Sudbury Regional Hospital's new CEO faced tough questions about his past while being introduced to the community at a news conference Nov. 3.
Dr. Denis-Richard Roy, who will take over from interim CEO Bertha Paulse in January, was CEO of the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM) from 2002 to 2008. He is currently consulting manager at CHUM.
Over the past 20 years, Roy has held numerous leadership positions with McGill University Health Centre, Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal Thoracic Institute and the Centre hospitalier régional de l’Outaouais.
News reports from the Montreal Gazette and La Presse indicate that Roy left the CEO's post at CHUM in June 2008 after being pressured to do so by Quebec health minister Yves Bolduc.
“In June 2008, Roy lost his job amid concerns over poor management and his failure to secure $112 million in funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation for research facilities,” stated a Montreal Gazette article dated Oct. 8, 2009.
CHUM is “planning a $2.5 billion super hospital that will consolidate onto one site its network of three hospitals,” the same article stated.
Concerns were raised in articles that construction on the research facility, which would have been adjacent to the hospital, would be delayed because of the failure to get the funding.
When a local reporter brought up the hospital administrator's past at the press conference, Roy said “this is something I would prefer not to discuss. I would, however, refer you to other articles in that area. You will understand that one must not always trust the title of the articles.”
When questioned about why he didn't want to clarify the issue for the people of Sudbury, Roy said “I'm here to look to the future, and it will be a great future.”
Hospital board chair Carol Hartman said she would not comment about “the motives behind the minister of health's decision.”
However, she did point out that Roy remained a consulting manager with CHUM after he stepped down as CEO.
Hartman disclosed at the news conference that Roy will be paid $350,000 per year.
The former CEO of the hospital, Vickie Kaminski, was criticized a few years ago when the public sector salary disclosure list revealed that she had received a large salary increase.
Her salary in 2008-2009 was $327,414, about $20,000 per year less than Roy will be making. Kaminski left Sudbury Regional Hospital in June to become the CEO of Eastern Health in Newfoundland.
“Rather than wait for the annual disclosure next spring, as part of our wish to be transparent to our community, I will tell you that his (Roy's) salary will be set at $350,000 gross per year,” said Hartman.
“This salary is at the 50th percentile for hospital CEO compensation. In order for the board to be successful in recruiting a top candidate, we obviously needed to be respectful of these industry standards.”
Roy shared his vision for the hospital at the press conference.
“We will work in the long term so that the patients are well taken care of — so well taken care of that they would not even think of going elsewhere,” he said.
Roy was chosen with the help of a professional head-hunting firm and a CEO selection committee made up of representatives from the medical community.
Members of the community were invited to fill in an online survey which asked what they wanted in a hospital CEO.
Roy said when a head hunter approached him about taking the job, the first thing he asked about was whether it was with an academic hospital.
Because the Sudbury Regional Hospital is new to the role as an academic hospital, Roy said he wants to ensure that it grows into this role, recruiting the medical professionals needed to give medical students the best of training.
He said he wants to sit down with the dean of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Dr. Roger Strasser, and discuss what the students need.
Roy said one of the major challenges he sees at Sudbury Regional Hospital is the ongoing issue of large numbers of alternate level of care patients waiting to be placed in nursing homes and other community facilities filling hospital beds.
“I will tell you that this problem occurs elsewhere too. It's just that it showed up in the news more here. It will a challenge because it will be a continuing situation. Like everywhere else in Canada, it will be a budgetary issue,” he said.
“When I arrive, I will have time to discuss it with (interim CEO) Bertha (Paulse) and (vice-president of clinical programs) Dave McNeil, and our colleagues, how we can deal with these things.”
Roy's wife, Dr. Monique Dubois-Roy, is a family physician. She will be moving with her husband to Sudbury.
“She is advising her patients, currently, that she is leaving. That is very strenuous, psychologically. Then she will be taking time off for awhile, and will be looking around to see what kind of practice she wants to do.”
About Dr. Denis-Richard Roy
- Roy holds a master's degree in business administration. His post-doctoral education includes an MRC Research fellow, and renal physiology from Stanford University
- He has been a member of:
- Association of Canadian Academic Hospitals
- Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation
- Medical Research Council of Canada
- National Steering Committee on Prevention of Accidents in Health Care Delivery
- Nice-Harvard Organizing Committee
- Founding Board for the Canadian Patient Safety Institute
- In 2008, he was asked to assist the State of Uttar Pradesh (India) in their planning for specialized hospitals
