Morrisey announces partnership to build a birthing center & reopen GVMC’s labor & delivery
By Stephen Baldwin, RealWV
LEWISBURG, W.Va. – “We are restoring essential healthcare services to the Greenbrier Valley by reopening labor and delivery at Greenbrier Valley Medical Center (GVMC).”
That’s how Gov. Patrick Morrisey kicked off a celebratory press conference on Thursday morning at the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine (WVSOM).
According to Morrisey, a partnership between Vandalia Health, WVSOM, and the state will allow for labor & delivery services to reopen in 2027 at GVMC. It will be staffed largely by doctors in their residency who are part of a new rural obstetrics program run by Vandalia. The program will provide services for pregnancies which carry more risk and need proximity to a hospital.
In addition, Morrisey said that a community birthing center will be constructed in the area to serve the needs of pregnant moms without risk factors.
RealWV has learned that Rainelle Medical Center will operate the birthing center in partnership with WVSOM and Vandalia. No details regarding a location, timeline, or staffing for the birthing center were immediately available from those present at the announcement.
The state is contributing $4 million to the partnership (from the Rural Health Transformation Program) for the construction of the birthing center.
“We’re talking about permanent improvements to maternal health care in West Virginia,” Morrisey concluded.
A tumultuous year
One year ago today, Vandalia Health announced they would no longer offer labor & delivery services at Greenbrier Valley Medical Center (GVMC). The news came as a shock to the community.
One week later, Gov. Patrick Morrisey held a town hall at the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine. “I don’t like it,” Morrisey said at the beginning of his remarks about the closure, as two tables of Vandalia executives sat in the front row. “I read about it. I didn’t like that.”
Several hundred people attended the town hall, voicing their anger over the decision. Local Physician’s Assistant Anna Stout Tuckwiller said, “I would not have been able to stay here and work in health care had I not had access to OBGYN services…Our health care system is broken…We all feel uninspired, compelled to leave, because it feels broken for the providers and feels bad to go in each day to work. I think we need to look at bigger overhauls to the system.”
Following thunderous applause from the audience, Morrisey said he agreed and described Vandalia’s decision as “the opposite of what we’ve been trying to do…I want this to be a thriving community which means access to the services you need.”
Despite the governor’s opposition and community pushback, Vandalia proceeded with their plan and closed the local hospital’s labor & delivery unit in April 2026.
Morrisey’s top health officer, Dr. Arvin Singh, pledged at that time, “We are going to do everything we can to help bridge gaps,” particularly with the resources afforded by the Rural Health Transformation Program (an influx of $500 million from the federal government for rural health care).
On Thursday, the vision to fill those gaps was unveiled at the governor’s announcement, as Morrisey gave Singh credit for doing the work behind the scenes.
Two-part plan for maternal health care
Gov. Morrisey outlined a two-part plan for prioritizing maternal health care on Thursday.
One, he said labor & delivery services would reopen at GVMC. “The planned reopening will restore local access to deliveries requiring hospital resources, including C-sections, epidurals, and care for higher-risk pregnancies,” he said.
Since Vandalia said they closed the labor & delivery unit due to not being able to recruit physicians, RealWV asked Vandalia CEO Jeff Sandene how the reopened unit would be staffed?
He told us the unit would be staffed by a mix of doctors and residents who are part of the new obstetrics “track” they will offer with WVSOM.
“The rural (obstetrics) track really is where we use our obstetrics residents, the med students at the O school, and they start working together and getting education,” Sandene explained.
“In the meantime, we will start recruiting and getting the schedule set up for early 2027, relaunching OB, which is very exciting for us.”
Vandalia has argued for the last year that recruitment was the major issue that caused the closure, saying they were unable to recruit doctors to live and work in the area. While there was no discussion of government funds being utilized specifically for the reopening of labor & delivery, Gov. Morrisey did say the state received $17 million from the federal government for maternal health care and that those funds were part of this plan.
Sandene said the labor & delivery unit will be in the same location as the old one–the second floor of GVMC. He added that this move will not impact the hospital’s reorganization as a Critical Access Hospital. (Vandalia made that move this year as well, which allows them higher reimbursement rates but limits the number of inpatient beds they can have, for example.)
“We won’t compromise on the quality,” Sandene said. “We have an OB residency out of Charleston. We’re going to use our faculty who will work with medical students at the O school and get some experience at GVMC. We’re not just hiring doctors to deliver babies. It’s all about growing our own doctors who will stay in the state. There’s a national shortage, of course.”
RealWV sent additional questions to Vandalia about particular resources required to run a labor & delivery unit which physicians have said were needed in the past, including access to ultrasound services and blood products? RealWV also asked if pediatric inpatient services would be restored so that children born at the hospital could receive care there as well?
Vandalia asked for more time to respond to those questions, calling them “premature” at this juncture.
Part two of the plan is a state grant of $4 million which will go towards construction of a birthing center. Rainelle Medical Center will operate the center as part of the partnership. Details are expected to be revealed in the coming weeks and months, and RealWV will provide updates as available.
“It will also expand prenatal and postpartum care, women’s health services, birth preparation, lactation support, care coordination, and telehealth,” Morrisey said of the birthing center. “Services will be introduced in phases as staffing, facilities, and clinical arrangements are established.”
No specific timeline for construction of the birthing center has been established yet.
‘When we take care of a woman, we take care of everybody who depends on her’
On hand for the announcement was Dr. Dara Aliff, an OBGYN from Boone County, WV, who graduated from WVSOM and has practiced medicine for decades in West Virginia. She recently sold her practice to Vandalia.
“This is a big day,” she shared. “The women of West Virginia were watching, and these leaders have decided to act.”
“Women are the backbone of our families and our communities. They run households, hold down jobs, volunteer at churches, they take care of children and aging partners, and often they’re doing all that in the same day. When we take care of a woman, we take care of everybody who depends on her. Her entire family. That is one of the most important charges we have in this state and why this work matters so much to me.”
Aliff received a standing ovation.
‘We ran to it’
Gov. Morrisey concluded the announcement saying, “West Virginia is in growth mode.”
He expressed optimism, saying this development would help promote a “virtuous circle” of positive developments where folks could get healthy, work good jobs, prosper along with their families, and allow the state to grow.
“I saw an opportunity, and we ran to it,” Morrisey said.
Stay tuned to RealWV for updates on this story.
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