Leading the way for rural health
The Center works to improve the health of West Virginians and strengthen West Virginia’s health care delivery system, especially in rural communities and underserved communities.
Our health care delivery approaches take a fresh look on how care is delivered in rural communities. We partner with other private and public organizations to ensure that our state’s health care infrastructure is “retrofitted” for the future. Ensuring that West Virginia’s communities have the facilities, equipment, technology, people and leadership to sustain quality health care delivery in the 21st Century is the backbone of the Center’s mission.
Our community health improvement approaches focus on working with community leaders to build upon the resources in their community to create local conditions where residents have options available to them so that they can pursue a healthy lifestyle – which contributes to a healthy workforce. We work to support local leaders as they collectively identify community priorities and implement sustainable solutions that will lift West Virginia’s lagging health statistics community by community over the next decade.
The Center Provides Value to West Virginia by:
- Improving the health of West Virginians.
- Strengthening the rural health infrastructure needed to attract and retain businesses in rural communities.
- Reducing costs associated with preventable diseases.
- Creating community environments that are supportive of healthy behaviors and economic development.
- Improving access to quality health care services.
- Improving the environment for recruitment and retention of physicians and other health care providers.
- Strengthening leadership capacity to enable our health care organizations to compete in the current and future health care environment.
Our Mission
The Center for Rural Health Development, Inc.’s mission is to create a healthy future for West Virginia by improving the health of our residents and the strength of West Virginia’s health care delivery system, especially in rural and underserved communities.
Our Vision
In accomplishing our mission, we strive to be a collaborative leader, a trustworthy partner, and a recognized source of expertise and assistance for all who want to improve health and health care access in West Virginia.
Our Guiding Principles
In pursuit of our mission we are guided by the following principles:
- Healthy Communities. We strive to create an environment in West Virginia where our residents can be supported in developing and maintaining positive health habits, lifestyles, especially preventive health strategies, to enable them to live healthy and productive lives.
- Patient-Centered Health Care. We support a patient-centered health care delivery system in West Virginia that values the patient and their family as an integral part of the care team who collaborate with health care professionals in making health care decisions.
- Public/Private Partnerships. We work with both the private and public sectors to create effective partnerships conducive to accomplishing our mission through our delivery of programs.
- Retention. We understand that organizational culture is the first step toward creating a work environment conducive to the retention of health care workforce, thus we will work with health care systems and organizations to assist with the development of an organizational culture based on a system of core values.
- Health Equity. Through our work we will strive to ensure that all West Virginians have access to quality health care services and are supported in developing and maintaining positive health outcomes regardless of their race, ethnicity, religion, gender or socioeconomic status.
Statement on Diversity, Inclusion and Equity
The Center takes the broadest possible view of diversity. We believe that every person brings a unique perspective and experience to advance our mission and progress our work to ensure access to quality health care services and to address health disparities to ensure that all who live and work in WV thrive – no exceptions.
The Center’s board works to include diversity, equity, and inclusion in the composition of the board, staff, and through the Center’s programs. We strive to foster a culture where every member of the Center and its partners feel valued, supported, accepted and inspired to achieve individual and organizational goals. This includes providing, leveraging, and harnessing opportunity for all people across differences of race, age, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, disability/abilities, and socioeconomic background to be part of discussions, decision-making, and success at the Center.
Adopted by the Board of Directors
March 8, 2023
