A bold Francophonie for Healthy Communities
2024-2025 Annual Report to the community (See the document in pdf format)
Bold and high performing: 2024–2025 was a busy year for Montfort, Ontario’s Francophone academic hospital, proudly affiliated with the University of Ottawa and member of the Ottawa Academic Health Network. From developing and launching its 2024–2028 Strategic Plan, to inaugurating new services, Montfort is resolutely focused on the future, and taking action for healthy communities.
The future is now
A highlight of the year, the launch of the 2024–2028 Strategic Plan was the culmination of a year of consultation and reflection on our future. It is the first plan to be developed jointly with the Institut du Savoir Montfort and Santé Montfort. More than 700 people from across the province—employees, physicians, learners, volunteers, elected officials, partners—participated in the November 2024 launch.
With this plan, the three organizations adopted five fundamental principles, a bold and unique vision, distinct and complementary missions, values, five key goals and 17 outcomes to be achieved by the 75th anniversary of the hospital, in October 2028.
Until then, Montfort will serve a growing and aging population, expand French-language services, strengthen its social accountability, enhance the impact of education and research, and innovate to remain a sought-after environment.
Serve a growing and aging population
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We met growing demand :
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In addition to this increasing demand:
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In June 2024, Montfort opened a new Post-Discharge Assessment Clinic at the Aline-Chrétien Health Hub, in Orléans, allowing certain patients who require medical follow-up after a visit to Emergency to be referred for care in community.
We made significant progress in terms of ambulance offload times, going from 74th among Ontario hospitals in summer 2023 to 51st in March 2025.
The ratio of actual versus expected average duration of stay for typical medical cases—that is, the number of days patients actually spend in hospital versus the number of days they were expected to spend there—improved over the last year. Sustained efforts to identify, from the time of admission, the anticipated date of departure, and the creation of a mobility team, composed of physiotherapists, therapeutic services assistants and personal support workers, allow for a more proactive approach and for patients to return home without delay.
In November 2024, Montfort welcomed CHEO to the Aline-Chrétien Health Hub, where it provides mental health, home and community care, development and rehabilitation, and neurodevelopmental health services.
In January 2025, the Enhanced In-Home Remote Care Monitoring Program, created by Montfort in collaboration with partners, was recognized as a leading practice by the Health Standards Organization (HSO) and its affiliated organization, Accreditation Canada. It is the 11th leading practice recognized by the HSO at Montfort since 2013.
Expand French-language services
Under our provincial mandate, Montfort coordinated the development of an action plan for French-language health care, education and research, the Plan d’action provincial pour les soins, l’éducation et la recherche en santé en français. This process involved the participation of some 100 organizations in Ontario Health’s six regions. The plan was submitted to the ministries of Health, Long-Term Care, Colleges and Universities, Francophone Affairs, and to Ontario Health, in November 2024. Since then, the Assemblée de la francophonie de l’Ontario recommended it in its brief on pre-budget proposals published in the lead up to the tabling of Ontario’s 2025 budget.
Strengthen our social accountability
In November 2024, the hospital opened a Mental Health Emergency Zone (MHEZ) in response to growing demand in the community. Montfort’s Emergency receives proportionately twice as many visits for mental health reasons as other hospitals in Ottawa and the province. The MHEZ, made possible thanks to the Montfort Foundation, is the first service of its kind in the region.
Over the course of the year, more than 240 frontline and management staff completed Indigenous cultural safety training. We also introduced gender diversity training.
Enhance the impact of education and research
Two research teams led by researchers from the Institut du Savoir Montfort received $3M in funding over six years from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to lead projects on health care equity for official language minorities in Canada. These projects will increase the volume and quality of our research activities with the aim of disseminating new knowledge to improve care.
In September 2024, the hospital, the Institut du Savoir Montfort and the University of Ottawa concluded an agreement to create a joint psychologist position, contributing to the clinical service offer, teaching and research.
In November 2024, to support and develop Ontario’s Francophone nursing capacity and meet workforce challenges, Professor Michelle Lalonde was appointed chairholder of the University of Ottawa and Institut du Savoir Montfort Joint Chair on the Health of Francophones in Ontario.
In December 2024, thanks to the activities of the Institut du Savoir Montfort, the hospital was named one of the top 40 research hospitals in Canada for the for the 10th consecutive year. The hospital ranks 8th in Ontario in terms of research investment growth; an 11.7% increase.
Innovate to remain a sought-after environment
The net number of nurses at the hospital increased for the first time in five years, with the addition of 48 colleagues in 2024–2025, almost doubling our initial target. We also welcomed an additional eight physicians and four midwives to the medical staff, which now totals 411 members.
In October 2024, following extensive analysis, Montfort decided to migrate to the Epic electronic health record and join the Atlas Alliance, hosted by The Ottawa Hospital. This is one of the outcomes of our 2024–2028 Strategic Plan. Since then, four other hospitals in the region have made the same decision to replace the MEDITECH system. The implementation of Epic and the MyChart patient portal—a $50M investment over 10 years—is planned for fall 2026 and will bring 16 health care organizations into a single system. Our clinical staff with experience in both systems, as well as our residents, were unequivocal that the implementation of the Epic system will make Montfort an even more sought-after academic hospital.
