Mrs O'Neill has come from Amaroo Aged Care in Berrigan and begins in her position on May 10, having the reigns handed over by John Parkes.

"It was a really challenging year - I came on a year's contract to to look at internal systems and to help the organisation stabilise," Mr Parkes said.

"I'm delighted to to hand over to Andrea, she has a significant background in the industry.

"Aged care has changed exponentially over the last decade and is still changing, so business models that were in place a decade ago are almost irrelevant in the contemporary market.

"We've got some very good bones here, and we've got some very good opportunities - there's a stack of undeveloped land, which gives us a chance to dream about what a new business model would look like."

Mrs O'Neill, who sits on the Residential Advisory Committee of Aged and Community Services Australia, was at Amaroo for 10 years.

In that time, the health service added a memory support wing, expanded its independent living units and began delivering the Commonwealth Home Support Programme.

"It was time for me to look for a bigger challenge ... I was told about Yackandandah health and applied," she said.

"The board actually came out and saw me in my environment - something I hadn't been involved in before, but it was a good thing because they were able to see me interacting."

Yackandandah Health has 11 independent living units that are fully occupied, with CHSP packages being delivered there.

"I know there's a small element of community care here at Yack Health, but I think there's the opportunity to grow that as well," Mrs O'Neill said.

"When opportunities arise, we would like to take those, but through continually involving the community."

In looking ahead, Mrs O'Neill said it was "steady as the ship goes".

"It's a worldwide pandemic; none of us have ever lived through this before, so a lot of it is really trial and error," she said.

"But I think excellent systems have been set up - it will be just a matter of maintaining those.

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"We're only ever as good as our weakest link, so we need to be vigilant."

Yackandandah Health chair Tricia Glass thanked Mr Parkes on behalf of the board.

"At the same time, we are looking forward to welcoming Andrea," she said.

"We look forward to her building on the substantial base which has been laid as we continue to develop aged care, health care and early childhood education for our community."