As of January 23, five members of the senior management of the CIUSSS Estrien were now on the team of the new Santé Québec agency or will be there in the coming days.
It all started in August 2024, with the departure of the Deputy President and CEO (PDGA) of the CIUSSS, therefore essentially number 2 of the establishment’s management team, Robin Marie Coleman.
Ms. Coleman’s position was never filled; it wasn’t even posted. The CIUSSS was also not able to fill it on an interim basis.
Robin-Marie Coleman. (Frédéric Côté/Archives La Tribune)
In board documents dated August 21 and reporting a closed-door discussion on this point, they report an “inability to quickly appoint an interim” to replace the PDGA.
We also understand from these documents that this departure had destabilized the organizational structure of the establishment.
Thus, in order “to stabilize the establishment at the dawn of the merger with Santé Québec”, the CIUSSS created a temporary position of deputy director general for administrative affairs.
The first holder of this position is the director of human resources (HRD) of the CIUSSS, Yann Belzile. This is a twelve-month mandate.
“When Ms. Coleman left, we began to reflect on the needs of the establishment in the context of the arrival of the new state corporation. The decision taken was to temporarily modify the governance structure of the establishment and to appoint a deputy director general for the administrative sectors. This assignment is temporary for one year and a decision will be made on the final steering structure during the fall of 2025,” explains the CIUSSS communications department.
The director busy elsewhere, an assistant leaving
While he divides his time between this new position and his human resources responsibilities, Mr. Belzile loses one of his deputy directors in HR.
At a time when the labor shortage is wreaking havoc on health and public establishments are preparing to repatriate private agency workers to the public, Marc-Antoine Rouillard, deputy director of human resources at the CIUSSS, is leaving he too is the ship for Santé Québec. This departure is very recent, according to our information.
Marc-Antoine Rouillard. (Jean Roy/Archives La Tribune)
Mr. Rouillard was involved in the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS strategy for reducing expenses requested by the Quebec government and had already explained its ins and outs to The Tribune.
Added to this is the departure to Santé Québec in December of Annie-Andrée Émond, who held the position of assistant to the CEO for communications and media relations. In this capacity, she supervised the CIUSSS’s communication strategies and the responses sent to the media who asked questions to the establishment.
However, she is at Santé Québec on loan: she will therefore eventually return home, if everything goes as planned.
-Her replacement, Pascale Bélisle, is also holding multiple positions, while she also holds the position of deputy director for legal and public affairs.
Annie-Andrée Émond. (Claude Roussel/Archives La Tribune)
Another CIUSSS manager, who could not be identified as his departure was not announced internally, will soon leave on loan to the new agency.
These various departures and the fact that at least two people are replaced by executives who will continue to occupy heavy functions do not overly worry the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS.
The establishment’s communications department declined our interview request on this subject, but indicated that “these departures will not affect the operation of the establishment”, despite the “changes to the governance structure” which have had to be brought.
The boss of the doctors leaves
In addition to the departures mentioned above, another high-ranking officer from the CIUSSS will head to Santé Québec. This is the director of medical and professional services (DMSP), Dr. Mario Viens, whose departure was announced in December.
Essentially, the DMSP manages the medical affairs of a healthcare facility. He is, in a way, the patron saint of doctors.
It therefore goes without saying that this is an eminently important position in the organizational structure of a CIUSSS.
Dr. Viens will hold the position of general medical director and professional services-specialized medicine at Santé Québec.
Dr. Mario Come. (Jocelyn Riendeau/Archives La Tribune)
Arriving at his position at the CIUSSS at the beginning of 2023, he had to manage several crises, in particular the wave of resignations of physician-managers in the spring of 2023 or the crisis in the operating room of the Fleurimont Hospital in the summer of 2023, in addition to having to testify on behalf of the CIUSSS at the coroner’s public inquiry into the death of Amélie Champagne.
He will be replaced on an interim basis by Dr. Adam Frenette, who has held the position of deputy director of professional services since August 2024, three to four days a week.
“The selection process for the next medical and professional services director is already underway,” the CIUSSS confirms.
The organizational chart of the management of the CIUSSS de l’Estrie-CHUS has undergone numerous changes in the last year and a half, in particular due to the wave of resignations mentioned above, the four departures to Santé Québec and the cessation of employment, in November, of two directors who managed mental health services at the CIUSSS.
