The operation of Valley Hi Nursing Home, the McHenry County-owned nursing home is slightly changing. The first meeting of the newly-formed Valley Hi Operations Board was held Thursday. The Board consists of five citizens selected by the County Board on the advice of the Valley Hi Committee. The new board includes Dallas Larson, Peter Michling, Victor Narusis, Lynn Ryan, and Joanne Hanrahan. This group will meet again to select officers and set meeting dates along with any other necessary business.
The idea to form an Operations Board began many months ago when the contract with Revere Health Care was coming to an end. This company had been retained to put Valley Hi operations on a more professional footing. The nursing home, which had its beginning over 100 years ago as a "poor farm" which allowed citizens to have a place to be taken care of when they reached an age of being unable to farm and care for themselves.
At the beginning of the farm operation, those who could do some chores did so but they also had a place to live. That practice still remains in place, except there is no more farming. In 2002 McHenry County voters approved a referendum to build a new more efficient nursing home. Several months ago a new administrator, Tom Annarella, was hired to oversee the facility. Valley Hi Nursing Home is now in the nursing home market and this is what the Operations Board will be working with. The idea of an operations board came from DeKalb County which initiated this idea for a county owned nursing home.
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