVU Medicine Thomas Hospitals system is set to expand its intensive care capabilities with the latest round of healthcare infrastructure investments from the WVU Health System.
In April, the WVU Health System Board of Directors approved a plan to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into healthcare facilities in West Virginia and the surrounding region. The largest investment will be the $135 million new patient tower at the Camden Clark Hospital in Parkersburg. The project increases inpatient bed capacity from 260 to 300 and begins the transitions to all private rooms.
Dr. Greg Rosencrance
WVU Medicine Thomas Hospitals CEO and President Dr. Greg Rosencrance told MetroNews that the investments across the region surpass $1.2 billion over the past three years. This financing, he said, helps with new facilities, renovations, upgrades to better serve patients in the area.
Rosencrance called WVU Medicine Thomas Hospitals the “southern hub” for the health enterprise. He said WVU Medicine Thomas Hospitals has received around $101 million over the past three years in investment. Most recently, he said the system received a $8.7 million investment for its surgical ICU (Intensive Care Unit).
“It builds upon a 27-bed ICU project that we finished in 2023,” Rosencrance said. “We’ve gone from 16, to 27, and now we’ll be at 42 or 43 beds. The surgical ICU is 14 beds, that will come online sometime in 2027.”
Rosencrance said installation work will occur in the first or second quarter of 2027.
“(It) should take eight-to-ten months,” Rosencrance added. “This expansion for the surgical ICU specifically will help us to meet the growing demand to service critically ill patients throughout the region.”
Rosencrance said the expansion to 27 beds in the ICU was beneficial, but more work needed to be done. He said the expanded ICU was full day-by-day, and so further growth made sense.
“This surgical ICU will additionally help support our highly complex surgical procedures and strengthen those services,” Rosencrance explained. “Specifically of the WVU Heart & Vascular Institute, and of our surgery component here.”
This project is revolutionary, Rosencrance said. The capabilities of medical professionals will expand with this new technology.
“I’m going to go ahead and say this: these will also be the rooms of the future,” Rosencrance said. “They will be some of the most technologically advanced rooms within the system. You may have read something about the rooms of the future at United Hospital Center (in Bridgeport), and these will be very similar to those.”
Rosencrance explained that the technology will allow for charting to occur on the patient’s TV in the room, in addition to allowing medical professionals to monitor patients both remotely and on site. He noted that the hospital bed could be integrated into the electronic health record to assist with record-keeping and mitigate some data headaches that caregivers deal with.
Rosencrance said this will give caregivers the chance to better address patients and their families without getting caught up in logging data.
The surgical ICU project is not the only modernization plan in the works, Rosencrance said. Additionally, WVU Medicine Thomas Hospitals is set to modernize diagnostic imaging and nuclear medicine facilities, enhancing the patient experience. Rosencrance said the system will be able to do specific testing related to Parkinson’s disease, to differentiate it from other movement disorders.
Rosencrance said through investments over the last three years, WVU Medicine Thomas Hospitals has added 350 full-time employees. He said they continue to grow, and investments such as this are invaluable in supporting that.
“The system-wide investment from WVU Medicine, not only at Thomas but across the system, really does demonstrate a long-term commitment to ensuring that patients in all regions,” Rosencrance said. “Including the southern region, the Charleston area, have advanced to the most high-quality health care in advanced technological health care close to home.”