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T he long-time administrator of Indian River Nursing Home has been selected as the new administrator at the Washington County-owned Pleasant Valley Infirmary.
The county board of supervisors hired Renee Groesbeck at an annual salary of $84,000. She replaces interim director James DeLuca, who stepped down effective Aug. 15. Groesbeck’s first day at PVI will be Sept. 10.
Groesbeck, who had been at Indian River Nursing Home for nearly 20 years, comes into the position at a rare positive moment for the 121-bed facility, which had been under state Department of Health sanctions until recently.
A 1979 graduate of Granville High School, Groesbeck graduated from Russell Sage and has a master’s in business administration from the College of Saint Rose.
For the next two weeks, PVI will have a very strong Granville connection. Tamme Taran, who is on the Hampton Town Board, will serve as director of nursing until the end of the month when she returns to her position as a school nurse in Granville.
Until last week, the nursing home could not accept new Medicaid and Medicare patients, but PVI passed a series of inspections and regained its ability to take those patients. The facility is in a cash-flow crisis right now, waiting for more than $2 million in federal funding that it may not receive until the end of the year. The county board is expected to transfer $450,000 to PVI to attempt to cover the issue.
“We feel we are moving in the right direction now,” said Granville Supervisor Matt Hicks, who served on the hiring committee. “The ban has been lifted, and we have hired good people. I know Renee a little bit from town, and everything I have heard has been complimentary.”
Working on sale
The county board is also continuing its negotiations with Centers for Specialty Care, a New York City-based company that has bid to buy the nursing home. County Attorney Roger Wickes said he did not expect anything definite on the sale until the end of the summer.
Hicks said recently that since any deal would not be complete for at least a year, the new administrators would get a chance to show they were capable of continuing to run the facility.
“They are going to be hard-pressed to find anybody as capable as Renee,” Hicks said.
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