Merida Brimhall, Erin Naharang, & Tad Comeau
Boston, MA
Merida Brimhall, RN, Manager for ACO Transformation and Care Management
Erin Naharang, RN, Manager for ACO Transformation and Care Management
Tad Comeau, RN, Director for ACO Transformation and Care Management
Boston Medical Center Health System
Boston, MA
Tad, Merida, and Erin want to acknowledge gratitude for their fellow colleagues Deb Goldfarb (Social Work Leader) and Tia Sommerville (Community Health Worker leader) who work alongside them to ensure their patients and staff stay mentally and physically healthy.
Before COVID hit, Erin, Tad, and Merida filled huge leadership shoes: 26 interdisciplinary, complex care management teams of pharmacists, community health workers, nurses, and social workers report to them, and care for Boston’s most vulnerable.
Merida: “Right now, we are doing grocery deliveries, getting people masks, doing regular check-ins to identify medical and social gaps: transportation, food, housing---we’re working with people on all of it.”
When COVID infection rates began to rise throughout the city, the contagion within homeless shelters became a concern; BMC stepped in to help set up a respite unit for individuals who could not safely shelter in place. Merida and Erin were asked to lead the development of nurses’ roles for this unit and oversee the discharge planning team.
Erin: “Very quickly we had to stand up a whole unit from scratch to meet demand. There’s a sense of camaraderie about being willing to step up and do whatever it takes. Today, people in that unit are getting good care. It all came together.”
Other leaders may have aimed to simply survive the crisis. Instead, Erin, Tad, and Merida are leading through the crisis. They check-in two times per week with their sixty staff: a true commitment amidst their other responsibilities:
Tad: “In times like this, all the history of transparent communication and good will builds up. Now, when we ask them to make a change, they know it comes from a well-intentioned place. Our teams trust us.”
Merida: “We’re getting to know our teams on so much more of a personal level; Something I’ve learned through this crisis is a sense of shared humanity.”
