Opinion: Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital is rebuilding health care without government help

Jewish General Hospital in Montreal on Friday May 1, 2020. Dave Sidaway / Montreal Gazette

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A few Saturdays ago, we were sitting at home reading the news when we came across a piece about the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal. It stopped us, not because it was another healthcare headline, but because it was something rare. It was a story about execution.

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The hospital took matters into its own hands. Instead of waiting for the rest of the system to catch up, it began modernizing its own information systems.

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We had no idea a hospital could operate like this. It felt more like a startup than an almost 100-year-old institution.

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While much of the healthcare system is still grappling with how to modernize, the Jewish General has already moved. It is deploying a fully digital, connected health record system across the hospital and its broader network. Not a theoretical pilot. A real system replacing paper entirely. Its first two modules are already in use and improving patient care.

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In a typical day, a clinician might use multiple systems just to track a single patient’s care. Notes in one place, medications in another, imaging somewhere else. It is inefficient and it takes time away from patients.

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What they are building replaces that fragmented reality. Patient information like vital signs, medications, allergies, and clinical notes is captured in one place, in real time, and accessible to the entire care team. It consolidates data from more than ten separate systems into one.

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One module already gives clinicians a five-year view of a patient’s history in seconds, something that previously required digging across multiple systems.

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That clarity matters. When clinicians can see the full picture instantly, decisions are faster and more confident. When data flows automatically instead of being manually recorded, errors are reduced. And because the system was designed with frontline staff, adoption is already strong.

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This is not just digitization. It is a better way to deliver care. It is also connected to a broader program that includes a patient flow command centre and virtual care, allowing patients to be monitored at home with real-time data flowing back to clinicians.

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And then there is what should make everyone pay attention.

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This is a $100 million initiative, funded entirely through donations raised by the Jewish General Hospital Foundation, and delivered faster and at a fraction of the cost of comparable public efforts.

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That combination is rare. And it is instructive.

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It shows what happens when the focus shifts from process to outcomes. When people take ownership and move.

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For us, the reaction was immediate.

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We read the article, looked at each other, and knew we wanted to be part of it.