Plumas District Hospital Chief Executive Officer JoDee Read reports that PDH is ready to begin hiring for about 80 positions in its new skilled nursing facility. These will include housekeepers, food service workers, facilities workers and nursing staff, among other job classifications.
The facility is slated to open in the fall of 2025, and Read expects that it will add about $2 million per year in salary and wages to the local economy. The first job postings should begin appearing around the end of January 2025, Read said.
“We’re excited about that. It is really a blessing to be able to offer living-wage jobs to people in this community, and a brand new facility for them to work at,” she said.
Residential nursing care has been unavailable in the Quincy area for about 10 years, since the closing of the privately-owned facility at 50 Central Avenue. Generally known as Quincy Convalescent Hospital, its name had changed a few times with shifts in ownership over the years. When it closed for the last time in 2015, PDH investigated options for acquiring and operating it. The physical proximity requirements for MediCal reimbursement made that impractical, Read said.
The new facility, on the south side of Bucks Lake Road across from the PDH campus, is close enough to allow PDH to access MediCal funding for up to 36 full-time residents who require continuous nursing care.
“I think it’s important for the community to know how invested we are into providing the community full service for all of the population of our patients,” Read said. “We’re really committed to making a difference, finding our purpose, and taking care of the patients that live in Plumas County. And this is one more way that we can make a difference,” she said. “I couldn’t be more excited to have something like this in the town that I call home.”
Anyone interested in accessing skilled nursing care for themselves or a loved one is invited to call PDH’s social worker, Jaye Marcus-Ledford, at 530-283-7990 or send an email to [email protected]. To qualify, patients should be either covered by MediCal or be looking into MediCal coverage. PDH can assist with that process, Read said. Information is also available on PDH’s skilled nursing facility website.
Read discussed these topics in an interview on KQNY 91.9 FM for the first edition of a new radio program, Vital Voices, a collaboration between the station and PDH. The program airs on Tuesdays at 9 a.m. and Saturdays at 5 p.m. and will be accessible on demand through the station’s website beginning January 20.