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FAIRMONT, W.Va. – Mon Health Marion Neighborhood Hospital will soon open a small-format hospital for people in the Fairmont area. The facility will open to the public on December 14.
Mon Health System Emergency Medicine Director Dr. Christopher Edwards said they will be full service, but there will be some services that won’t be offered.
“Keeping with the small-format foot print, there will be no operating room, no OBGYN type deliveries,” Edwards said. “Anyone that would require those services would be transferred.”
Small-format hospitals are a very good fit for rural areas where care option are limited. In this case, the Mon Health Marion Neighborhood Hospital will fill the void created by the closure of the Fairmont Regional Medical Center about two years ago.
“It helps bring access to care, emergent care for basic inpatient care to folks in the Marion County area so they don’t have to travel to Morgantown,” Dr. Edwards said.
Despite the name “small-format,” patients can expect most services available at the former Fairmont Regional Medical Center. In many cases tele-medicine will be used and if a service is not available the patient would be transferred to the appropriate facility.
“We’re a full-service hospital. We have full services- lab, radiology, basic x-ray, CT and ultrasound,” Dr. Edwards said.
This type of hospital can provide the most basic and common service to keep people from having to travel to Morgantown or beyond on a regular basis.
“This type of small-format hospital is the footprint to allow smaller communities to gain access to care much closer to home,” Dr. Edwards said. ” If they need advanced or specialized care they can be transferred.”
When the project was announced in March 2020 after the closure of the Fairmont Regional Medical Center President and CEO of Mon Health Systems David Goldberg this was the perfect option to ensure Marion County and surrounding communities have the care options they deserve.
“We’re going to try to do everything we can to help provide that care so people don’t have to travel far to get the access and quality care they deserve,” Dr. Edwards said.