The Polk County Board of Commissioners decided recently to lend a helping hand to the Saluda Medical Center by giving $8,939 to the center for new EKG equipment.

The new equipment will make it easier for patients to get on the table and the machine is tied to the computer for records, according to Saluda City Administrator Erny Williams.

Williams said the old EKG machine is 13 years old. The Saluda Medical Center saw 3,000 patients last year and he said the center simply needs the machine and it is no longer possible to receive funding for the purchase from the state.

The money will be taken from the county’s economic development grants line item.

Commissioner Cindy Walker said she and her family have attended Saluda Medical Center since she moved to the area. She said the first time she walked in she noticed posters that said patients were more important than money.

“If I needed to work out a payment plan, they would work with me,” Walker said. “My health was more important than money.”

The Saluda Medical Center is a private, non-profit rural health center and medical facility located at 86 Greenville Street. The center was created more than 30 years ago in response to a lack of critical medical resources and physicians in the area and is the only rural health center in the area that receives state funding for services based upon a sliding fee scale, for which the uninsured can qualify.

Polk commissioners met Monday, June 6 at the Saluda School for the board’s second traveling meeting this year. The county is scheduled to travel to different areas of the county every three months.