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ELKINS -- A Davis Health System official told other local business leaders about the effort underway for DHS to merge with Vandalia Health at a special event this week.
Davis Medical Center Community Liaison Chad Ware provided an update concerning DHS during the Elkins-Randolph County Chamber of Commerce's annual "Biscuits, Gravy & Business" event held at Davis & Elkins College's Halliehurst Mansion Tuesday morning.
"We are currently in a management service agreement with Vandalia Health, which basically means Vandalia Health can come in, provide support in certain areas that we need it, loans, quick cash, things like that," said Ware.
"Certainly, our departure from WVU left us with a little bit of that and Vandalia Health has been able to help with that. It's very much like we did when Webster Memorial came underneath our umbrella a couple years ago at Davis Health Systems."
The management agreement between the two companies was signed in late June, and the two sides are currently in the process of completing due diligence and have filed all necessary regulatory and governance applications.
"We are working on a letter-of-intent for full membership into Vandalia Health System," Ware said. "We are working through the process of due diligence right now with the hopes of completion sometime between October and December of this year. Due diligence is basically a time where we look at regulatory legal obligation requirements that are needed to make it all work out."
Vandalia Health includes 16 hospitals and more than 160 outpatient locations. It employs close to 12,000 employees, including more than 1,200 doctors and advanced practice providers.
"If you're not familiar with Vandalia Health, they are divided basically into two sections, a northern section and a southern section of the state," Ware said. "The northern section is the Mon Health region and the southern section is Charleston Area Medical Center."
In September 2022, Mon Health System and Charleston Area Medical Center Health System merged to form Vandalia Health.
"It's an exciting time for growth. Myself and a few others had the opportunity to meet their management when they came down. Their administration are wonderful people, they're excited to be a part of this community and the communities we serve," Ware said.
Ware said despite the merger, the facilities that are under the Davis Health System umbrella will continue to keep their identities in each of the communities they are a part of.
"There's lots to love about the merger from our end, but a couple things are that we really love the fact that they want to keep the identity of the local hospital in the community," Ware said. "Meaning that the communities that we serve now, Davis Medical will remain Davis Medical Center, Broaddus Hospital will stay Broaddus Hospital, Webster Memorial will stay Webster Memorial.
"There's a big focus on that, so there's not going to be any name change like that. It might say Davis Medical Center at Vandalia Health, but our name will remain the same."
Ware said the merger will allow DHS to grow and offer patients a variety of new services.
"It allows us to expand in the service areas that are maybe a little bit harder to recruit for us," Ware said. "Or programs that are harder to fund, certainly things like cardiac services and neurology, things that are hard to recruit -- that will certainly open up doors for us there. And also a cath lab, which is much needed in this area, so they've helped us prepare for that."
Along with everything currently happening with Vandalia Health, Ware said DMC continues to make improvements to better serve its patients.
"Some of the new things we've got going on right now, orthopedic joint replacement center of excellence, that's Dr. Boardwine, Pavlovich and Topping, they are all together under one roof now. The director is Dave Kessler. He's done a wonderful job and that's really hit the ground running quite well," Ware said. "We've got a new psychiatrist, who actually started today, Dr. DeMarco, she's wonderful… In pulmonology, Dr. Kowatli is a pulmonologist here and he's been fantastic to work with. Then in ophthalmology, a provider named Misti Wray, we are looking at November for her start time."