The American Hospital Association has named WVU Medicine Potomac Valley Hospital in Keyser, W.Va., as the 2026 recipient of its new Rural Hospital Excellence in Innovation Award.
The award will be presented at the 39th annual AHA Rural Health Care Leadership Conference, scheduled for Feb. 8-11 in San Antonio.
Potomac Valley Hospital, part of Morgantown, W.Va.-based WVU Medicine, reopened its intensive care unit as a virtual ICU pilot program after the unit had closed before 2018 because of limited specialty care expertise, requiring ICU patients to be transferred to other facilities, according to a Feb. 5 AHA news release.
The hospital’s administrative team partnered with critical care intensivist Alison Wilson, MD, and a newly formed hospitalist team to develop a plan for its parent organization, West Virginia University Health System. The model connects the rural hospital with intensivists at WVU Medicine’s flagship hospital, J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, W.Va., allowing physicians there to view patient charts and medical records and use telehealth to discuss and observe patients in real time, the release said.
The AHA said the virtual ICU reduced the need for transfers in many cases and helped keep patients in their home community for care. The association said the program also helped minimize disparities in outcomes, particularly for underinsured or uninsured patients.
The AHA said the technology became integrated into the ICU’s daily operations and contributed to the hospital expanding telehealth into other departments, bringing specialty care services to a rural critical access hospital.
The association also named three finalists for the award: Brattleboro Memorial Hospital in Brattleboro, Vt.; Reid Health in Richmond, Ind.; and Scotland Health Care System in Laurinburg, N.C.
The award is sponsored by Microsoft, which the AHA said is committed to supporting rural hospitals through affordable access to cybersecurity services, risk assessments and innovation support.
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