MUHC launches international search for new Associate Executive Director of the Montreal Children’s Hospital

Diane Borisov Named Interim Associate Executive Director

The McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) announced today that Dr. Nicholas Steinmetz is retiring and thus resigning as Interim Associate Executive Director of The Montreal Children’s Hospital of the MUHC. Diane Borisov, Associate Director of Nursing, Child and Adolescent Services for The Children’s, assumes his duties effective May 28 and until such a time as a permanent replacement is hired. A Canada-wide and international search is underway.

"Dr. Steinmetz has played a pivotal role in stewarding the high standard of patient care that The Montreal Children’s Hospital has become renowned for," stated Dr. Arthur T. Porter, Director General and CEO of the MUHC. "His commitment to pediatric excellence serves as a model, as we continue moving forward with the MUHC redevelopment plan and set our sights on ensuring that children and their families benefit from a world of caring well into the 21st century."

The Montreal Children’s Hospital of the MUHC is celebrating its one-hundredth anniversary, and with it a rich heritage of patient care, education and research. Since 1904, the Hospital has achieved many firsts both nationally and internationally, such as the world’s first respirator – later version known as the Iron Lung – and Canada’s first operation to repair a congenital heart defect. The Children’s was also home to Canada’s first pediatric departments of medical genetics and psychiatry, as well as Quebec’s first pediatric burn unit.

Diane Borisov has been a nurse for nearly thirty years at The Montreal Children’s Hospital and became Associate Director of Nursing, Child and Adolescent Services in May 1999.

"Diane Borisov’s dedication and experience make her an ideal choice and I am truly pleased that she has agreed to take over from Dr. Steinmetz for this interim period," declared Dr. Porter.

"The Montreal Children’s is dear to my heart, but the timing was right for my retirement. I know the Search Committee will do all that is necessary to find the right person for the job. Moreover, I am confident that Diane Borisov has what it takes to see us through," added Dr. Steinmetz.

The Search Committee, co-chaired by Dr. Arthur Porter and Graham Bagnall, Chairman of the Council for Services to Children and Adolescents (CSCA), has been given a very clear mandate, which is to find a leader whose vision of pediatric healthcare, education and research matches that of the MUHC. Committee members are Dr. Nicolas Steinmetz, former Interim Associate Executive Director of The Montreal Children’s Hospital; Dr. Harvey Guyda, Physician-in-Chief of The Montreal Children’s Hospital and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics; Mary Anne Ferguson, Member of the MUHC Board of Directors and Vice-chair of the CSCA; Marc Courtois, Chairman of the MCH Foundation; and Ann Lynch, Director of Nursing. An international firm has been hired to add the world’s foremost candidates to the pool of those to be considered.

"The Montreal Children’s is an important institution and we’re taking every measure to ensure that we have the kind of leader in place who is as committed to a future of pediatric excellence as we are," concluded MUHC Director General and CEO, Dr. Arthur Porter.

About the Montreal Children’s Hospital

The Montreal Children's Hospital is the pediatric teaching hospital of the McGill University Health Centre. The institution is a leader in the care and treatment of sick infants, children and adolescents from across Quebec. The Montreal Children's Hospital provides a high level and broad scope of healthcare services, and provides ultra-specialized care in many fields, including cardiology and cardiac surgery, neurology and neurosurgery, traumatology, genetic research, psychiatry and child development, and musculoskeletal conditions, including orthopedics and rheumatology. Fully bilingual and multicultural, the institution respectfully serves an increasingly diverse community in more than 50 languages.