The holiday is quickly approaching and winter is in the air!
THANKSGIVING REMINDERS:
Our Thanksgiving Holiday here at The Birches is not what we would have hoped for 2021, but we are grateful to have each of our residents, their families, and our team members with us this holiday. Although we cannot feast and celebrate together in the dining room with our guests, we have a special luncheon planned for our residents. Visitation continues in resident apartments only at this time. A few reminders as we lead into Holiday activities:
- If you are taking your loved one out for the day, please let us know in advance by calling our Front Desk. This allows us to gather any medications in advance, and meal plan for our holiday feast here at The Birches as well.
- If you are taking your loved one out for the holiday, longer than 24 hours, the latest guidelines state that regardless of vaccination status, you must have them tested prior to returning to Birches with a negative test result in hand, and we will retest them again 5-7 days later. This is what we do with new residents as well. No quarantine necessary upon return if you're fully vaccinated. Please let Tina know by Wednesday if someone is staying out of the building longer than 24 hours.
- Please implement infection control practices while out of the building. Encourage wearing masks at all times when not eating or drinkingto protect your loved one around any gatherings. Encourage guests to check in with themselves, follow our screening tool if you want to use it as an example, and stay home if they cannot confidently answer no to all questions. NOTE: DuPage County is in HIGH Transmission still and we have been hearing more reports of others testing positive in the neighborhood. It has NOT hit our doors at The Birches yet and we want to keep it that way. Thank You for helping us protect each other as you have done all year.
BOOSTERS:
We are scheduling another Booster Clinic in December. Stay tuned for more details. A reminder if you have already received the Booster or if you take your loved one out to receive a COVID19 Booster or an Influenza vaccination, please let one of our nurses know so we can record it in our charts and monitor for symptoms. If you would like your original COVID19 vaccination card, please email me at jsander@birches.net and we will leave it for you at the front desk.
Thank you for your confidence in our community. We love what we do, and we're privileged to have your support. We hope you have a great holiday. There is always something to be grateful for, and to us, we are grateful for each of you.
#inthistogether #birchesstrong
Jackie Sander
Executive Director