Franklin County is trying to get out of the nursing-home business.
Officials announced last week that it may merge its 80-bed site with the 75-bed Alice Hyde Medical Center Nursing Home and create a 165-room facility with 30 of the beds used for assisted-living care.
The new operation would be owned and operated by the hospital.
The county would help finance the new construction, but it is too soon to know just how much of a contribution is needed. Those questions will be answered by the hospital, which is using a $2.9 million state grant to map out a strategy, cost analysis and timeline for such a merger.
The idea seems like a winner.
The county would save money and gain badly needed office space, the elderly and most-vulnerable citizens would receive care at a state-of-the-art facility, and those with lesser medical conditions in need of short-term, hands-on nursing care could retain their homes and return there to regain their independence.
Franklin County's tentative budget shows the county is ready to spend at least $6.9 million to operate the nursing home in 2009. That's $210,000 more than this year and $830,000 more than was adopted in 2007.
We feel that no matter what the county is asked toward construction and operations at a new facility, it would be cheaper than what it's paying now.
And it is probably also less expensive than adding on to the existing County Courthouse at a projected cost of $8.5 million or renewing a lease for office space at the Catherine Street annex for $96,000 a year plus utilities.
At the same time, County Nursing Home residents consider the Finney Boulevard site their home, and we hope their concerns and wishes are included in merger discussions.
We'd also like assurances that the indigent and those most in need are served there -- not just those whose medical conditions earn the highest Medicare reimbursement rates. After all, the county accepted responsibility for the welfare of all of its people when it opened a public facility for the elderly and destitute.
We want to see that level of compassion continued even after the county bows out providing nursing-home care.
Assisted-living care is not offered in northern Franklin County. But with 30 such beds dedicated to that type of short-term treatment, residents can receive quality help close to home.
This merger would offer a whole new level of service to people who need it, as well as providing continued excellent care in familiar surroundings to those for whom having to move could be traumatic and debilitating. And all this would be at a cost taxpayers can live with.
