Time and again in the limelight during the COVID-19 pandemic, former Assistant Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Health, Dr. Lucie Opatrny, begins her term as President and CEO of the McGill University Health Center ( MUHC), in Montreal. Responsible for five different facilities, located on various sites, she will face many challenges. The duty spoke with her.
The MUHC’s emergency rooms are in crisis, as elsewhere in Greater Montreal. At the Royal-Victoria Hospital, the stretcher occupancy rate is approaching 200% these days. What are you going to do to fix the problem?
The emergency situation was one of my priorities when I was in the ministry. It will certainly remain one now that I am at the MUHC. I am on day 3 of my mandate and I have already met several people in connection with this. You have to work on several things at the same time.
At the MUHC, many people are treated in oncology. Cancer patients end up in the emergency room for complications related to their treatment or their fragile health. Couldn’t this clientele be better served if we had a day hospital intended for them? We have a project in this direction and I will see how to speed it up. We already have funding and now we have to see how to put it in place.
It is also necessary, among other things, to examine the average lengths of stay on the floors and determine if there is a way to reduce them. This would allow patients who are in the emergency room and who are waiting for a hospital bed to be taken upstairs more quickly.
Late surgeries have been on the rise at the MUHC over the past year. How to make up for this delay in a context where hospital beds remain limited?
There are several ways to achieve this. We can do more day surgeries that don’t require hospitalization. We can also see how we can speed up the surgical process for patients while reducing the complication rate. This allows more surgeries to be done with the same resources.
Cette approche, l’Enhanced Recovery After Surgery [récupération rapide des patients après une intervention chirurgicale], has been used for several years at the MUHC. But could it be applied to a higher percentage of surgeries? Could other surgical pathways be optimized? The answer for me is yes.
Is the labor shortage critical at the MUHC?
This is an issue everywhere in the network. The MUHC is no exception. There are hundreds of positions that are not filled. For example, there is a shortage of respiratory therapists. This is one of the reasons why we cannot open a few operating rooms.
That said, we are very lucky to have less independent labor than in other establishments. It has a lot to do with the implementation, years ago, of self-scheduling and 12-hour shifts.
The Montreal Journal reported last November that French-speaking citizens were unable to be served in French at the MUHC. How big is the problem?
Quite honestly, I do not have a sufficiently complete vision to be able, on day 3 of my arrival in post, to comment on this. I read, like you, the articles on the subject. It is certain that it is absolutely necessary to dig the question. This file is one of my highest priorities. We must ensure that people who come to the MUHC can be served in French. Final point.
My French is quite solid thank you, and I remember that when my daughter was sick, I was not able to pronounce a sentence in French. It is important to get care in the language you are most comfortable with.
The Lachine hospital has been experiencing service disruptions for several months now. What are your plans for this facility?
Since November, there has been no ambulance at night at the Lachine hospital. Intensive care has been closed for several months. At the moment, the situation is quite fragile. I’ll have to look at this.
It is a very important hospital to serve the community. His clientele would have a lot of chronic diseases. Clinics should be built to take care of people who have, for example, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and heart failure.
How will your time at the Ministry of Health as Assistant Deputy Minister influence your vision and your leadership at the MUHC?
I have a network vision and the MUHC is part of this network. At the ministry, I worked on the front-line access window (GAP), which aimed to solve front-line problems. Now, it’s the other extreme: that is to say that Quebecers also have the right to have access to the latest innovative treatments (transplants, very advanced and very inventive surgeries, genetic therapy, etc.) . But it all has to come together. The MUHC is not alone. The MUHC is part of a network.