Williamson (W.Va.) Memorial Hospital, its county's only hospital, will reopen following a $2 million federal grant it received after being closed since 2020, CBS affiliate WYMT reported Sept. 29.
Since its closure, residents have had to travel to Kentucky to receive care, according to the news outlet. The building then housed several clinics instead.
"There's been an overcrowding of the ER, not a whole lot of ICU beds available, folks are waiting sometimes a day or two and holding in the ER to get a bed somewhere, and then the wait times for the local EMS has been just astronomical lately," Joey Carey, Williamson's fire chief and building inspector, told the publication. "We have a lot of elderly folks that live in this town, who require a lot of attention medically and losing the hospital was a huge impact on our city, for our elderly population and also [for] business and jobs for the city."
The funding will provide new equipment, laboratory upgrades, ultrasound technology and permanent working capital for hospital operations.
The hospital is slated to open in December and create an estimated 80 jobs, the report said.