The health network must prepare to face a future pandemic. And quickly aim for carbon neutrality to stop “building the patients of tomorrow”. After seven years at the head of the University of Montreal Hospital Center (CHUM), Dr.r Fabrice Brunet is preparing to leave this huge ship with the pride of having established a “unique culture” there, but aware that many challenges still await the environment in the coming years.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
When he took over as head of the CHUM in 2015, Dr.r Brunet quickly piloted the move of the three former hospitals (Saint-Luc, Notre-Dame and Hôtel-Dieu) to a single site in the city center. He is now satisfied to see that the teams identify with the CHUM, and no longer with the former hospitals for which they worked. “You can’t create synergy between people if they don’t have a sense of belonging for the entity they work for,” he says.
When he arrived in office, the CHUM had just gone through stormy years. The Dr Brunet became the third CEO in three years to lead the institution. Overall, the tenure of Dr Brunet will have been marked by relative stability, despite a pandemic and a big move. How did he manage to establish this calm?
The problem, sometimes, is that we try to implement solutions through a hierarchical vision that does not always match the reality and the needs on the ground. […] We do the opposite. We propose solutions that the field defines in relation to its own needs. There is no secret. You have to listen to people.
The Dr Fabrice Brunet, outgoing CEO of the CHUM
The Dr Brunet is known to spend a lot of time in the hospital. “He works on all shifts and listens to everyone,” notes CHUM communications director Irène Marcheterre.
The Dr Brunet adds that he also makes it a point of honor to always keep his teams informed of the progress of files, even if a request from the field cannot be fulfilled. “If you just listen, but nothing changes or people don’t follow up, they think they’re being listened to, but it’s a management method…”
If he still does not know who will succeed him, the Dr Brunet says he has no advice to give to his successor or his successor, because he is “not a giver of lessons”. “What I did was respect others and keep my values: what is best for patients and the population. »
The environment, the next crisis
Quebec is still “in a health crisis not quite over” with COVID-19, but “this is only the beginning”, warns the Dr Brunett. “Repeated health crises, there will be some,” he said. Climate crises are coming. It’s burning everywhere. There will be population movements, wars. The health system will be put to the test and we must be prepared for that. »
The Dr Brunet says the CHUM is aiming for carbon neutrality by 2040.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The Dr Fabrice Brunet, former CEO of CHUM
If we are not carbon neutral, if we continue like this, climate crises will get worse, diseases linked to the environment will get worse, so we are in the process of building the patients of tomorrow. This awareness must be made now [car sinon les besoins ne feront] only increase, increase, increase.
The Dr Fabrice Brunet, outgoing CEO of the CHUM
Like the network as a whole, the CHUM is not spared by the staff shortage. But as soon as he arrived at the CHUM, the Dr Brunet has imposed on his teams not to use “compulsory overtime” (TSO). “It doesn’t make good sense from a management point of view, from a human point of view and in terms of the quality of care,” he says. The Dr Brunet bluntly “removed the TSO from the managers’ toolbox”. The change “took time”. But this TSO is now at zero at the CHUM, according to the Dr Brunett. Other tools have been developed, such as “scheduled overtime” or paid on-call teams that can be available when needed. “You can do many things, but it takes thought and the will to do it,” he says.
Towards the Health Innovation District
The new CHUM, delivered in full in 2021, was built in public-private partnership. The contract is so drawn up that when the CHUM wants to carry out renovations, the cost of the work is often higher than for a conventional hospital. But the Dr Brunet assures that the collaboration with the private partner has “improved a lot” lately. Of course, some renovations “cost even more”. But “there is more and more common vision,” he says.
From January, the Dr Brunet will take full-time charge of the new Quartier de l’innovation en santé (QIS), whose main building is located a stone’s throw from the CHUM.
The QIS will bring together institutions and companies that want to “implement innovations that will meet the needs of the field”. The QIS, funded by various public and private sources, will also be in contact with other entities like it from all over the world. “We want to be a force for reflection and concrete proposals. Not something that’s going to be just theoretical,” says the Dr Brunett. For him, it is “totally false” to say that the health sector does not innovate. “On the contrary, we are an environment that changes all the time. But patients’ needs also change all the time, and it feels like they’re catching up. The objective of the QIS will be to try to be ahead. »