In fall 2024, we launched the Language Skills Enhancement Program, allowing staff to improve their French- or English-language skills. This program was made possible thanks to the support of the Institut du Savoir Montfort and the contribution of the Montfort Foundation and the RBC Foundation.
In February 2025, the hospital once again climbed the ranks of the world’s best hospitals, placing 41st among Canada’s 600 hospitals. In March 2025, it was named one of the National Capital Region’s top employers for the 6th time.
Lastly, we reversed the trend for the first time in five years in terms of violent incidents causing injury and work interruption, with 30% fewer incidents compared with the previous year.
For Healthy Communities
At Montfort, the entire team is committed to achieving our vision. We must give ourselves the means to achieve our ambitions. We optimized our financial performance and eliminated our expected deficit, ending the year with a small operational surplus, and a $1.4M deficit, including the amortization of capital assets. The 2025–2026 budget anticipates balance at the operational level.
In addition to the five key goals of our 2024–2028 Strategic Plan, our efforts for continuous improvement for the next year will focus on:
- Improving patient satisfaction with communication between physicians, nursing staff and other staff members regarding their care
- Offering an excellent patient experience in Emergency by reducing duration of stay
- Reducing the ratio of average duration of stay to expected duration of stay for patients admitted in medicine
- Adhering to Accreditation Canada’s required safety practices
- Increasing the annual rate of permanent staff retention
- Increasing the revenue of the hospital, the Institut du Savoir Montfort, Santé Montfort and the Montfort Foundation
- Ensuring excellent financial performance, as demonstrated by a balanced operational budget
Montfort’s strength has always been its community. This is even more true today, as we have planned our future together, and set course for the hospital’s 75th anniversary, in October 2028.
We’ll write the next chapter of our history together, as a family, with our devoted teams, the Institut du Savoir Montfort, Santé Montfort, the Montfort Foundation, the Association des bénévoles de l’Hôpital Montfort, the University of Ottawa, the Canadian Forces Health Services Centre—Ottawa, Montfort Renaissance, our many other partners, the Association de l’Hôpital Montfort and our communities—all essential players in achieving our mission.
It’s our collective strength that allows for a bold Francophonie for healthy communities.
Marie-Josée Martel
Chair of the Board of Directors
Dominic Giroux
President and CEO
Board of Directors
Marie-Josée Martel, Chair
Denise Amyot, Vice-chair
Lucie Mercier-Gauthier, Treasurer
Me Léa Bou Karam
François Brouard
Dr. Marie-Pierre Carpentier
Joëlle Clément
Dr. Chantal D’Aoust-Bernard
Estelle Ethier
Mathieu Fleury
Luc Généreux
Dominic Giroux
Samia Ouled Ali
Me Caroline Richard
Lynn Rivard
Josette Roussel
Jean Ste-Marie (Q.C.)
Lucie Thibault
Senior Leadership
Dominic Giroux, President and CEO
Dr. Chantal D’Aoust-Bernard, Chief of Staff
Valérie Dubois Desroches, Senior Vice-President, Patient Care
Guy Couture, Senior Vice-President, Finance and Administration
Caroline Roy-Egner, Senior-Vice-President, Strategy and People
Estelle Ethier, Vice-President, Teaching and Research, and CEO, Institut du Savoir Montfort
Josette Roussel, Associate Vice-President, Patient Care and Chief Nursing Executive
Carolyn Crowley, Associate Vice-President, Patient Care and Social Accountability
Martin Sauvé, Director of Communications
Marc Villeneuve, President and CEO, Montfort Foundation
Medical Governance
Dr. Chantal D’Aoust-Bernard, Chief of Staff
Dr. Kristine Levesque, Deputy Chief of Staff
Dr. Ingrid Custeau, Anesthesia
Dr. Nicolas Roustan Delatour, Medical Biology
Dr. André Martel, Surgery
Dr. Daniel Baxter, Medical Imaging
Dr. Marlène Mansour, Medicine
Dr. Jennifer Douek, Family Medicine
Dr. Anne Gravelle, Obstetrics and Gynecology
Dr. Anuj Bhagarva, Ophthalmology
Dr. Andrew Marshall, Orthopedics
Dr. Aarathi Sambasivan, Pediatrics
Dr. Kristine Levesque, Mental Health and Psychiatry
Dr. Francis Dubé, Emergency
Dr. Marie-Pierre Carpentier, President, Medical Staff Association
Dr. Marie-France Rancourt, Vice-President, Medical Staff Association
Dr. Sophie Poliquin, Secretary-Treasurer, Medical Staff Association
Financial Statements
(Information as of March 31, 2025)
Revenue %
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Ministerial allocation |
76,4 % |
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Patient services |
11,6 % |
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Other revenues |
10,5 % |
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Specific funded programs |
1,5 % |
Expenses %
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Salaries and benefit |
60,5 % |
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Supplies and other expenses |
22,4 % |
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Medical staff remuneration |
7,9 % |
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Amortization |
6,3 % |
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Specific funded programs |
1,5 % |
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Drugs |
1,4 % |