Schuylkill commissioners on Wednesday agreed to sell the county nursing home, Rest Haven, to Nationwide Health Care Services for $12.25 million.

That works out to $86,267 per bed.That's a good deal for the county, as the average price per bed from the past five sales of county nursing homes was $76,000, according to Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, the Harrisburg law firm the county in August hired for $250,000 to handle the sale.The sale will be final in May."Our primary purpose was to address the concerns of our residents at Rest Haven and our employees there. I think we've accomplished that," said Commissioners' Chairman Frank J. Staudenmeier.Nationwide, he said, is a "quality corporation" and will be a "very good citizen of Schuylkill County."Commissioner George F. Halcovage Jr. said the sale is good for all concerned."We wanted this to be a win-win-win situation. A win for the residents, a win for the employees and a win for the taxpayers of Schuylkill County. With Nationwide coming to the plate, and seeing their other facilities and the quality of care they provide, I think that we have met those goals," he said."I believe that Nationwide is a great company. Looking at it from the inside out, I believe we can hand the baton of care from our county over to Nationwide," said Commissioner Gary J. Hess."They've shown us that they will definitely improve the facility, move it forward to better things. I know the residents' families are very concerned, but I believe this is a good thing. They can rest assured that their loved ones will be well taken care of, just as they always have been at Rest Haven."Mark Stewart of Eckert Seamans said Nationwide would continue to admit Medicaid patients, and that current employees would have the option to stay.The sale also includes giving the county a 15 percent cut of profits should Nationwide decide to build anything on the land surrounding Rest Haven, which sits on a total of 55 acres off Route 61 in Schuylkill Haven, behind the Schuylkill campus of Penn State University.Nationwide, headquartered in Brick, New Jersey, owns six facilities, including the Ridgeway nursing facility in Shenandoah along with three other homes in Pennsylvania."As our track record over the past 12 years shows, we value human capital," Nationwide owner Meir Gelley said in a prepared statement. "When we acquire a county nursing center we offer all current employees the opportunity to stay on. Rest Haven has a highly skilled and committed professional staff and we hope most if not all of them will choose to stay once the purchase is complete in the spring. We look forward to meshing our systems with their expertise to produce the kind of beneficial results we have at all of other centers."Gelley said Nationwide plans to include Rest Haven in its tradition of investment in its centers."We plan to make investments that the county, unfortunately, has not been able to make in upgrading the physical condition of the building. In addition, Rest Haven, like all of our nursing centers, will feature state-of-the-art technology and equipment," he said."We feel this is an opportunity to raise the level of care and quality of life for Rest Haven's residents, and we are delighted to be able to expand our mission of serving the low-income and vulnerable communities," Gelley said.Efforts to reach Rest Haven Administrator Jill Schaeffer were unsuccessful; staff referred calls to her instead to county Administrator Mark Scarbinsky.Commissioners in August decided to sell the home after tallying up the costs continued to exceed the home's budget.Nationwide was among three finalists of the 10 companies seeking to buy Rest Haven. The other two were Long Term Care Management, Bronx, New York, which offered $10 million, and Investment 360 of Lakewood, New Jersey, which offered $8.5 million.Last year, the county took $2,058,891 from the general fund to subsidize Rest Haven.By the end of 2013, the home was running a $4.6 million deficit, according to the state Department of Community and Economic Development.Rest Haven had 113 full-time and 130 part-time workers, and 142 residents as of August.Most of the trouble stems from the gap between the actual cost of operating the home, and the amount of reimbursement received from Medicaid.County officials sought buyers for the home, with requirements that included any new owner would have to continue to accept impoverished residents.Nationwide maintains a minimum of 75 percent Medicaid residents in all of its facilities.By the end of October, 10 companies had expressed interest. By early January, the county had narrowed that list to three finalists. A committee composed of county officials, Rest haven staff and residents' families visited and evaluated facilities run by each finalist.Nationwide's operations impressed the committee with contented residents, good morale among staff, and clean homes."While visiting Nationwide's facilities, it quickly became clear to me that this operator takes great pride in the quality of care at its facilities," Staudenmeier said. "They convinced me that Rest Haven's residents will be in good hands."