Toni Milbourne/Chronicle Tony Zelenka, president and CEO?of Berkeley and Jefferson Medical Centers, speaks during a Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce luncheon last Thursday.

A proposed medical office building is on tap for the Shepherdstown area, intended to serve Shepherd University students as well as local residents.

The proposal, referenced last Thursday by Anthony Zelenka, president and CEO of Berkeley and Jefferson Medical Centers, outlines a facility to be constructed just off Route 45 near the current Sheetz in Shepherdstown. Zelenka proposed the idea at a Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce luncheon.

The site designated for the medical facility is a 4.8-acre parcel, according to documents provided by Teresa McCabe, vice president of marketing and development for Berkeley and Jefferson Medical Centers.

The facility will house primary care physicians for both family medicine and pediatrics. It will also encompass behavioral health, offer student health services and be home to a lab draw station.

Zelenka spoke in general about Berkeley and Jefferson medical centers during his presentation to Chamber members, touting accomplishments made at the two facilities as well as throughout the West Virginia University Hospital system. He explained that there is a corporate level tying eight facilities together across the state.

Zelenka explained that the Residency Program with the West Virginia University School of Medicine offers a significant recruitment tool for the medical facilities within the state.

“We have a recruitment goal of 75 physicians over the next three years in our Rural Residency Program at Jefferson and Berkeley,” Zelenka said.

He also outlined an advanced connection between Jefferson, Berkeley and Morgantown’s Ruby Hospital that offers specialists in many areas. Morgantown now has heart specialists, he said, that allow transport to that facility rather than out of the system to Winchester, Virginia. He predicted that, within the next two years, Berkeley Medical Center doctors will be performing open heart surgery.

Zelenka mentioned a surgical expansion planned for Jefferson Medical Center. He hinted at some forthcoming announcements with regard to future construction at Jefferson, but couldn’t elaborate.

“The hospital will not be relocated to the Langlet property that was acquired five years ago,” Zelenka said. He said announcements will be made soon regarding a proposed $50-million-dollar investment in Jefferson County.

Zelenka referenced a potential substance abuse facility on 78 acres in Berkeley County, although it would take a lot of doctors for that to happen, he said, as well as some possible collaboration with others to build such a facility.

The Shepherdstown facility could see additional expansion beyond its initial plans: The proposal references future options on the land parcel to include an expansion of the proposed primary care facility as well as facilities for orthopedics and sports medicine. A physical therapy unit could also be in the plans for future construction.