KINGWOOD – A bill (HB 2626) introduced Feb. 18 by the House of Delegates Health and Human Resources Committee in an effort to close four state-owned hospitals, one of which was Hopemont Hospital in Terra Alta, “is dead,” according to Delegate Terri Sypolt, R-Preston.
Hopemont Hospital in Terra Alta, Lakin Hospital in Mason County, the John Manchin Sr. Hospital in Fairmont, and the Jackie Withrow Hospital in Beckley would have closed Jan. 1, if the bill had passed.
Hopemont Hospital is a 98-bed licensed Medicare certified long-term-care facility originally founded to care for West Virginia citizens with tuberculosis. In 1995, the 35-bed uncertified personal care area of the hospital was closed. The remaining 98-bed certified personal care area remained open for use by long-term-care patients.
According to the bill, the “age of the facilities results in continuous costly repairs and upgrades to ensure the safety of residents. The cost for utilities, building maintenance and repairs, and payroll costs are not sustainable.”
Sypolt said there is “no way” to get the HB 2626 out of the senate at this time.
“I am hoping over summer we can pull a group together and come up with something to make sure the bill (to close Hopemont) will not come up again next year,” she said.
When the bill was introduced in February, both Sypolt and Delegate Buck Jennings, R-Preston, said they would fight to keep the hospital open. Sypolt said she was going to ask for an amendment to take the hospital out of the bill.
The bill offered employees the option to either transfer to another position within state government that they were qualified for at the same rate of pay, or take a severance package, which would include their current salary and benefits for a year.
Sypolt said Preston County is a rural county, so the hospital’s employees wouldn’t have the job options of employees in Beckley or Fairmont.
Both Sypolt and Jennings also voiced concerns about finding other facilities that would take the hospital’s patients.
“There are a lot of patients at Hopemont that wouldn’t be accepted in a regular nursing home,” Jennings said. “Some have behavioral problems. If the hospital closes, no one can give me an answer about where they will go.”
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