Additional Beds Sought for GVDC Residents

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

A nonprofit that already is serving disabled Tennessee residents  has applied for a state certificate to serve four of the residents set to depart from the Greene Valley Development Center.
An application for a four-bed facility in Rockwood Roane County has been submitted to the state Health Planning and Development Agency by the Michael Dunn Center. In the application the nonprofit stated that it also intends to seek approval for a second four-bed facility also in Roane County.
Under the current application, an existing 10-bed licensed residential rehabilitation building at 763 Clymersville Road in Rockwood will be converted to a four bed Intermediate Care Facility for four former Greene Valley residents.
The nine current residents of the Clymersville Road home will be transferred to "newly acquired supported living homes," according to the application.
The Clymersville building is owned by Hope Haven Corp., which is listed as "financially related" to the Michael Dunn Center. Dunn will lease the renovated building from Hope Haven, according to the application.
Financial information included in the application states that the new home is expected to have annual revenues of $1.15 million, most of that coming from TennCare and the state.
The Dunn certificate of need application is scheduled to be considered by the board of the health planning agency on April 27.
As with the other applications, the file includes a letter of support from Debra Payne, who heads the state Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.
Seven other certificate of need applications for 28 beds to serve Greene Valley residents are pending before the same board.
Previously the panel has given its approval to another 28 beds. Only one, for a Greeneville facility, has drawn substantial opposition.
Greene Valley is under a federal court order to shut down by June 30, though an extension beyond that date is likely.
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