As of Sunday, December 1, the Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux de la Montérégie-Ouest (CISSSMO) will become Santé Québec Montérégie-Ouest. Like the Société des Alcools du Québec, Hydro-Québec and Héma-Québec, Santé Québec will be a Crown corporation governed by a Board of Directors and a Chief Executive Officer. 

Johanne Fleurant, Assistant Director of Social Programs, Rehabilitation and Public Health at CISSS de la Montérégie-Ouest, took advantage of the organization's Annual General Meeting held this Wednesday, November 27, to unveil the details of this change of identity. 

 “In Quebec, we know how important health is to elected officials. The proof? We invest over 50% of the provincial government's total budget in this area. As far as I'm concerned, Santé Québec is a fine project that will enable us to offer better service to the population. This decision stems from a law passed by the National Assembly over a year ago, which will come to fruition on December 1. The last reform that led to the creation of CISSSs and CIUSSSs dates back to 2015. Once again, this change stems from a desire to do better. In concrete terms, as of Sunday, all healthcare establishments affiliated with a CISSS or CIUSSS will have the same employer. In other words, here in the Montérégie, our neighbors at CISSS de la Montérégie-Est and CISSS de la Montérégie-Centre will become our brothers and sisters in a few days' time. Santé Québec will encompass 330,000 employees,” she began.  

Two women of action at the helm of Santé Québec 

 “What will Santé Québec's role be? To understand it, we need to define the role of the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux, first and foremost. This political level will have the mission of defining the major orientations and general policies to be achieved. Santé Québec will then coordinate the health and social services resources available to meet these orientations. It will manage planning and operations to ensure that the best resources are allocated to the best place,” she added. 

The new structure will be headed by Christine Germain, who will chair Santé Québec's Board of Directors. The first official meeting of this new body is scheduled for June 2025. The position of President and CEO of Santé Québec has been entrusted to Geneviève Biron.  

The current Board of Directors of CISSS de la Montérégie-Ouest, chaired by Claude Jolin since 2015, will remain in place until next June to ensure the transition to the new structure. Thereafter, it will become an Institutional Board of Directors (IBD) made up of users, people from the healthcare community, elected officials, representatives of healthcare institutions, community organizations, representatives of the business community, human resources managers, representatives of foundations from the healthcare community and representatives of the Users' Committee.  The term of office for directors elected on the CAE will be four years. 

“There will also be other rules to respect when creating the CAE, namely that 40% of its members must be women, that at least one member must be under 35 years of age, that at least one member must be culturally diverse, and that at least two-thirds of the members must be independent. In certain regions where we have an aboriginal clientele, at least one member from an aboriginal community must be a member of the CAE,” she says.  

Several advantages to pooling resources 

What are the benefits of this change?  “We'll have access to the best practices in the industry and be able to export them here. It will also enable greater staff mobility across our different sites. We'll also have access to the expertise developed by the University Centers, which will now be part of the same body as us. This pooling of resources will help us avoid duplication of work. For example, before, when we received a directive from the government, 34 CISSS or CIUSSS had to create documents to disseminate it. Now, just one of us can do this step and share it with everyone. This will save us a lot of work time. Finally, we'll also be able to modernize the technologies used in our care environments,” she said.

In closing, Fleurant shared Santé Québec's new values: meaning, clarity and focus.