Tag: Karen Bowling

Ex-West Virginia Cabinet Secretary Named Hospital Chief

A former cabinet secretary in West Virginia has been named president and CEO of Princeton Community Hospital.

Karen Bowling currently serves as West Virginia University Health System’s executive vice president of government affairs, as well as president and CEO of WVU Medicine’s Braxton County Memorial Health System and Summersville Regional Medical Center.

Princeton Community Hospital entered into a management agreement and clinical affiliation with WVU Hospitals in December. It has 203 beds serving 10 counties in southern West Virginia and southwestern Virginia. It also provides behavioral health services as well as a 64-bed psychiatric hospital in Bluefield, and emergency care at the former Bluefield Regional Medical Center.

Bowling served as cabinet secretary of the Department of Health and Human Resources under Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin.

“You would be hard pressed to find someone as dedicated to the people of West Virginia, especially those in the southern part of the state, as Karen Bowling,” WVU Health System President and CEO Albert L. Wright Jr. said in a statement. “Her passion is contagious and her efforts to improve patients’ access to healthcare are tireless.”

Health Secretary Joining W.Va. United Health System

West Virginia Health and Human Resources Secretary Karen Bowling has been appointed to a post with West Virginia United Health System.

West Virginia University announced Bowling will be vice president of care delivery transformation. A news release said she will be responsible for leading transformation of the system’s model to one that is largely outcome- or risk-based.

CEO and President Albert Wright Jr. said the idea is to help people stay healthy with new ways of delivering and managing care.

Bowling has been secretary of health and human resources since July 2013.

Gov.-elect Jim Justice last week named Bill Crouch to succeed Bowling as secretary.

New Public-Private Partnership Will Help At-Risk Medicaid Patients

A public-private partnership to identify and provide help for at-risk Medicaid patients was announced Wednesday.

The state has teamed up with the nonprofit company Partners in Health Network. Cabinet Secretary Karen Bowling, with the Department of Health and Human Resources, explained the program. She said the first step is to identify Medicaid patients who visit emergency rooms often.

“Then actually targeting those beneficiaries to ensure they’re really getting the help they need, they’re getting the care they need, but they’re getting it in the right setting,” she said.

Bowling said that through Partners in Health, the program can focus on preventive care and keep those patients out of the emergency room. She said the partnership will improve care for Medicaid patients and ultimately cut down on costs.

Bowling said programs such as this one are important in coming up with new ways to solve health care issues in West Virginia.

“As we begin to think about how do we change things, and move West Virginia in the right direction to change our health outcomes, we have got to have these types of programs in place so that there is sort of an acknowledgement of the need to do things differently.”

The program took effect at the beginning of the year.  The first step will be to collect data that can target the Medicaid patients benefit from it.

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