CIUSSS’s award-winning year attributed to unrelenting focus on users’ needs

Staff of CIUSSS West-Central Montreal racked up numerous honours over the past year, but ironically, they kept receiving prizes precisely because doing so was not their top priority, Dr. Lawrence Rosenberg, the network’s President and CEO, said on November 6.

Morty Yalovsky, President of the Board of Directors. (Click on this or any photo to enlarge it.)

Speaking at the CIUSSS’s ninth annual Public Information Meeting at the JGH, Dr. Rosenberg said members of staff excelled in 2023-2024 not only because they focused on improving the quality of health care and social services, but because they “refused to be satisfied with success.”

In other words, he explained, they saw each worthy achievement “as an important step forward, and not as an excuse to stop trying to do more.”

Dr. Rosenberg congratulated members of staff in all fields and at all levels for their “ingenuity, insight, patience and professionalism for achievements that have attracted attention locally, nationally and globally.”

However, he added, “our greatest adversaries are complacency and stagnation”—pitfalls that can occur when people are so exhilarated by praise that they spend too little time searching for better ways to make improvements.

Among their accomplishments this year, staff have won:

• the Grand Prix Hippocrate for the Voyce project, an on-demand virtual interpretation service that makes communication easier for users who have little or no knowledge of French or English
• the Innovation and Impact Award from Children’s Healthcare Canada for an app that enables parents to become more closely involved in their children’s therapy sessions in rehabilitation
• the award of Recognition in Delivering Value-Based Health Care, presented by the Canadian College of Health Leaders, for developing a model for colorectal cancer that improves outcomes

Associate CEO Lucie Tremblay and Associate Executive Director Gary Stoopler

A commitment to continually upgrade the quality of care is also why the CIUSSS has so enthusiastically embraced Care Everywhere, Dr. Rosenberg said. This broad-based, user-centred approach strives to improve outcomes by providing the right care at the right time in the location that is most appropriate, safest and most comfortable for users.

“The desire to keep getting better manifests itself not just in a willingness to embrace change, but in a desire to actively nurture creative thinking and evidence-based research,” he added.

“Along the way, if we happen to win a prize or two, so much the better. But the awards that matter most are the smiles of gratitude that we receive from the patients, residents and clients who have put their well-being in our hands.”

Carrie Bogante, Director of Finance

Morty Yalovsky, addressing the audience at his first Public Information Meeting as President of the network’s Board of Directors, said the CIUSSS’s achievements in 2023-2024 “should make everybody very proud.

“I thank you for all of the contributions you make, in order for this to be the most successful CIUSSS in the Province of Quebec and certainly, as has been pointed out, allows us to be recognized throughout the world for our activities.”

A highlight of the evening was the presentation of the President and Chief Executive Officer’s Award of Honour to two CIUSSS leaders—Alan Maislin, who stepped down earlier this year after nine years as President of the Board; and Beverly Kravitz, who retires in January after nine years as the CIUSSS’s Director of Human Resources, Communications, Legal Affairs and Global Security, plus 13 previous years with the JGH and the JGH Foundation.

In addition, CIUSSS Awards of Excellence [link to 360 article to come] were distributed in six categories to individuals and teams who have left their distinctive mark on their workplace, as well as improving the lives of patients, clients and residents.

Commissioner of Complaints and the Quality of Service

Many of the year’s noteworthy achievements were cited by Associate CEO Lucie Tremblay and Associate Executive Director Gary Stoopler, including:

• The highly acclaimed C4 Command Centre, which provides a panoramic digital view of the CIUSSS to help manage its activities, spawned satellite centres in Mental Health, Cardiology, Virtual Care, the Emergency Department and the combination of Critical Care and the Operating Rooms.

• In Virtual Care, a new milestone was reached when the number of patients surpassed 1,200. This translated into more than 6,000 bed-days that were liberated to allow other patients to use those beds.

• OROT, the CIUSSS’s connected health innovation hub, has been involved in co‑designing and testing an AI tool to make logistics more accurate, cost-effective and efficient, thereby saving valuable resources.
• The Azrieli Clinic for the Neurodivergent Community was launched, becoming the first Montreal clinic to offer medical and dental services under one roof for adults with intellectual disabilities and/or autism spectrum disorders.
• A total of 16,139 users received home care services, an increase of 5 per cent over the same period in the previous year.
• The Youth Mental Health Team reduced its waiting list from 176 young people to just 19—a decrease of 90 per cent.

Also on the agenda were a financial report for 2023-2024 by Carrie Bogante, Director of Finance, and an overview of the activities of Jean-Philippe Payment, Commissioner of Complaints and the Quality of Service.