The Five Pillars provide Minnie Hamilton Health System Team Members a foundation for setting organizational goals and direction for service and excellence. They also provide consistency and focus over time.

Our History

Minnie B. Hamilton (1900-1981) was a native of Calhoun County who tirelessly served her community as the Public Health Nurse for more than thirty years.

In 1985, when a new primary care facility was opened in Grantsville, it was named MinnieHamilton Health System in her honor. During the fall of 1995, when Calhoun General Hospital was nearing closure, the directors of Minnie Hamilton Health System (MHHS) elected to incorporate the hospital building and its operations into their services.

The State of West Virginia assisting through grants and consultants, an affiliation arrangement being formed with Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital, of Weston, and a new Medicare program designation as an EACH/RPCH hospital, all combined to help the new operation get underway.

During 1996, in-patient, out-patient, clinic, emergency and ancillary services were provided, and an average number of eighty employees were on payroll. After six years, the financial report for the year 2001 showed an annual operating budget of $9,000,000 and employment of 180 individuals.

The growth of MHHS and its services has included: a 24- bed long- term care unit, a satellite clinic in Glenville, WV, day-care services, ambulance transport services, school-based health clinics in Calhoun and Gilmer counties, outreach programs, and the addition of physical therapy and CT scan services.

More than $1,000,000 in capital equipment has been acquired since 1996 and various additions and improvements have enhanced the hospital building. Presently, Minnie Hamilton Health System is a 43-bed facility and is designated by Medicare as a Critical Access Hospital.

Criteria for designation as a Critical Access hospital:

• Be located in a State that has established a State rural health plan for the State Flex Program (as of September 2011)
• Be located in a rural area or be treated as rural under a special provision that allows qualified hospital providers in urban areas to be treated as rural for purposes of becomingt a CAH:
• Demonstrate compliance with the CoPs found at 42 CFR Part 485 subpart F at the time of application for CAH status.
• Furnish 24-hour emergency care services 7 days a week, using either on-site or on-call staff.
• Provide no more than 25 inpatient beds that can be used for either inpatient or swing bed services; however, it may also operate a distinct part rehabilitation or psychiatric unit, each with up to 10 beds;
• Have an average annual length of stay of 96 hours or less per patient for acute care (excluding swing bed services and beds that are within distinct part units); and
• Be located either more than a 35-mile drive from the nearest hospital or CAH or more than 15-mile drive in areas with mountainous terrain or only secondary roads OT certified as a CAH prior tro January 1, 2006, based on State designation as a "necessary provider" of health care services to residents in the area.