CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WVDN) – Governor Patrick Morrisey announced more than $4 million in West Virginia Rural Health Transformation Program (WV RHTP) awards to Minnie Hamilton Health Care Center, supporting a new mobile healthcare effort and additional provider productivity investments designed to expand access to care and strengthen healthcare delivery across central West Virginia.
“The future of rural healthcare isn’t just building healthcare around facilities. It’s building healthcare around people,” Governor Morrisey said. “This investment will help bring care closer to patients, expand access across rural communities, and create new opportunities for residents to receive quality healthcare without having to travel long distances from home.”
One of the awards, totaling to $1.7 million through the State’s Connected Care Grid initiative, will support deployment of a mobile medical clinic designed to bring healthcare services directly into rural communities across the region. The mobile unit will provide primary care, chronic disease management, behavioral health services, wound care, diagnostic services, telehealth specialty consultations, and care coordination closer to where patients live.
The mobile healthcare project will focus on helping residents access preventive care earlier, better manage chronic health conditions, and stay connected to follow-up services and ongoing care. By strengthening care coordination and expanding access to primary, behavioral health, and specialty services, the initiative is designed to improve health outcomes and support healthier communities across the region.
“This project is exactly the type of innovation rural communities need,” said Secretary of Health Dr. Arvin Singh. “The mobile unit will bring healthcare directly to patients, helping remove barriers to care while connecting residents to preventive services, chronic disease management, specialty consultations, and follow-up support. It is a practical investment that can make a meaningful difference in people’s lives.”
In addition to the mobile health unit investment, Minnie Hamilton Health Care Center will launch an innovative bi-regional shared-service collaborative to modernize rural emergency medical response by deploying autonomous drone delivery for time-critical supplies, blood products, and lab specimens across West Virginia. This will compress emergency response times and streamline provider operations across four rural counties, replacing fragmented couriers with a single reimbursable service line to improve health outcomes and support long-term healthcare sustainability.
A third project will implement artificial intelligence-supported clinical documentation technology. Per the hospital, the technology can reduce provider documentation time by up to 70 percent and potentially allow clinicians to see one to two additional patients per day while improving documentation quality and care coordination.
“The Trump Administration’s Rural Health Transformation Program is equipping states like West Virginia with the resources they need to deliver lasting improvements for rural communities,” said CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz. “From bringing care directly to patients to using new technologies that strengthen emergency response and expand provider capacity, these investments will help rural families get high-quality care when and where they need it.”
Together, these investments reflect Minnie Hamilton Health Care Center’s commitment to expanding healthcare access, embracing innovation, and strengthening rural healthcare delivery throughout central West Virginia. From bringing care directly into communities to supporting providers with new technologies, these projects will help more West Virginians access high-quality care closer to home.
This press release is supported by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of the financial assistance award totaling $199,476,098.72 with 100% funded by CMS HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor endorsement, by CMS/HHS, or the U.S. Government.
