FAIRMONT – Cheryl Moore spent 28 years at the former Fairmont General Hospital, watching as the facility waxed and waned, like a patient in intensive care.
Friday, she watched as WVU Medicine and CEO Albert Wright Jr. and Gov. Jim Justice exchanged a fist bump – and talked about a $110 million recovery regimen for the ailing hospital.
That’s how much WVU Medicine is fiscally transfusing into the place, now known as Fairmont Medicine Center.
The outlay will fund the multiyear makeover, including the addition of 30 beds for a skilled nursing unit and the creation of more lab space and other facilities.
Other enhances include new roofs, upgrades to the façade and entrances and the instillation of a helipad, Wright reported.
Wings of the original hospital, built in 1939 and 1942, will also be demolished, Wright said, with the new elements taking their place.
“It’s a fixer-upper,” he said.
Moore said she’ll take it.
The hospital was shuttered by its then-parent company last year at the height of the pandemic.
“I was here,” said Moore, who was then director of surgical services and maternal care. “It wasn’t much fun.”
“Things are a lot of more positive now,” she said. “People are getting excited again.”
Moore was able to stay on, and currently works as a housing supervisor.
She’s a native of nearby Barrackville, and said most people in Marion County would rather stay home for their healthcare, opposed to driving to Morgantown or Clarksburg.
Situated on a rise on leafy Locust Avenue, and right next to Fairmont State University, the hospital was the county’s medical hub for decades.
Geography, demographics and the properties of the hospital’s physical plant all factored into the planned upgrade, Wright said.
Early plans called for the building of a new hospital at the top of the Gateway Connection, the roadway that links the city to Interstate 79, but, Wright said, that wasn’t practical – for the above reasons.
“We looked at the pros and cons of staying in this building, or building out at the Gateway,” Wright said.
However, he continued, he realized some things, as said plan for a somewhat limited facility was almost waved into the passing lane.
“It became very evident that there are a tremendous number of patients who come out of Marion County and require not only out-patient care but significant in-patient care.”
It also became evident, the healthcare administrator said, that a new building in the Gateway would cost twice as much – in an area with the half the space – as it would to lift up the current property on Locust Avenue.
The governor, meanwhile, gave thanks to Moore and all the other employees were able to hold on.
“You saved a hospital,” he said.
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