Butler Memorial Hospital’s time of uncertainty — and fears about the hospital’s financial future — ended several years ago with the decision to construct its new patient tower rather than build a new hospital at some other location in the Butler area.

The latest news coming out of the hospital reinforces that the right decisions ultimately were made back then, and now there is a basis for even greater optimism about the future.

Not only are the hospital’s patient numbers stable or growing, but an article in the Dec. 23 Butler Eagle reported that the hospital is planning improvements, specifically regarding cancer care and possibly neurosurgery care.

The improvements will encourage additional patients to seek their care here rather than consider going elsewhere.

That will bolster the hospital’s financial bottom line, which, based on a year-end report by Anne Krebs, Butler Health System chief financial officer, is not now in any danger.

The health system is rated stable by bond rating agencies.

For the fiscal year that ended in October, the total revenue of the Butler Health System was $255.4 million with expenses of $251.9 million. But for the community as a whole, some other numbers are as important — or perhaps more important — than those incoming and outgoing revenue totals that top hospital officials closely track.

Those other numbers reflect the hospital’s overall economic impact on the community.

As outlined by Krebs at the health system’s annual meeting on Dec. 6, the health system’s overall economic impact on Butler County for the just-completed fiscal year was about $410.1 million.

As explained, $186.8 million of that total consisted of the direct impact from what the hospital earned and spent, as well as what employees earned and spent.

According to Krebs, the secondary impact reflected in the $410 million total, amounting to $223.3 million, was derived from money spent by patients and their families connected with treatment at the hospital on East Brady Street or at one of the health system’s 27 outpatient clinics, as well as money spent at businesses such as pharmacies or health equipment stores.

Most people not directly involved with the health care industry ever ponder the huge economic impact that a hospital has on its home community as well as adjoining areas.

And, if the observations of Ken DeFurio, health system president and chief executive officer, remain true this and in future years, there will remain no basis for a return to the concerns about the hospital’s financial future that marked those days when the hospital’s future direction was still in question.

“Not only are people in Butler County choosing us for their health care needs, more and more people from surrounding counties are choosing Butler Health System as well,” DeFurio said.

The health system is operating in an era of stability but is not content to stand still.

That is good for Butler County and all those who depend on its commitment to providing high-level care.