Robert C. Byrd

Expanding Access to Medical Care

Health care is one of the most important services that a community can provide for its citizens. Whether intended for routine checkups or for more complex procedures, health care facilities that are close to home are important resources for local residents. Across West Virginia, especially in our more rural areas, there is a serious shortage of doctors. Too often, families must travel long distances to see a physician, and even farther if specialized care is required. That is why, throughout my career of public service, I have worked to expand our medical facilities.

The West Virginia University (WVU) Health Sciences Center is far from what it was when the doors opened more than fifty years ago in 1957. This complex has grown through the addition of facilities that I have supported, including the Jon Michael Moore Trauma Center, the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center, the Eye Institute, the Health Sciences Learning Center, the Clinical Teaching Center in Charleston, the Health Professionals Education Center in Martinsburg, and the recently completed Biomedical Research Center and the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute. The flurry of construction activity is far from over as WVU. As a result of my efforts, the University is close to completing an expansion to the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center and the development of a Multiple Sclerosis Center. These facilities are helping to produce quality health care professionals in medicine, nursing, dentistry, and pharmacy, and making significant improvements to health care outreach, treatment, and prevention throughout the state.

I have also changed the face of health care offerings at Marshall University (MU), beginning with the creation of the medical school in 1977; the building and expansion of the Center for Rural Health; the construction of the Biotechnology Science Center; and, most recently, the new Clinical, Education, and Outreach Center.

My work to respond to the health care needs of West Virginians also includes securing funding for the construction of an ambulatory care clinic at the West Virginia School for Osteopathic Medicine in Lewisburg, the creation of the Pharmacy School at the University of Charleston, and a building to house Shepherd University’s nursing school.

West Virginians are proud of their history, their heritage, and their mountains. But that same rugged, rural terrain has been an obstacle for access to quality health care close to home. I hope that the funding that I added to legislation throughout my career will help to overcome the obstacles that prevent many West Virginians from receiving the quality medical treatment and training that they deserve.