MONTREAL — Jewish General Hospital (JGH) executive director Dr. Lawrence Rosenberg has been appointed president-director general of one of the new regional entities that will administer public health and social services institutions on the Island of Montreal.
As of April 1, Rosenberg will head the Centre integré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux (CIUSSS) du Centre-Ouest-de-l’Ile de Montréal. It was created by Bill 10, the major health system restructuring passed by the National Assembly last month.
This CIUSSS will run most institutions affiliated with the Jewish community: the JGH, the Donald Berman Maimonides Geriatric Centre, Mount Sinai Hospital, Jewish Eldercare Centre and Miriam Home and Services, as well as the Constance-Lethbridge Rehabilitation Centre, Cavendish Health and Social Services Centre, and the de la Montagne Health and Social Services Centre, all in the city’s west end.
Rosenberg became JGH executive director in November 2013, after serving for six years as chief of surgical services.
“This is an awesome responsibility, but there is much to do. There are people in need and problems to be solved,” Rosenberg said. “I look forward to moving ahead with a broadly representative management team to take advantage of the numerous opportunities to improve access, to enhance quality and to establish a true continuum of care for patients served by the CIUSSS du Centre-Ouest,” one of five on the island.
While many in the Jewish community were apprehensive about Bill 10 when it was introduced by Health Minister Gaétan Barrette in September, fearing that it would jeopardize the cultural character and community control of the six institutions founded by the Jewish community, Rosenberg expressed openness from the start.
He said at the time the JGH welcomed the opportunity to partner with other institutions in the area, believing it would improve the management of health care delivery. Today, Rosenberg says the reorganization is necessary to ensure access to services and “continuity of care.”
“This will be a priority, and our team will see to it that this is achieved hand-in-hand with proper management,” he said. “The network must also be able to count on competent health-care personnel who are ready and willing to actively contribute to change. In order for the transformation of the network to proceed properly, the involvement of those who work in the system is crucial.”
Under the new legislation, which comes into effect April 1, most institutions in the province will lose their individual boards, which have been replaced by 33 CISSS or CIUSSS. A sixth institution with historic ties to the Jewish community, the Jewish Rehabilitation Hospital, will be grouped with the CISSS de Laval.
“Throughout his career, Dr. Rosenberg has demonstrated a unique ability to combine extensive surgical expertise with an in-depth understanding of health care systems and management,” JGH board president Allen Rubin said in a statement.
Rosenberg is credited with improving operational efficiency at the JGH under a program called Transformational Change that he introduced in 2011. In addition to his medical degree from McGill University and specialization in organ transplants, he earned a master’s of engineering from the University of Waterloo, concentrating on knowledge management and innovation.
Rosenberg’s time as JGH executive director has seen its share of controversy.
The province’s anti-corruption unit investigated alleged irregularities in the awarding of contracts in the construction of the JGH’s Pavilion K, the hospital wrestled with a $16-million deficit that led the government to assign a special monitor to oversee its elimination, and it has faced public criticism for redirecting cancer patients from outside its territory to care closer to where they live, something the JGH administration says it was forced to do because its funding does not match the number of would-be patients.
Rosenberg has a reputation as someone who doesn’t back down from a fight.
A kippah-wearing observant Jew, Rosenberg said the JGH would never abide by the previous Parti Québécois government’s proposed charter of secular values, which he called “patently discriminatory.”
Last year, he came out against the Liberal government’s Bill 52 on end-of-life care, which will soon be implemented. He said the JGH would “explore all possibilities to opt out” of the law, which allows doctors to administer a lethal injection to consenting adult patients with incurable conditions.