BAMBERG, S.C. – Bamberg County is poised to provide additional services as part of enhancements being made at its hospital with the help of $154,000 in nursing home sale proceeds.

Bamberg County Council voted on Dec. 8, 2008, to sell the nursing center to Toccoa, Ga.-based UHS-Pruitt Corp. with hopes of providing a continued high level of care and a profitable hospital. Ownership and management of the Bamberg County Nursing Center was officially transferred to a Georgia company in early August.

The council’s finance committee met Friday morning to formulate a recommendation on how the proceeds from the sale of the nursing home would be used. The whole county council met shortly after that to approve disbursement of $154,000 for maintenance needs and the addition of services at the hospital.

“The finance committee ... recommended to the county council that the proceeds be reserved in an account held by the county for disbursement to satisfy emergency and revenue enhancement needs of the hospital,” Council Chairman Clair Guess said.

He said the council will made available to the hospital $154,000 “for specific repairs to specific systems.”

“We’re allowing for all maintenance items that they requested and also for the addition of services to the facility to better serve the medical needs of the community,” Guess said.

Air-conditioning pumps were among the maintenance requests made by hospital officials, but Guess declined to elaborate on what specific services would be added at the facility.

“It may be a competitive thing. I don’t want to say,” Guess said.

He said the $154,000 will help continue pulling the hospital out of financial difficulties.

County Council has approved a $1.5 million bond to offset the hospital’s debts and address safety issues at the facility. During a meeting on Oct. 6, 2008, the council gave final approval to an ordinance authorizing the county to access $800,000 in general obligation bonds through the state Budget and Control Board.

The federal Centers for Medicaid and Medicare mandated that renovations be made at the hospital, which also had to meet state Department of Health and Environmental Control standards.

“From the proceeds of the sale of the hospital, we were able to repair the hospital and bring it back into 100 percent compliance with all the codes and standards. We were able to modernize the facility so that it is fully functional,” Guess said. “We are able to add medical services for the benefit of the community and ... fully retire the $800,000 bond that was initiated for helping the hospital through this crisis.”

“We’ve relieved the taxpayers of that burden,” he added. “The $1.5 million bond is not going to be retired from these proceeds; however, the hospital is looking to pay for the approximately two-mill tax burden out of its future revenue for that obligation so that we can provide relief to the taxpayers as promised.”

Hospital CFO Carl Menist reported in February he was pleased with where the hospital was financially compared to prior years.

“We’re looking ahead and planning ways that we can ... continue to be profitable. Really, our initial goals were to stop the major bleeding and the negative cash flow that we had through the significant losses that we were having,” he said.

Guess on Friday said, “This initiative on the part of the county council and the hospital board that started two years ago amidst a crisis has been a great success. ... We’re continuing to improve the facility. It’s been modernized. It’s fully staffed and offers additional services that it didn’t heretofore. It is doing this under a very tight budget and good operating plan.

“Everybody worked hard, and this is what we intended to do.”

T&D Staff Writer Dionne Gleaton can be reached by e-mail at dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5534.

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