Published April 1993 — Download PDF of the original newspaper column
Byrd's-Eye View By U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd A Gracious Honor from West Virginia University
The people of West Virginia--from her youngest citizens to her oldest--merit the best possible health care, and that conviction has been uppermost in my mind as I have worked over the years to improve our state's health-care infrastructure. Because health care is so important to me, I am deeply touched by a recent decision by West Virginia University and the University of West Virginia System Board of Trustees to honor my commitment to health care by naming the complex of health-related facilities in Morgantown "The Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center." Included in that complex is an important facility for which I have added $13.3 million in federal funding: The Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center, which is West Virginia's first state-of-the-art facility dedicated to battling cancer. Also included is the Jon Michael Moore Trauma Center, a facility specializing in the care of accident victims. These facilities were named by WVU, respectively, in memory of Senator Jennings Randolph's late wife and for my late grandson. Though sources of distinctiveness and pride, the remoteness and ruggedness of much of West Virginia have too long also meant inaccessible health care for many, as well as long journeys to distant, out-of-state medical facilities whenever acute illness demanded intensive, specialized treatments. Consequently, two critical elements of any health-care infrastructure in West Virginia-- in addition to first-rate treatment facilities-- are outreach and training programs, both of which serve to expand health care far beyond the walls of such facilities as the Health Sciences Center. The Trauma Center, for instance, not only offers training for local officials on quickly responding to trauma victims, but also enables distant West Virginia hospitals to better treat trauma victims by connecting them with trauma specialists at the Center via a two-way telecommunications network. Other outreach programs for which I have been able to add federal funding and which benefit West Virginians in all areas of our state are the Breast and Cervical Cancer screening project, and the Alzheimer's screening project, operated jointly by WVU and Marshall University. In addition, Marshall University is also administering the Southern West Virginia Center for Rural Health, an undertaking for which I added $4.5 million in federal funding last year and which will augment health-care services to West Virginians in Cabell, Wayne, Lincoln, Mingo, Mason, Logan, Roane, Boone, Putnam, Jackson, McDowell, and Wyoming Counties. A modern program of health care is important to West Virginia's future growth and development. Grateful for WVU' s recognition of my contributions to our state's health-care infrastructure, I shall continue my efforts to give substance to my vision of better health care for all West Virginians. April 21, 1993