Vitalité Health Network’s management of health care crisis highlighted in prestigious scientific journal
Vitalité Health Network, October 6, 2023 – Vitalité Health Network (the Network) is distinguishing itself globally. A paper examining the development and assessment of a tool to manage the Network’s healthcare crises will appear in the prestigious journal Frontiers in Public Health, a respected scientific journal recognized worldwide. Entitled “Assessing Healthcare Capacity Crisis Preparedness: Development of an Evaluation Tool by a Canadian Health Authority,” this article takes a deep dive into the strategies essential to optimizing the management of healthcare crises within Canada’s health networks.
Frontiers in Public Health is guided by editorial committees representing over 260,000 leading researchers whose papers have been viewed over 2.1 billion times.
The Network conducted an in-depth evaluation of its ability to manage healthcare crises in relation to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The resulting tool was developed by the Research Department in collaboration with several Network experts and Dr. Hassane Alami, public health researcher at the Université de Montréal. The article proposes an innovative evaluation tool designed to effectively measure the ability to respond to healthcare crisis situations and makes essential recommendations to improve the management capabilities of health networks in Canada and beyond,” explained Dr. Breitner Gomes Chaves, Health Evaluation Consultant with the Network and lead author of the article.
“This work is the fruit of close collaboration in which a number of the Network’s experts shared their experiences and lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. We are putting forward an innovative methodology designed to integrate our collective organizational knowledge and develop an efficient tool that will allow us to monitor the health network’s capacity to face future healthcare crises. Our carefully documented learning was correlated with the existing scientific literature to develop an organic, practical and groundbreaking tool,” he said.
This is the first tool of its type to be developed by a health network in Canada, added Erika Dugas, one of the article’s authors and Regional Director of Research and Health Evaluation for the Network.
“The COVID-19 pandemic posed a number of major challenges to health systems, and many jurisdictions were unprepared for such a healthcare crisis. This initiative forms part of Vitalité Health Network’s ongoing efforts to serve as a model in health care crisis management and demonstrates the Network’s commitment to continually improve its health care crisis management capabilities. We have learned some valuable lessons that can be applied nationally and internationally,” she explained.
The Network will continue leveraging its research and expertise to help advance public health best practices and to prepare for healthcare crises. This commitment to research, innovation and continuous improvement in support of crisis management strengthens the Network’s position as a key player in protecting and promoting the health of the communities it serves.
1st row, from left to right: Marie-Josée Plourde (Research Coordinator), Vicky Pellerin (Director's Assistant), Araya-Yohannes Bekele (Librarian), Sara Naam (Research Consultant), Dominique Comeau (Research Consultant), Isabelle d’Entremont (Change Management Consultant), Breitner Gomes Chaves (Evaluation Consultant); 2nd row: Marc-André Bouchard (Research Advisor), Jeanot Gauvin (Manager of the Clinical Trials Support Unit), Erika Dugas (Regional Director of Health Research and Evaluation), M`hamed Belkhodja (Librarian), Carly Demont (Research Consultant), Evens Datus (Evaluation Consultant), Marc Robichaud (Research Consultant)
