Highlights of the Board of Directors regular public meeting

Campbellton, April 17, 2018 – The Board of Directors of Vitalité Health Network held its regular public meeting on Tuesday, April 17, 2018 in Campbellton.

Organizational performance – positive results

The Network announced its financial results for the first 11 months of the current fiscal year, i.e. for the period from April 1, 2017 to February 28, 2018. The organization recorded an operating surplus of $3.75 million as a result of expenses approximately $123,096 under budget and income approximately $3.44 million over budget.

The Network also approved its budget for the 2018–2019 fiscal year based on the parameters set by the Department of Health. The organization’s total budget will be $684,414,969, which represents a 2.5 percent increase over the previous year. The Department of Health confirmed that the Network will receive $4.66 million to purchase equipment and $1.8 million to carry out infrastructure improvement projects in 2018–2019.

The Network welcomes two clinician researchers receiving grants

The President and CEO of the Network, Gilles Lanteigne, announced that two clinician researchers would be joining the organization’s medical staff.   “I would like to welcome Drs. Mouna Ben Amor, geneticist, and Ludivine Witkowski, neurologist. Their arrival is excellent news for the Network and a major step forward in our initiatives to develop our university mission and research within our facilities – as laid out in our 2017–2020 Strategic Plan,” Mr. Lanteigne declared. The Network’s CEO also saw this as an outstanding example of partnership between the Centre de formation médicale du Nouveau-Brunswick and the New Brunswick Health Research Foundation, which funds research activities.

“With the support of the provincial government, the Centre de formation médicale du Nouveau-Brunswick secured funding to free up clinicians from their clinical duties so they can concentrate on their research projects,” explained Dr. Michel H. Landry, the centre’s director and an associate dean.  “The additional support provided by the Health Research Foundation made it possible to access the funding needed to offer two clinician researcher grants. I congratulate Drs. Witkowski and Ben Amor who, after a long and grueling evaluation process by a peer committee outside the province, were selected for these grants.  We are very confident that you will form the basis for the ongoing development of our research. I wish you much success in your efforts!”

According to Dr. Bruno Battistini, President and CEO and Scientific Director of the New Brunswick Health Research Foundation, such partnerships are key to facilitating the recruitment and retention of qualified clinicians in New Brunswick. “Through such partnerships, we increase the likelihood that new knowledge derived from clinical research, some via clinical trials, will benefit patients in New Brunswick as quickly as possible. This initiative represents an investment of $987,400 over four years.”  A more detailed information sheet is appended to this press release.

Transformation and modernization of laboratories – to maintain patient care services

The Board of Directors adopted an expert’s report evaluating efficiency measures and improvement options that could be implemented in the short to medium term within the Network’s 10 hospital laboratories. According to Stéphane Legacy, Vice-President of Outpatient and Professional Services, the current context poses major challenges, including a serious shortage of specialized personnel, aging and extensive equipment infrastructure, a lack of harmonization among facilities, and a production capacity significantly exceeding needs. “In addition to meeting these challenges, the approaches proposed in the report will allow us to maintain service quality within an environment that is safe and motivating for employees and to maintain access to phlebotomy (bloodwork) services as close as possible to where people live,” stated Yves Goudreau, Director of Laboratory Services. 

The report clearly indicates that with the exception of the laboratory at the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre, the laboratories at the other hospital facilities lack the critical mass required to achieve optimal performance, given current technological capabilities and the resources in place. The report outlines several key approaches to modernize and reorganize the Network’s laboratories, including:

1. maximizing the use of technology in the community hospitals through point-of-care testing (POCT);
2. consolidating operations around two major facilities, namely the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre and the Chaleur Regional Hospital;
3. developing a system for transporting samples that is reliable, effective and efficient; and
4. centralizing specialized analyses in one of the two major facilities. Note: POCT units are portable and easy-to-operate devices capable of producing rapid and high quality analyses at the bedside or near the patient.  

The implementation plan supported by the Board of Directors runs through March 2020 in order to complete all of the proposed measures. “Throughout this exercise, the Network is absolutely committed to maintaining and improving patients’ access to services and to ensuring that analysis results are produced within time frames meeting recognized standards,” Mr. Goudreau continued. In his view, the Network’s task is to reorganize its laboratory services so as to meet the enormous challenges the health care system faces in maintaining services for the public. “The Network’s priority is the quality of patient care, and the changes under consideration will even improve the services offered,” he concluded.

The next regular general meeting of the Board of Directors of Vitalité Health Network will take place on Tuesday, June 26, at 1:00 p.m. in Tracadie and will be followed by the organization’s annual general meeting.

Vitalité Health Network: two clinician researchers receive grants

University mission: Better knowledge to provide better care and improve your health

These clinician researchers will play a key role in improving the quality of patient care. Clinical research is defined as any research conducted to increase knowledge of human illnesses and better understand their prevention, detection and treatment.

With its university research designation, Vitalité Health Network is able to support and facilitate research and training within its health facilities. The Network wishes to further optimize its university and research vocation, as set out in its 2017–2020 Strategic Plan. Reorganization of the health care system has been identified as a strategic objective in order to address the major issues we are facing and to implement innovative, integrated and high quality health care services throughout the Network.

Thanks to a partnership with the Health Research Foundation and the Centre de formation médicale du Nouveau-Brunswick, Dr. Mouna Ben Amor and Dr. Ludivine Witkowski will begin their clinical research work at the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre in the spring of 2018.