Now that they have a volunteer study committee's report on Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in hand, the Butler County commissioners have another resource to help them decide whether to keep the facility and continue to run it, keep it but bring in a management company to operate it, or sell it.

The financial drain that the facility has been on the county budget in recent years makes the decision important. However, by no means do past deficits make clear that sale of the facility is the best option. There are other important factors to weigh in addition to money — including maintaining the top-notch quality of care that currently exists there.

Meanwhile, the county is under no deadline for making a final ruling on the home's fate. It's better that the commissioners move slowly toward a decision rather than act in haste and make what later could be proven to have been the wrong choice.

But a timely decision nevertheless is necessary, because the rate of financial losses that the home has experienced cannot be sustained.

The Sunnyview study committee comprised Jim Roddey, a former Allegheny County chief executive who currently is a board member for Vocollect Healthcare Systems; Trudi Stafford, a former vice president of UPMC Passavant; and Bryan Randall, vice president and chief financial officer for Heritage Valley Health System.

While it is disappointing that the committee was unable to hand down a clear recommendation with strong supporting evidence, observations contained in the report should be useful in helping the commissioners weigh each option, and then eliminate two of them.

The three options that the committee identified were not new to the commissioners, since they already knew they eventually would have to select one of the three, unless the committee identified some innovative approach to resolving the issue.

The committee's failure to produce such a finding, such as suggesting some creative combination of the available options, can be seen as a disappointment. However, the inability to identify any other options confirms the limited choices facing the commissioners.

The fact that the commissioners sent back the preliminary report containing the conclusion that a management company be brought in — a conclusion apparently not backed up with adequate supporting evidence — might be indicative that the commissioners regard that action as the least-acceptable option.

In the aftermath of the study and its failure to draw a firm conclusion, some points are worth considering:

n According to the Pittsburgh consulting firm Carbis Walker, which evaluated Sunnyview's market value, the county could reap $8.5 million to $12 million from the sale of the facility, if, prior to the sale, the county implemented cost-cutting measures and other efficiencies. On the surface, those figures project an inaccurate profit to the county, since $4.5 million out of $6 million in federal funding that the facility received for major renovations would have to be returned. That payback requirement declines over time.

The reality that the county would reap such a reduced financial gain from the sale of Sunnyview suggests the sale of this asset is not a good financial decision — at least now.

It's true that selling the home would end the operating losses that the county currently funds, but eliminating or greatly reducing deficits is possible by steps within the commissioners' control, without selling the home.

n To control costs, a buyer might eventually take drastic steps that could negatively impact care or the operation of the facility — steps that haven't been acceptable as part of the county's operation of the home.

n Hiring a management company is not always a panacea, as this county's previous experience with a management company proved. Some counties that have opted for management companies — including Butler County — have ended up in trouble with the state over the operator's failure to maintain standards consistent with state regulations.

Between 1992 and 2000, when Sunnyview was run by a Philadelphia-area management company, the state imposed sanctions on the home until certain problems were corrected.

The commissioners are deeply concerned about the well-being of the oftentimes frail individuals whom the facility serves, which some people say dictates maintaining ownership and operation of the home. However, the commissioners also are deeply concerned about — and committed to — the taxpayers' best interests, which would seem to imply selection of one of the other options.

The commissioners' decision will not be easy, and only they can speak to how much the volunteer committee's efforts will help them make a final decision.

But the commissioners need to utilize every resource available to help them reach the best conclusion. How close they are to exhausting all of those resources remains unclear.

If there is a basis for disappointment at this time, it is that the committee didn't bring the commissioners as close to a decision as they might have hoped.