Robert C. Byrd Clinical and Educational Center

In September 2008, Marshall University was awarded a Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) facilities grant specifically for the development of a Rural Health and Education Center in southern West Virginia.

The primary purpose of the project is to provide quality family medical care. The delivery of health care in West Virginia is hampered by sparse population, transportation barriers and unevenly distributed health care providers. The secondary purpose is to collaborate with the family medicine, internal medicine and pediatric residency programs at the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine to encourage recruitment to an area of West Virginia that continues to struggle in recruiting primary care physicians to meet the needs of an aging population.

Marshall University began work with a team of interested community members in Logan County, West Virginia, to plan for a health center in Chapmanville in 2008.

Coalfield Health Center officially began operations in July 2009 in temporary space next to Dignity Hospice. Coalfield Health Center is now located in a facility on Airport Road in Chapmanville off Route 119.  It is governed by a community Board of Directors and staffed primarily by employees from Chapmanville and the surrounding area. 

Clinical and Educational Mission

Coalfield Health Center provides quality primary medical care to a medically underserved community in a state-of-the-art facility, which allows enhanced opportunities for patient educational programs and serve as an outreach site for specialty services. 

Coalfield Health Center also provides the infrastructure to extend and expand the Marshall’s fully accredited primary care training programs to this center. Nursing students, dental hygiene students, pre-med students and residents have the opportunity to work with the center’s providers and interact with community members. Medical students also have opportunities to rotate through the Center for outpatient training, introducing them to rural medicine for possible residency training and subsequent practice opportunities.