Since its establishment in 1954 as a Catholic Hospital and changing to a public facility, RACH has grown smaller along with the area's shrinking population and dwindling workforce. With less patients to care for the hospital has been undergoing some changes in how to provide the best and most efficient healthcare it possibly can even during its hard times. In early 2002 the hospital joined with Charleston's main hospital to provide the new technology of allowing patients to see a doctor in Charleston without having to travel the long distance to the hospital. For most minor issues the implication was fairly successful. Another trial that has proved costly for the hospital has been the housing of elderly care patients from the overflowing nursing home nearby. Two and a half floors of RACH are dedicated to elderly patient care which has waved confidence in potential patients for using RACH as their stop for healthcare as many assume the hospital will lack in provided care to the young adults and children due to its high population of elderly patients.