The West Virginia University (WVU) Health System Board of Directors on April 15 signed off on more than $350 million in new capital investments spread across 10 projects. The slate, which remains subject to regulatory approval, covers facilities in seven West Virginia communities along with sites in Oakland, Maryland, and St. Clairsville, Ohio.
According to WVU officials, the investments support the system’s stated goals of expanding regional access to care and fueling local employment. With the latest round, the system’s cumulative capital spending over the last three years has climbed past $1.2 billion.
Several large projects are covered under the latest round of funding, but the biggest-ticket item is a $135 million new patient tower for the Camden Clark Medical Center in Parkersburg. The project is intended to bring inpatient capacity from 260 to 300 beds while moving the hospital toward single-occupancy rooms.
Plans call for four additional surgical suites, a proposed women’s and children’s floor with dedicated operating rooms and 450 additional parking spaces. The new tower will be connected to the existing hospital via walkways. According to officials, completion is expected in the second quarter of 2029.
The next largest project by funding is a $68.1 million Phase III expansion of the Fairmont Medical Center. Plans for this phase include an outpatient clinic and shelled space set aside for future primary and specialty care growth, along with a new loading dock and materials-management storage, according to the health system. The work requires demolishing structures more than 80 years old on the campus, which will be replaced by a three-story building. Completion is targeted for the fourth quarter of 2028.
Coming in third is a new, small community hospital in St. Clairsville, Ohio. Wheeling Hospital is building the $56 million, two-story, 55,000-square-foot facility across the state line in Ohio. According to WVU, the hospital is designed to house inpatient rooms, an emergency department, outpatient imaging, laboratory services, primary care and 14 specialty clinics. Among the larger items in the slate, it is expected to open in 2027.
The rest of the slate covers the following projects:
- Princeton Community Hospital ($25.5 million): A four-story, 50,636-square-foot medical office building adjacent to the main campus, consolidating seven physician practices and outpatient therapies, targeted for June 2028.
- Weirton Medical Center ($20.1 million): A 17,000-square-foot cancer center affiliated with the WVU Cancer Institute, bringing on-site radiation therapy to Weirton for the first time, anticipated in the first quarter of 2029.
- WVU Hospitals, Morgantown ($18.5 million): Relocation and expansion of outpatient behavioral health services into WVU Innovation Corporation space, anticipated in the third quarter of 2027.
- Garrett Regional Medical Center, Oakland, Maryland ($15 million): A three-story, 21,000-square-foot radiation oncology addition with shelled space reserved for future heart, vascular and well-patient services, anticipated in the second quarter of 2029.
- Thomas Hospitals, Charleston ($8.7 million): Conversion of a unit previously leased to hospice into a 14-bed surgical intensive care unit, anticipated in the first quarter of 2027.
- Thomas Hospitals, Charleston ($4 million): Relocation and partial re-equipment of the nuclear medicine service line, co-located with WVU Heart and Vascular Institute clinic space, anticipated in the first quarter of 2027.
- Potomac Valley Hospital, Keyser ($2.5 million): Buildout of the final vacant space in the Potomac Valley Plaza complex into an orthopedic and podiatry suite, anticipated in the fourth quarter of 2026.
Each project in the 2026 slate must clear state-level regulatory review before breaking ground, according to system officials.
The latest approval marks the third consecutive year the WVU Health System board has signed off on a multi-site, multi-state capital improvement plan. The 2024 round pushed nearly $400 million in new spending, while the 2025 slate totaled more than $460 million. Both rounds have produced tangible results, including a new home for the WVU Eye Institute and a cancer center at Princeton Community Hospital, both of which have broken ground, along with the Elkins Corridor Medical Center, which opened to patients in September 2025.
Photo by MART PRODUCTION form Pexels
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