Dear Cottage Residents,

I hope you are all feeling well and healthy. The team at Birch Bay Village considers maintaining the wellness and safety of our resident community as our number one priority. We continue to monitor information and guidance from the Maine Department of Health, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and are working with state and local public health and emergency preparedness officials to prevent the illness and strengthen our preparation for and response to outbreak.

We continue to be focused on infection control best practices with our staff and residents. We are screening all staff and Inn residents every day. Staff have been trained on the symptoms of the Coronavirus (COVID-19), CDC recommended infection prevention techniques, and have clear protocols for staff to stay home and not come to work if they are ill or symptomatic. You may notice that our staff is now wearing cloth masks when providing maintenance services at the Cottages. We expect that guidance for Source Control masking will be extended to residents soon and we will provide cloth masks to residents who need it. Please contact Susanne Hopkins if you are interested in a cloth mask and she can obtain one for you.

We currently have no cases of COVID-19 among our staff and residents. We have policies and procedures in place for when or if the first case is identified.

As a reminder, Birch Bay continues to restrict visitation on our Inn campus as required by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS). Based on federal guidance, no visitor will be permitted into our Inn except for certain compassionate care situations such as an end-of-life situation. We recommend that cottage residents follow these recommendations and limit their visitors and interactions with others as much as possible.

Governor Janet Mills has extended the stay at home order for all Maine residents until May 15, 2020. Inn Residents have agreed to continue to shelter in place and we would ask that all residents who live on our campus continue to do that for the health and safety of all.

To make it easier for you to stay at home, we are extending the new Birch Bay Marketplace, a grocery order service, developed for Inn residents to extended to our Cottage residents beginning next week. A menu of produce, dairy, dry goods, deli items, frozen items and meats will be available for order. We are finalizing our order sheets and expect that they should be available early next week. Orders would need to be placed on Wednesdays and available for delivery by our staff to your cottages on Fridays. Any items purchased will be added to a monthly invoice from Birch Bay. If special items are requested, Chef Maggie will do her best to find those items. The availability of certain items may change from week to week.

We are grateful to the support of residents and their families during this difficult time. Please continue to visit our website and Facebook Page for regular updates and do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns you may have.

 

Sincerely,

Peter Sullivan, MBA, RN-BC, LRCA, CDP

Executive Director, Birch Bay Retirement Village