For more information visit: emergency.wvu.edu
WVU Medicine, the state’s largest health system, advances WVU’s mission by delivering high-quality care, educating the next generation of health professionals, and ensuring access to essential healthcare across the region.
Overall WVU Medicine Report FindingsAs a powerful economic engine for West Virginia, WVU Medicine drives job creation, attracts research and clinical investment, supports local businesses, and generates substantial tax revenue. Integrated with WVU Health Sciences, its academic, research, and clinical enterprise fuels innovation, strengthens communities, and positions West Virginia for sustained economic growth and prosperity.
These impacts are driven by hospital payrolls, vendor purchases, household spending, and construction investments, all of which create ripple effects throughout local economies. From expanding clinical facilities and attracting high-skill professionals to stimulating small business growth and supporting public revenues, WVU Medicine’s presence translates into measurable prosperity across sectors, including healthcare, construction, professional services, hospitality, and retail. In sum, WVU Medicine serves not only as West Virginia’s leading healthcare provider but also as a pillar of regional economic development, ensuring that every dollar invested in healthcare strengthens communities, sustains families, and fuels long-term growth across the Mountain State.
National Reach. Lives Transformed.
WVU Medicine, the West Virginia University Health System, serves as the backbone of the state’s healthcare economy and a cornerstone of its broader economic strength. As West Virginia’s largest private employer and most extensive health system, WVU Medicine operates 25 hospitals across West Virginia, western Maryland, eastern Ohio, and southwestern Pennsylvania. In FY24, the system encompassed more than 3,000 licensed beds, 3,000 employed providers, and a workforce exceeding 35,000 employees, generating over $7 billion in annual revenue.
Nationally, WVU Medicine produced an estimated $16.8 billion in total economic impact, supporting 118,365 jobs and $771.5 million in tax revenue. Much of this activity is anchored by the 881-bed J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, the system’s flagship facility, which drives both healthcare delivery and economic vitality in the region.
The WVU Health Sciences Center and WVU Medicine together create an integrated academic, research, and clinical enterprise that educates physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and allied health professionals while translating research discoveries into improved patient care. This integration ensures that medical advances, clinical trials, and training opportunities extend from university laboratories to hospitals and community clinics across the state, building a self-sustaining healthcare ecosystem that educates, trains and retains health professionals within West Virginia.
A major advantage of WVU Medicine’s scale and mission is its ability to keep patients—and healthcare dollars—in West Virginia. By providing advanced clinical services such as in-state heart transplantation, groundbreaking neuroscience treatments and technology, expanded cancer care access, and opening the new WVU Medicine Children’s Hospital, the system reduces patient outmigration, ensures access to high-quality care close to home, and attracts patients from neighboring states. Each of these factors strengthens rural hospitals, supports high-skill employment, and reinforces the system’s multibillion-dollar impact on West Virginia’s economy.
Keeping Patients—and Healthcare Dollars—Close to Home.
In FY24, WVU Medicine generated a total national economic impact of $16.8 billion, with $11.2 billion of that impact retained within West Virginia. This includes $7.1 billion in direct spending on operations, payroll, medical supplies, and capital projects, as well as $4.1 billion in indirect and induced impacts resulting from the continued circulation of those dollars through the state’s economy. These figures underscore the far-reaching influence of WVU Medicine’s activity on businesses, households, and communities across West Virginia.
WVU Medicine strengthens the state’s economy by purchasing goods and services, employing tens of thousands of West Virginians, and investing in facilities and innovation. Each dollar spent by the health system creates new economic value—driving demand for local products and services while supporting employment in industries such as construction, retail, professional services, and hospitality. As vendors and employees re-spend their earnings within the state, additional indirect and induced impacts are generated, creating a powerful multiplier effect that amplifies WVU Medicine’s role as one of West Virginia’s most significant and enduring economic engines.
In FY24, WVU Medicine served as one of West Virginia’s most powerful employment engines, supporting 56,224 jobs statewide. As the largest employer in the state, WVU Medicine’s operations sustain jobs not only within its hospitals and clinics but also throughout the many industries connected to its supply chain and local spending activity.
WVU Medicine directly employed 26,452 individuals across West Virginia, including physicians, nurses, residents, researchers, administrative professionals, and facility operations staff. These positions form the backbone of the state’s healthcare workforce and are distributed across both urban and rural communities, ensuring access to care and employment statewide.
An additional 29,772 jobs were supported through the economic ripple effects of WVU Medicine’s academic, research, and clinical activities. Indirect jobs stem from spending on goods and services by vendors and suppliers that support the health system, such as construction, maintenance, medical equipment, and professional services. Induced jobs are created when WVU Medicine employees and residents spend their income locally on housing, dining, retail, and entertainment—boosting employment in hospitality, retail, and other service sectors.
Altogether, one in every 14 jobs in West Virginia exists either directly within WVU Medicine or is supported by its presence, underscoring the health system’s vital role in strengthening the state’s workforce, stabilizing communities, and fueling long-term economic growth.
In FY24, state and local tax revenues attributable to WVU Medicine totaled $686.5 million. This figure reflects the tax impact generated not only by WVU Medicine’s operations but also by the spending of its physicians, nurses, residents, staff, patients, and visitors all of whom contribute to local and statewide economic vitality. These dollars help fund essential public services, infrastructure improvements, and community development initiatives throughout the Mountain State.
In FY24, WVU Medicine generated $1 of every $8.32 in state revenue—highlighting its essential role in supporting West Virginia’s fiscal health, healthcare access, and economic opportunity.