Senior management has a vision for building a culture of excellence through its commitment to change, teaching, and continuous learning
The CIUSSS West-Central Montreal is committed to promoting the “learning organization,” which is characterized by a culture that stimulates innovation and continuous growth and the capacity to acquire and integrate new knowledge, senior managers say.
“Successful organizations are constantly redefining and adapting themselves according to evolving technologies and the needs of their clients,” Cindy Starnino, Director of Academic Affairs, told participants at a retreat, Adapting Learning Organizations to the 21st Century, held by her team in November. “As a collective of institutions that teach the next generation of health care professionals, we are a laboratory in which to challenge the status quo”
At the core of the learning organization is a staff that embraces the challenges brought by change, Ms. Starnino says. After all, the choice that determines an organization’s success is not between changing and not changing; the real choice is whether employees lead in implementing the kinds of changes that foster excellence, or scramble to react to changes imposed by circumstance, she says.
Dr. Lawrence Rosenberg, President and CEO of our CIUSSS, defined change as an adventure — one that encourages everyone in the organization to contribute, to question, and to play a part in developing and implementing practices that will benefit the community and the health care profession.
“As a learning organization, we have the opportunity to teach best practices to the next generation of health care providers and to serve as an incubator for digital health, for example, which is the next revolution in medical practice,” said Dr. Rosenberg.
With respect to digital health, the CIUSSS has appointed the first Digital Health Officer in Quebec and formed a task force to oversee the implementation of technologies to improve the delivery of health services.
“People have a natural reluctance to change because they become comfortable doings things a certain way,” said Francine Dupuis, Deputy CEO of our CIUSSS. “However, we change when we recognize a better way of achieving our objectives.”
