This text is part of the special section Philanthropy
The Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de Montréal and the Albert-Prévost mental health hospital, affiliated with the Université de Montréal, are little known to the general public as major centers of research, teaching and state-of-the-art care. The Montreal Sacré-Coeur Hospital Foundation, which supports them in their projects, wants to change things.
“Montreal’s Sacré-Coeur Hospital, built almost 100 years ago under the leadership of the Sisters of Providence, is a well-kept secret in the city. It is responsible for approximately 25% of the population of Quebec for severe accident victims, since there is the largest trauma center in Quebec,” said Yves Gougoux, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Publicis Canada. , who is a loyal donor to the Montreal Sacré-Coeur Hospital Foundation.
The love for this establishment is a family story among the Gougoux. “My father, Jacques, practiced there for 45 years as a pulmonologist – he even founded the pulmonology department, he says. He spent his life at Sacré-Coeur and he spoke to us constantly about it. It was “his” hospital. »
Fight against chronic diseases
It was on the initiative of pulmonologists and cardiologists, and thanks to the support of the Foundation, that the Jean-Jacques-Gauthier Cardio-Respiratory Rehabilitation Center opened its doors in 2010. It takes care of patients in a comprehensive way , in terms of their lifestyle, in order to avoid numerous visits to the emergency room. Moreover, while the Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de Montréal is a place of excellence in bariatric medicine, it is in this center that the follow-up takes place after this type of intervention to support the patient in the adoption of ‘a healthy lifestyle.
Research on lifestyle habits has also been particularly active since the start of the pandemic. “Sacré-Coeur took part in the major international iCare study, which made it possible to carry out 15 surveys among the population to understand people’s attitudes and their behavior regarding the measures [sanitaires]as well as the various impacts of COVID-19 on their physical and mental health, their financial situation and their quality of life,” said Paul Bergeron, President and CEO of the Fondation de l’Hôpital du Sacré-Cœur de Montréal. .
Heal mental health and sleep
The Albert-Prévost mental health hospital, located a little further west, on Gouin Boulevard, is also an important place for Quebec. More than 3,000 people come to his emergency room each year. “It is one of the psychiatric emergencies in Quebec that receives the largest volume of people annually,” specifies Paul Bergeron. One of the Foundation’s projects is to humanize the reception of patients and to create an environment more conducive to the personalization of care.
Intimately linked to the maintenance of good mental health, sleep is also a major subject of study at the Sacré-Coeur Hospital in Montreal, thanks to the Center for Advanced Studies in Sleep Medicine (CEAMS). the Center set up the first Canadian Biobank for sleep research, which contains more than 40,000 blood, urine and cerebrospinal fluid samples as well as various data from several research projects.
“In addition, thanks to the extensive research work carried out over the past few years and the large number of patients who are seen in traumatology, the Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de Montréal has the largest brain imaging bank in Canada,” points out Paul Bergeron. These are driving forces for dormant research projects, a field for which we shine internationally. »
Teaching and external consultations
The Sacré-Coeur hospital in Montreal is also an important place of teaching. “As a university hospital, we train doctors, medical specialists, nurses, respiratory therapists, psychologists, etc. There are approximately 4,000 people who come to be trained there each year, which is almost the equivalent of the students of an entire college,” reveals Mr. Bergeron.
To succeed in this mission, continuous investments in technology are necessary and the Montreal Sacré-Coeur Hospital Foundation contributes to this. “We have been performing robot-assisted surgeries for ten years at Sacré-Coeur,” says Mr. Bergeron. To create the Integrated Traumatology Centre, we have just purchased a host of state-of-the-art equipment. Among other things, for teaching, we bought a lot of equipment to do simulations with dummies. »
While the Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de Montréal provides more than 137,000 outpatient consultations per year, patients must go through the various departments to see the specialists. “An important project of the Foundation, indicates Yves Gougoux, is to build a pavilion for outpatient clinics which will be more efficient, more integrated and more human, and I think this is essential for the future. »
Since its creation in 1976, the Montreal Sacré-Coeur Hospital Foundation has invested more than $100 million to support research and care. With her major campaign underway, she wants to raise 40 million to carry out six major projects.
In addition to continuing to invest in research and teaching, in mental health and in the creation of an outpatient clinic, the Foundation wishes to modernize the spinal cord injury unit, create an integrated renal support center as well as a of oncology.