Healthcare reforms will improve patient experience, says new Associate Director General

Dr. Anne Lemay looks forward
to better continuous and integrated care

A strong commitment to improving the health and well-being of patients, which is intrinsic to the JGH, will be crucial in helping the hospital succeed during the challenging period that the public healthcare system has now entered, says Anne Lemay, Ph.D., who joined the JGH in November and has been appointed Associate Director General of the west-central healthcare network that includes the JGH.

“I believe that one of the most important changes in the years ahead is that the family spirit of the JGH will only continue to increase,” says Dr. Lemay, who has also been named the region’s Director of Quality, Evaluation, Performance and Ethics.

Now that Bill 10 has taken effect, Quebec now has legislation that outlines new responsabilities for healthcare and social services institutions. All institutions are located within reconfigured catchments areas, each known as a Centre intégré universitaire de santé et services sociaux (CIUSSS)—an integrated university centre for health and social services.

The JGH belongs to the CIUSSS du Centre-Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal in west-central Montreal, where the objective is to have the institutions cooperate more closely in providing a broader and more integrated range of care and services.

“We will have to become better acquainted with the other members of our CIUSSS family,” says Dr. Lemay, “and we will have to determine how each can be most effectively involved in providing the highest quality of care and service and the best patient experience.”

The transition will not be easy, but Dr. Lemay believes there will be improvements to patient flow within the CIUSSS, and this will benefit patients by producing greater efficiency and better access to care.

Dr. Lemay, who received her doctorate in public health from the University of Montreal, came to the JGH from the Quebec Association of Health and Social Services Institutions, where she was Director of Performance and Quality. More recently, she was responsible for team organization in health care and social services, a field in which she also worked in hospitals in Quebec and Ontario.

At the JGH, her primary responsibilities include quality and risk management, accreditation, the Offiice of the Patient Experience, strategic planning, information management and clinical ethics.

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Having spent her entire career developing ways to improve quality, efficiency and effectiveness in the healthcare sector, Dr. Lemay says she is “very encouraged by the focus on the patient at the JGH”—a concept that should be exportable to the CIUSSS as a whole.

“Within my first few months at the JGH, I could already feel the special difference in the atmosphere. I really appreciate the inclusive family feeling, which has made this is a very pleasant place to work.”