It’s a crying shame that it came to this for our county nursing home. In jeopardy of losing its license, and racking up daily fines from the Department of Health and Environmental Control, it could be easy to lose sight of why we, as a county, have chosen to take such a pivotal financial and supervisory role in the nursing home business. We mustn’t.

Caring for our nation’s elderly is a business. It is a business that rises in importance and funds along with the rise in Baby Boomers’ ages. Newberry County historically has an aged population, percentage-wise, and long ago we collectively made a commitment to make sure there would be a place for those people to be cared for, one their loved ones could no longer.

There will always be a place for the elderly with good insurance, or lots of money. Again, caring for the elderly is a business. County-owned nursing homes, or hospitals for that matter, exist to ensure that everyone in a community has access to that care. We put our tax dollars toward supporting these facilities precisely because we are a community, all of us. That J.F. Hawkins Nursing Home and Springfield Place are currently in a position that bars the facilities from accepting Medicaid and Medicare patients runs counter to that entire philosophy and is a situation that must be remedied with great haste. Otherwise, the question that has been asked repeatedly as county leaders examine budgets and bottom lines could and should come again: “why are we in the nursing home business?”

We think we are in it to protect and care for our community’s aging population when it is no longer able to do these things for itself. That is why it is so appalling that when DHEC uncovered major infractions at the facility, and put the nursing home on notice in such a severe way—county leaders were the last stop for the nursing home administration.

If the problem is to be fixed, and swiftly, all hands should be “on deck.” It may be embarrassing and potentially job-threatening for those who lead the nursing home, but leaving decision-makers and budget builders out of the loop when the facility is under fire is completely unacceptable, and not a choice that was made in the best interests of the residents. It is time to either step up and show that we, as a county, do want to pursue having a haven available to our elderly, or get out of the nursing home business.