Report to the community: Vitalité takes stock of progress

Vitalité Health Network, Thursday, February 1, 2024 – Vitalité Health Network released its most recent Quarterly Report to the Community today.

This document discusses some of the major transformation efforts that our organization is undertaking.

• The Network is moving quickly to implement an integrated primary health care model giving patients access to a collaborative and interdisciplinary team rather than a single health professional. The first teams to adopt this model have been able to increase the number of patients they see and reduce the waiting time for an appointment. Our objective is to implement this model in the 13 communities the Network serves by the end of 2024.
• Our surgical services have also made several advancements:
  • The Edmundston Regional Hospital is now performing oto-rhino-laryngology (ear, nose and throat) surgeries.
  • The partnership forged with the Acadie-Bathurst Ophthalmology Centre to perform cataract surgeries outside our hospital facilities has eliminated the list of patients waiting for more than one year.
  • The Enhanced Recovery after Surgery Program has reduced the average length of hospital stay by 3.1 days in the Acadie-Bathurst Zone and 3.9 days in the Beauséjour Zone.
• Another reason to celebrate: Vitalité Health Network is continuing to achieve positive recruitment results. Some 420 new employees joined the organization between April and November, 2023. Thanks to our recruitment efforts targeting international candidates not to mention New Brunswick graduates and health workers from other provinces, we expect our number of new recruits to increase in 2024.
• Improving our patient flow and hospital performance has become one of the Network’s two major strategic priorities. A first phase of this major effort will begin in early 2024. All employees and medical staff will have the chance to be involved in helping to reduce our facilities’ occupancy rates and waiting times.

“Our teams can be proud of our accomplishments over the past few months. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their exemplary dedication,” noted Dr. France Desrosiers, President and CEO.

“Although we are facing major challenges, our determination to continually adapt is in all respects equal to the task. We have identified effective strategies; our job now is to stay on course and move forward together.”

For further information, please see our Quarterly Report.

The report will be presented at the public meeting of the Board of Directors taking place on Tuesday, February 6, 2024 at 1 p.m. People can attend in person at Atlantic Host, located at 1450 Vanier Boulevard in Bathurst, or virtually via the Zoom platform.

A period at the end of the meeting will be reserved for questions from the public about the Quarterly Report or health system-related issues. People can attend online or in person or send us their questions in advance to engagement [at] vitalitenb.ca.