Dear Residents and Families of Birch Bay Retirement Village,

I hope you all are having a nice week. We currently have no cases of COVID-19 among our staff and residents. Please know that we have followed and will continue to follow all state and federal guidelines set forth for resident care, staff safety, and efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19. We will continue to work closely with MDI Hospital, the CDC, DHHS and CMS to ensure that we are adhering to the highest standards of safety and care for our community.

Beginning July 20th we will beginning the next phase of our Birch Bay Campus Safe Guards plan which will be effective through August 3rd. Many of the guidelines will stay the same as the last two weeks. Guidelines include:

  • Families may drop off supplies and groceries at the main entrance during office hours.
  • Visits outdoors, all must be supervised, no mile radius restriction.
  • Social small group gatherings allowed up to 12 outdoors & 8 indoors as space for physical distancing allows.
  • Apartment residents may go to essential personal appointments in their vehicle in addition to medical appointments. If residents need transportation to an appointment, please contact Jackie Calabrese for transportation. Residents may not go to appointments with family members and it can cause potential exposure.
  • Limited, reservation only, physically distanced use of Bay Vista room for meals.
  • Once weekly pre-scheduled pick up of groceries or prescriptions from Hannaford Bar Harbor.

FAMILY VISIT GUIDANCE: We continue to ask resident families to arrive 10 minutes before your scheduled visit time to meet our screener outside the Birch Bay Inn main entrance rather than calling the front desk upon your arrival. If you do not see the screener outside the Main Entrance then please wait a few minutes for her to arrive. We appreciate your patience and understanding. If you have any questions regarding the visiting process, please contact Sara Starbuck or Herb Pratt.

We will continue to provide you with periodic updates with as much information as we can on our efforts to combat COVID-19. Last week, I met with our Resident Council to discuss our guidelines and safety measures for the next few weeks. Residents acknowledged that Birch Bay is working hard to balance resident health, safety, and quality of life and chose not to recommend substantial changes the guidelines. Due to recent increases in tourism in the greater community and the uncertainty around adequate masking or quarantine practices among vacationers, we are reminding residents, their families, and our staff to remain vigilant. We continue to ask you to always mask while in public and maintain social distancing whenever possible. As always, we welcome your suggestions as to where we could improve the quality of life for residents during this difficult time.

On behalf of the entire Birch Bay Retirement Village community, I want to thank each of you for your continued support and understanding. Please 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