WVU Healthcare Timeline

Meeting the Health Needs of West Virginia

The history of WVU Healthcare dates back to the opening of University Hospital in 1960, when leaders throughout the state realized their goal of having an advanced medical facility in West Virginia. The opening of Ruby Memorial Hospital in 1984 continued that vision.

Growth across the entire WVU Health Sciences Campus continued throughout the years as medical advances were brought to our region. Our commitment to ensuring the highest level of care for all patients continues today.

This timeline highlights several decades of milestones.

1960

University Hospital opens.

1971

WVU medical faculty form the West Virginia University Medical Corporation, a physician group practice.

1983

University Hospital structural problems arise and campaign begins for the hospital to become a corporation separate from the state.

1984

University Hospital is transferred from state ownership to a non-profit corporation, West Virginia University Hospitals (WVUH).
Hazel Ruby McQuain donates $8 million in memory of her late husband, J.W. Ruby, toward the construction of a new hospital.

1987

West Virginia University Medical Corporation adopts the name University Health Associates.

1988

Patients are transported from University Hospital to the new Ruby Memorial Hospital.

1990

Physician Office Center opens.
Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center opens.
Ronald McDonald House opens.

1991

MountainView Regional Rehabilitation Hospital, currently known as HealthSouth and partly owned by WVUH, opens.

1993

WVUH Child Development Center opens.
Campus name changes to Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center.

1996

Betty Puskar Breast Care Center opens.
Ruby Day Surgery Center opens.
WVUH and United Hospital Center approve plan to form the West Virginia United Health System.

1998

WVUH purchases Chestnut Ridge Hospital.

1999

Rosenbaum Family House opens.

2000

Healthworks Rehab & Fitness, partly owned by WVUH, opens.
WVU Children’s Hospital opens its Maternal Infant Care Center on the sixth floor of Ruby Memorial Hospital.

2001

WVU Eye Institute opens.

2002

Hazel Ruby McQuain dies at age 93.

2004

New WVU Cheat Lake Physicians facility opens.

2005

WVUH-East becomes the parent corporation of City Hospital and Jefferson Memorial Hospital in the Eastern Panhandle.
WVUH is named the first Magnet hospital in West Virginia.
Ruby Memorial Hospital is expanded to add nearly 180,000 square feet of patient care and support space, including 81 beds and six operating rooms.

2007

WVU Urgent Care opens.
WVU Sports Medicine Center opens

2008

“Merlin,” a multi-million dollar clinical and financial information system, goes live.
WVUH opens the Sleep Evaluation Center.
A new step-down unit opens, adding 24 beds to Ruby Memorial Hospital.

2010

WVU Heart Institute opens in new location at Suncrest Towne Center.
MyWVUChart, an online system that allows patients to access their own medical records, debuts.
WVU Hospitals and University Health Associates work together to form WVU Healthcare.

2012

U.S. News & World Report ranks WVU Hospitals #1 in West Virginia.