The Center, headquarters for the Eastern Division of the West Virginia University Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center, is on the campus of City Hospital. The 36,650 square-foot building includes a 200-seat auditorium, a 40-seat classroom, administrative offices, meeting rooms, a contemporary library, and a computer-based study area.

“We are making great strides in health care in West Virginia. We are working to bring medical services closer to peoples homes so that patients do not have to travel out-of-state for specialized care. We are expanding preventive health efforts and building new facilities to train the next generation of West Virginia doctors, nurses, and pharmacists,”Byrd said.”We must continue to work to make health care more affordable and more available to every West Virginian.”

WVU chose to name the facility for Mrs. Byrd to honor her lifelong partnership with Senator Byrd, and to recognize the significant advancements in West Virginias health care network that they have helped to build.

“Erma would be so proud of West Virginia University’s decision to name this new medical education center in her honor,”Senator Byrd said.”It is a tribute to the compassion and concern that Erma showed toward everyone she met. I pray that the hands of the Great Physician will guide the doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other health professionals who train at this facility and give healing to their patients in many years to come.”

Senator Byrd was joined at the ceremony by WVU President David C. Hardesty; Robert M. D’Alessandri, WVU vice president for health sciences; Mitch Jacques, M.D., Eastern Division dean; and many of the students, faculty and community leaders who made the new building possible.

The Senator’s assistance was crucial, Hardesty said.”Many of the state’s most advanced facilities for teaching the health professionsand many of the facilities where West Virginians receive the finest healthcarewould not have been possible without his leadership. His vision for the people of the Eastern Panhandle of the state has been particularly bold. The establishment of a West Virginia University health campus in this region would not have been possible without his steadfast efforts.”

Working in partnership with WVU , Senator Byrd added $6.5 million to federal legislation to construct the Center.

Dr. D’Alessandri recalled that Erma Byrd had been at the Senator’s side on numerous visits to WVU health and educational facilities in the past.”It will be with great sadness that we welcome the Senator to our campus without his lifelong companion. But we believe that this facility is a fitting memorial to a woman whose concern for young people, both those within her family and those in her larger family across the State, was central to her life.”

Senator Byrd was instrumental in building many of the University’s health programs, including the Jon Michael Moore Trauma Center, the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center, the Sleeth Family Medicine Center and the WVU Eye Institute.

“Together, we have made amazing progress,”Byrd said.”From one end of West Virginia to the other, our state’s medical facilities are fast developing into some of the best in the country. That progress is saving lives. Technology, training, and cutting-edge facilities are helping doctors and nurses to better treat patients’illnesses. These initiatives also are helping West Virginians to live longer, healthier lives. The new WVU medical center in the Eastern Panhandle will further that work, training the next generation of doctors and nurses and encouraging them to practice their healing craft here at home.”