West Virginia Code 18-11C-2 – Findings
(a) It is hereby found and determined with regard to the hospital that:
Terms Used In West Virginia Code 18-11C-2
- Agreement: means the long-term lease and agreement to be entered into between the board and the corporation pursuant to section four of this article. See West Virginia Code 18-11C-1
- board: means a county board of education. See West Virginia Code 18-1-1
- Corporation: means the nonstock, not-for-profit corporation to be established under the general corporation laws of the state, which meets the description prescribed by section three of this article. See West Virginia Code 18-11C-1
- Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
- Existing facilities: means the West Virginia University hospital and clinics, other than those used for student health and family practice, presently existing at the West Virginia University medical center in Morgantown and owned and operated by the board. See West Virginia Code 18-11C-1
- Health science schools: means the schools of medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and nursing and any other schools at the university considered by the board to be health sciences. See West Virginia Code 18-11C-1
- Hospital: means the inpatient and outpatient health care services of the board, other than those used for student health services and family practice clinics, operated in connection with the university, consisting of the existing facilities and any other health care service components of the West Virginia University medical center at Morgantown rendering patient care services and more particularly identified by the agreement. See West Virginia Code 18-11C-1
- New facilities: means a new hospital facility and out-patient clinics, appurtenant facilities, equipment and necessary services to be acquired, built, operated or contracted for by the corporation on property leased from the board within Monongalia County, West Virginia, pursuant to the agreement. See West Virginia Code 18-11C-1
- State: when applied to a part of the United States and not restricted by the context, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories, and the words "United States" also include the said district and territories. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
- system: means the nonstock, not-for-profit corporation to be established under the general corporation laws of the state, which meets the description set forth in section three-a of this article. See West Virginia Code 18-11C-1
- University: means West Virginia University. See West Virginia Code 18-11C-1
(1) The purposes of the existing facilities are to facilitate the clinical education and research of the health science schools and to provide patient care, including specialized services not widely available elsewhere in West Virginia. The eventual termination of the services in lieu of replacement or modernization would create an unreasonable hardship on patients in the area and throughout the state;
(2) These purposes separately and collectively serve the highest public interest and are essential to the public health and welfare, but must be realized in the most efficient manner and at the lowest cost practicable and consistent with these purposes;
(3) It is unnecessarily costly and administratively cumbersome for the board to finance, manage and carry out the patient care activities of an academic institution within the existing framework of a state agency. The patient care operations are more efficiently served by contemporary legal, management and procedural structures utilized by similarly situated private entities throughout the nation;
(4) It is fiscally desirable that the state separate the business and service functions of the hospital from the educational functions of the health science schools, that the board cease operation of the existing facilities, that the board transfer the operations to the corporation, that the board pay certain existing sums and assign the assets and certain leasehold interests to the corporation in order to acquire the corporation's agreement to provide certain space and services and to assume the liabilities, that the agreement and certain other contractual relationships between the board and the corporation be authorized, and that the existing facilities operated by the corporation, and subsequently the new facilities owned and operated by the corporation, be self-sufficient and serve to remove the tax burden of operating the existing facilities from the state;
(5) A not-for-profit corporate structure with appropriate governance consistent with the delivery of health care to the patient and academic need of the university is the best means of assuring prudent financial management and the future economy of operation under rapidly changing market conditions, regulation and reimbursement; and
(6) The interests of the citizens of the state will be best met by the board's entering into and carrying out the provisions of the agreement as soon as possible, to provide independence and flexibility of management and funding while enabling the state's tertiary health care and health science education needs to be better served.
(b) It is hereby found and determined with regard to the West Virginia health system that:
(1) The interests of the citizens of the state will be best served by ensuring the continued vitality and viability of the West Virginia based health care institutions which are devoted to addressing the state's tertiary health care and health science education needs and which possess the flexibility and resources to effectively and efficiently compete in a rapidly changing health care environment;
(2) The best interests of the state, and the mission and purposes of the corporation created by this article, will best be met by the authorization and creation of a West Virginia health system as a not-for-profit corporate structure to serve as the parent corporation of the corporation created pursuant to this article and other corporations and institutions;
(3) The citizens of the state are best served by requiring representative governance by the board while maintaining flexibility so that the West Virginia health system may, over time, authorize and stimulate the creation of an integrated health care delivery system which may be comprised of one or more affiliated institutions; and
(4) The citizens of the state are best served by the creation of a coordinated, integrated, efficient and effective health science and health care delivery system which is accountable to the citizens of the state, responsive to the health care and health science education needs of the citizens of the state, and responsive to the financial pressures of a dynamic health care environment.