Highlights of the Board of Directors regular public meeting ** REVISED **
Bathurst, February 28, 2017 – The Board of Directors of Vitalité Health Network held its regular public meeting on Tuesday, February 28, 2017 in Bathurst.
Response by the Minister of Health to the five recommendations made by the Board of Directors on June 28, 2016
Gilles Lanteigne, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Network, informed the Board of Directors of the Minister of Health’s response to the five recommendations made on June 28, 2016. “This response, which was hand delivered on January 27, 2017, does not provide much in the way of additional information or new solutions to address the Board’s concerns,” the President and CEO stated. Furthermore, recommendation #5 appears to have been misunderstood. “The Board is proposing to integrate seniors’ services rather than to integrate structures,” he continued.
A new motion was adopted, namely:
“That the Board of Directors clarify with the Minister of Health that recommendation #5 (to incorporate seniors’ services) did not involve changing structures but rather better integrating services so as to eliminate inefficiencies between providers, which often prove detrimental to service recipients.”
With respect to recommendation #2, which involved maintaining the Extra-Mural Program (EMP) under the responsibility of Vitalité Health Network, the Minister of Health indicated that Medavie’s proposal to assume management of the EMP was still being studied. “Given the clinical nature of the Extra-Mural Program, this is a major source of concern,” Mr. Lanteigne stated. All members of the Network’s Board of Directors and Leadership Team have been invited to attend a meeting with the Minister of Health, the Associate Deputy Minister responsible for the Health Services and Francophone Affairs Division, and the President and CEO of Medavie, scheduled for March 13, 2017 in Moncton.
Management of food and environmental services
The Network’s management confirmed that, on January 27, 2017, verbal confirmation had been received from the Minister of Health of his decision to move forward with privatization of the management of food, environmental, and porter services. In June 2016, the Board of Directors had approved a proposal to maintain these services under the Network’s responsibility and had provided the Minister of Health with an exhaustive financial and operational analysis supporting its position. “Having received no updates on this file or our June recommendation, we wrote to the Minister of Health on December 12, 2016 requesting answers,” Mr. Lanteigne explained.
The two following motions were adopted:
- The Board of Directors remains convinced that, based on in-depth analysis, the management of food and environmental services should remain under the Network’s responsibility, despite the advantages outlined in the Minister of Health’s correspondence dated January 17, 2017 and received February 7, 2017.
- The Board of Directors requests that the Department of Health: 1) Clarify its role and the roles of Service New Brunswick and Vitalité Health Network in evaluating the Sodexo proposal, 2) Disclose the current state of the negotiations under way with Sodexo, and 3) Share the current evaluation of the anticipated guaranteed savings to result from third party management of food and environmental services.
Organizational performance – positive results
The Network announced its financial results for the first eight months of the fiscal year, i.e. for the period April 1 to November 30, 2016. The corporation recorded an operating surplus of $4.10 million as a result of expenses approximately $5.42 million under budget and income approximately $1.33 million under budget. The Network also reported that three indicators, namely the cost per patient day on nursing units, the medication error rate, and the employee turnover rate had improved since the previous report. Finally, the Network reported a year-over-year increase of 44.88 full-time equivalents (FTEs), primarily due to the addition of new programs.
