[4][5] In 1960, the original hospital (or, what is now the south wing of the university's Health Sciences Center), financed by West Virginia's penny-a-bottle excise tax on soda,[6] first opened as University Hospital.

[8] As a result of University Hospital's many safety concerns, which would cost an estimated $60 million to repair, West Virginia University president Gordon Gee developed a plan to reorganize the hospital, then owned by the state and funded in large part by its revenue, under a new non-profit corporate structure controlled by the University, which would allow the hospital to borrow debt as a source of financing.

[8] Initially an unpopular idea, the plan had the support of then-Governor John Rockefeller IV and was backed by the West Virginia Legislature, as a means to construct a new state-of-the-art hospital without requiring financing by the state, all while avoiding costly repairs to the twenty-plus-year-old original structure.

[13] The new free-leaning hospital opened in fall 2022 and has its own pediatric emergency department and rapid-care center, cardiology unit, epilepsy monitoring unit, operating rooms, cardiac catheterization and endoscopy facilities, pharmacy, cafeteria, and gift shop.

Ruby Memorial Hospital has been ranked both nationally and regionally by U.S. News & World Report.

[18] Additionally, the hospital had four high performing adult specialties, nephrology,[19] neurology & neurosurgery,[20] orthopaedics,[21] and pulmonology & lung surgery,[22] as well as two high performing conditions, congestive heart failure[23] and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.