The Charleston Area Medical Center we know today was born in 1972 when Charleston General Hospital and Charleston Memorial Hospital merged. But the history of the hospitals making up CAMC Health System, Inc date back to the 1890s. In 1895 Charleston passed a bond to pay for construction of a hospital, Charleston General Hospital. Charleston Memorial Hospital opened in 1951. Other smaller hospitals with names such as Marmet Hospital and McMillan Hospital, either closed or merged with General or Memorial. In 1986 Kanawha Valley Hospital joined CAMC. Two years later it was renamed Women and Children’s Hospital upon completion of a major expansion project.

Charleston Area Medical Center is now the flagship of the CAMC Health System, Inc. The largest hospital in West Virginia, CAMC is a non-profit, 893-bed, regional referral center with more than 5,000 employees. 

Nearly 700 physicians have admitting privileges at CAMC which is also Southern West Virginia's largest teaching hospital, hosting, on any given day, more than 500 students in programs leading to degrees or certifications in health professions. 

CAMC is home to one of the top 10 heart programs in the United States; one of two kidney transplant centers in the state; and one of the nation's busiest Level I Trauma Centers.