Erin
Ward,
MsEd CAS
Parent of Patient
Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard
Erin is the parent of a patient (child) with a tracheostomy and a founding member of TrachCare, Inc., a Massachusetts-based, non-profit organization established in 2005 providing support and information to parents, caregivers, and healthcare providers of children who have, or previously had a tracheostomy (www.trachcare.org). As a Faculty Associate for the Institute for Professionalism and Ethical Practice at Children’s Hospital Boston since 2005, Erin contributes to developing curricula and facilitates medical education programs that focus on enhancing relational and communication skills. (http://www.ipepweb.org/ward.html) Previously, Erin also worked for the Center for Families at Children’s Hospital Boston
Presenting at the Nexus Summit:
This multi-institutional project demonstrated how a structured approach to interprofessional collaboration and patient engagement can mitigate preventable harm and improve patient experience for patients with a surgical airway (tracheostomy). Care of such patients is high stakes and fraught with risk. Harm occurs in hospital settings and in the community because poor communication and fragmented care are pervasive. Poor coordination of care contributes to anxiety, frustrations, and complications. Avoidable visits to emergency departments or injury are all too common. We applied an…