Nothing predestined Mélanie La Couture to one day lead the Montreal Heart Institute (MHI), an institution of cutting-edge care, innovation, research and critical training for all specialists who save lives every day in all four corners. of Quebec. “I am proud of our Montreal institutions,” summarizes this industrial engineer who chose to become CEO of the ICM out of personal affinity rather than professional calculation.
Posted at 8:00 a.m.
After studying industrial engineering at Polytechnique and obtaining an MBA from Western University, Mélanie La Couture hoped to work in a factory, and ultimately manage a manufacturing company.
Instead, she worked for 10 years at the Orchester symphonique de Montréal, as head of the endowment fund and chief operating officer, and has been with the Montreal Heart Institute for almost 10 years, where she became CEO in 2017, after serving as general manager of the establishment’s foundation.
“I wanted to work in a factory, but when I left university, I was first hired as a consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers and […] at Deloitte Consulting in Boston in strategic planning. »
On September 11, 2001, I was in New York staying at the Marriott World Trade Center and meeting with clients at the World Trade Financial Center when the terrorist attacks took place. I was lucky, but these tragic events led me to return to Quebec more quickly.
Mélanie La Couture, CEO of the Montreal Heart Institute
During her MBA studies, she had done a one-year internship at the Orchester symphonique de Montréal, where the general manager, Madeleine Careau, had offered to work there.
“We had kept in touch and she again offered to join the team as director of the endowment fund. What I did, before becoming deputy director of the OSM, then chief operating officer. After 10 years, I wanted to take on other challenges.
“I had discussions with several people, including Henri-Paul Rousseau, whom I had known at the OSM and who was chairman of the board of the Heart Institute Foundation. In 2013, I became Managing Director of the ICM Foundation, then CEO of the Institute in 2017,” says Mélanie La Couture.
Big challenges
As director of the ICM Foundation, Mélanie La Couture set up a major campaign of $90 million to fund research, technological innovation and prevention.
“The Institute is based on four pillars: research, care, prevention and education. We rely on our own funds, those of the community, for our research activities and the purchase of our specialized equipment. We also have to align our needs with the wishes of our major donors,” explains the CEO.
Already, a new large-scale fundraising campaign will aim to raise 80 to 100 million to develop research activities and precision medicine, in particular pharmacogenomics, which makes it possible to personalize the drugs to be prescribed to patients based on their genetic profile. .
Over the past three years, the ICM has undertaken major expansion work worth more than $260 million, which will be completed next December and will have added 40% of the area to the establishment.
“We have a new outpatient clinic, we now have two floors of critical care and we have added a simulation training center where all health professionals will be able to come and perfect their skills,” says the manager.
This work forced the reorganization of the Institute’s activities, which have never been interrupted, despite the two years of the pandemic during which strict control had to be exercised to prevent any outbreak of the virus and to keep the hospital in a green zone.
“We maintained the technological infrastructure despite the move and we also abolished the mandatory overtime during the pandemic. The commitment of all the staff has been exemplary”, emphasizes Mélanie La Couture.
A critical institution
The Montreal Heart Institute has a workforce of 2,300 employees, including 120 active physicians and about a hundred associate physicians. The ICM Research Center alone employs 700 people, including 80 researchers. The Institute also welcomes more than 700 residents, trainees and fellows.
Every year, the ICM performs 2,000 cardiac operations, 5,000 hemodynamic procedures (angioplasty), 4,500 electrophysiology interventions (pacemaker), received 16,000 emergency room visits and performed 100,000 outpatient consultations (including telephone consultations).
“We receive patients from all over Quebec, hypercomplex cases. There are more than 15,000 hospitalizations per year. »
PHOTO CATHERINE LEFEBVRE, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Mélanie La Couture, CEO of the Montreal Heart Institute
The big challenge we face is the shortage of personnel, particularly specialized nurses, we need at least a hundred to be able to operate optimally. We would like to increase the number of cardiac surgeries, but the labor issue poses a real problem.
Mélanie La Couture, CEO of the Montreal Heart Institute
As CEO of this critical establishment, Mélanie La Couture believes that her role is to fully understand the challenges and issues while making sure to give everyone the right path to follow.
“During the pandemic, I quickly understood that communication was the main issue in coping well with the crisis. Every morning at 7 a.m., I had a meeting with some thirty directors from all departments and, at 3 p.m., I met Zoom with all the employees to answer their questions”, explains the CEO.
“I am proud of our Montreal institutions, both the OSM and the Heart Institute. I like my relationship with the specialists, whether it’s the musicians at the OSM or Maestro Nagano, just as I like the one I have with the doctors and health professionals at the ICM”, confides the CEO. Melanie LaCouture.