In 2019, David Ramsey and the board of Charleston (W.Va.) Area Medical Center Health System spent about a year evaluating their options: remain independent, create a new system or join a larger one.
The ideal scenario, they found, was to maintain a West Virginia-based system. Mr. Ramsey, who had helmed CAMC Health System since 2000, became president and CEO of Charleston-based Vandalia Health following its creation in 2022 — a move that grew the health system from eight hospitals to 17 in less than two years.
Mr. Ramsey, who recently shared plans to retire in July 2026, told Becker’s that Vandalia’s formation came at the right time for the organization.
“The early 2010s is when a lot of consolidation began to take place, and we were seeing some of that in West Virginia, but we just weren’t ready to make the move at that point,” he said.
Then, an opportunity arose to merge with the four-hospital Mon Health System.
“They were going through the same sort of process, and we’d already worked together for a couple of years in other ways,” Mr. Ramsey said. “There was a comfort level in coming together, and it created energy and opportunity for other hospitals in the state that were also looking for a partnership to come forward.”
What made the merger successful? “Don’t change what’s not broke,” he said. “Depend on the people that brought you to the party, and then focus on the patients.”
While Vandalia includes larger facilities in the northern and southern parts of the state — as well as the 956-bed Charleston Area Medical Center tertiary teaching hospital — many of its hospitals serve rural communities.
“In our state, it could take an hour or more to get tertiary care,” Mr. Ramsey said. “So what can we do to keep that care local?”
The answer has included telemedicine and mobile services. Vandalia offers care through an app that facilitates at-home video visits and operates nine virtual care hubs across the state. At these hubs, patients are seen in person by a nurse and virtually by a specialist who may be based more than an hour away. Nearly all Vandalia clinics now have this hybrid capability.
“During that visit, you can get most of your lab work done locally, and all that goes into the EMR,” Mr. Ramsey said. “Then you come back later to develop a plan of care — and chances are, you’ll never have to travel. It can be an hour and 45 minutes to Charleston, and your chronic condition can be handled more locally by your primary care doctor.”
The system also operates what it calls Medicine in Motion units that travel the state, offering services such as 3D mammography and lung screenings. These units park at local federally qualified health centers or Vandalia primary care locations and accept both walk-ins and appointments.
“It’s remarkable,” he said. “With mobile mammography, for example, most of the people we see have either never had a mammogram or haven’t had one in 10 or more years. Again, it’s about getting care closer to where people live.”
Ahead of his 2026 retirement, Mr. Ramsey remains focused on contingency planning for potential Medicaid cuts and maintaining financial stability. But above all, access to care is his top concern.
“Part of the frustration of just about every American I know is that they can’t get in to see their doctor in a timely fashion,” he said. “As the American population continues to age, there will be more and more shortages of physicians and subspecialists. How can we refine and improve the system so people can get the care they need in a more timely way?”
