Montreal\u2019s Jewish General Hospital has been granted university status, Quebec Health Minister Sonia B\u00e9langer announced Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The designation as a university hospital \u201cis the highest recognition there is for a health establishment in Quebec,\u201d B\u00e9langer\u00a0said during a press conference at the hospital, praising\u00a0the institution\u00a0for achievements in research, teaching and care.<\/p>\n
No added funding is tied to the title, though B\u00e9langer said the government would consider the hospital\u2019s new status when drawing up future budgets.<\/p>\n
The designation will also allow the hospital to better collaborate across the health network and attract new talent, B\u00e9langer said.<\/p>\n
Now renamed the Jewish General University Hospital, a spokesperson for B\u00e9langer said it is the sixth in Quebec to receive university status.<\/p>\n
The hospital is already affiliated with McGill University \u2014 though separate from the McGill University Health Centre network.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe easy answer is it isn\u2019t going to change much,\u201d said Dr. Lawrence Rosenberg, Jewish General and Sant\u00e9 Qu\u00e9bec West-Central Montreal Health and Social Services University Network president, when asked how the announcement would change operations at the hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the people working here, it will give them a sense of pride that the excellent work they do and the research they have contributed to has gotten appropriate recognition.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cExcellence in health care isn\u2019t created by decree,\u201d he said, but is \u201cbuilt over decades by people who mobilize every day and refuse to lower standards.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hospital \u201cwaited for a long time\u201d to receive the university designation, Rosenberg said, saying it already operates at the standard expected of a university hospital. The hospital\u2019s \u201cwork in domains including the fight against cancer, digital health and virtual health care are now studied well beyond our borders,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Crowded ER not a concern: hospital president<\/p>\n
Operating one of\u00a0Montreal\u2019s most crowded emergency rooms<\/a>, the Jewish General had a stretcher occupancy rate of 275\u00a0 per cent as of 1 p.m. Tuesday.<\/p>\n Asked whether the hospital had plans to lower the rate, Rosenberg said the stretcher occupancy rate \u201cmeans nothing to us.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe more important numbers to look at are what are the consequences,\u201d he said, asserting that the hospital \u201chas the most performant emergency room in Montreal,\u201d with relatively short wait times and a low rate of patients who leave without receiving care.<\/p>\n As of Tuesday afternoon, the average non-priority patient was\u00a0waiting roughly five and a half hours<\/a>\u00a0to see a doctor, longer than the four-and-a-half-hour wait time at the Montreal General, but far shorter than the nearly 10-hour wait time at the Centre hospitalier de l\u2019Universit\u00e9 de Montr\u00e9al (CHUM).<\/p>\n