The Multiple Sclerosis Centre of Catalonia, a world leader

There are more than 3,000 nurses and nursing assistants at Hospital Vall d’Hebron. The work they do in the centre is vital and they are leaders both in nursing care and research. Getting to this point was a long process, as Mariona Creus, former nursing director, and Maria Àngels Barba, the current director, recall.

The constant search for excellence is part of Hospital Vall d’Hebron’s nature. The biggest hospital in Catalonia and the leader in many fields, headed since February 2015 by Dr. Vicenç Martínez Ibáñez, who has a close personal and professional relationship with the Hospital. Dr. Martínez Ibáñez says that if Vall d’Hebron did not exist, it would need to be invented. The current director trained at the hospital, where he was one of the protagonists of an historic moment: the first paediatric liver transplant in Spain. Now, he is committed to continuing this legacy and, always putting the patient first, achieving excellence across all staff.

The Vall d’Hebron Digestive Endoscopy Department, now run by Dr. Joan Dot, who took over the role from Dr. Josep Ramon Armengol, who runs WIDER in Barcelona (World Institute for Digestive Endoscopy Research), cares for 70 patients a day with complex procedures and is one of the centres leading the colon cancer screening programme.

Jordi Fernández, law student and head of the Tívoli Theatre in Barcelona, was born with congenital heart disease. He has been a patient at Hospital Vall d’Hebron his whole life. The hospital is one of the most advanced in Spain in the diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart disease, thanks to the team in the Paediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery Department, led by Dr. Raúl Abella and Dr. Ferran Rosés i Noguer.

Porters are a vital piece in the hospital jigsaw, including during the night shift. A tough shift, which works at the same pace of the rest of the day, as José Luis Rivas, in charge of the night shift, admits.

Vall d’Hebron University Hospital’s kitchen serves more than 1,000 meals a day, twice a day, not counting breakfast. A reality that José Parrilla and Carmina Esteban know all too well.From three kitchens to one and from coal to gas. That is how the hospital’s catering service has evolved. A place where the needs of each patient must be taken into account and where there is room for small, juicy anecdotes.

The work of nurses has in recent years been marked by computerisation. Although the essence of their job is the same, now they perform their work equipped with electronic tablets and computers. Montserrat Martínez, head of the hospital’s Knowledge and Evaluation Management Unit, analyses the changes.

Vall d’Hebron University Hospital was the first in Catalonia to take donors and the first transplant coordinator in the country. The centre’s current Donation and Transplant Program coordinator, Dr. Teresa Pont remembers this time, highlighting the pioneering role Vall d’Hebron has had in this field.