BAMBERG - Bamberg County Council has given the initial nod to a contract for the potential purchase, sale or lease of the Bamberg County Nursing Center to a Georgia company.

The council, in a special called meeting Monday with the Hospital and Nursing Center Board, approved first reading of the contract which outlines the "conveyance of nursing home property and assets" to Toccoa, Ga.-based UHS-Pruitt Corp., Rose Dobson-Elliott, county administrator, said Tuesday.

"We're still tweaking the contract. We've been moving forward with due diligence and just trying to hammer out the details. We want to preserve the nursing home and hospital care that we have in Bamberg County. Pruitt is a very well recognized company, and they have the funds to do these type things," Dobson-Elliott said.

A proposed second reading of the contract is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 20, at the Council Chambers on North Street. A public hearing and proposed final third reading is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 8 at the Bamberg County Courthouse.

The county council at a Nov. 3 meeting approved a letter of intent with UHS-Pruitt to continue negotiations on all of its options in paying for hospital renovations, including the use of funds from the potential sale of the nursing center.

The federal Centers for Medicaid and Medicare have mandated that renovations be made at the hospital by June 20, 2009.

UHS-Pruitt has already applied for a certificate of need from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, which was advertised in The Times and Democrat on Nov. 14, 15 and 16. CON applications provide details about the particular need for a project. UHS-Pruitt is estimating the total cost of the project at $5,076,000.

"That probably includes what they're going to invest. They're going to make some upgrades. That CON advertisement includes those numbers and also the cost of everything associated. They've got to pay for a survey. ... All that's their cost," Dobson-Elliott said.

"I can take the numbers that I know we (Bamberg County) have been dealing with, but ours is still a moving target. We're trying to get the numbers now," the administrator said.

"We're just trying to be as expeditious, and moving forward as quickly as possible. They (UHS-Pruitt) understand that," Dobson-Elliott said.

Sara Maret, health planner for UHS-Pruitt, said state law required the company apply for a certificate of need for the nursing home project. Public notice of the application is also a state DHEC requirement, she said.

"They (Bamberg County) put the Bamberg Nursing Home up for sale because they wanted it to be a separate entity from the hospital," said Maret, noting that the company put the details of its application out so that pricing suggestions could be made and to show why the company "would be the better company" to purchase the nursing center.

Dobson-Elliott said the county itself has not published an amount for which the nursing center could potentially sell.

"It's a moving target. We've pulled all sales of nursing homes and like facilities in the state. When you break it down comparing size and when it was built, the numbers we're talking about are very good," she said.

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Bamberg County Council will be at 6 p.m. Monday, Dec. 1, in the Council Chambers.

T&D Staff Writer Dionne Gleaton can be reached by e-mail at dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5534. T&D Correspondent Phyllis A. Overstreet can be reached by e-mail at paoverstreet@bellsouth.net. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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