We are a leading healthcare campus encompassing all fields of health: from healthcare and research to teaching and management.
Professionalism, commitment and research by professionals on the Campus are the key elements in offering patients excellent care.
We are committed to research as a tool to provide solutions to the daily challenges we face in the field of medical healthcare.
Thanks to our healthcare, teaching and research potential, we work to incorporate new knowledge to generate value for patients, professionals and the organization itself.
We generate, transform and transmit knowledge in all areas of the health sciences, helping to train the professionals of the future.
We are defined by our vocation for communication. We invite you to share everything that happens at Vall d'Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus, and our doors are always open.
Hospital donations
Research donations
The Institute for Diagnostic Imaging uses the most advanced techniques, and contributes to generalising the application of this type of diagnostics to improve care and the quality of image-based explorations and diagnoses.
The Institute for Diagnostic Imaging (IDI) is a state-owned company that is affiliated with Catsalut, and has one of its centres at the Vall d'Hebron Hospital. IDI manages, administers and executes image diagnostic services and nuclear medicine services.
At our hospital, we conduct explorations using: magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, nuclear medicine, PET-CT, angiography, ultrasound, mammography, densitometry, conventional radiology, and orthopantomography, among others. This centre is also charged with helping with technological innovation projects, developing research and promoting teaching, thus contributing to scientific and social progress.
IDI and Vall d'Hebron are committed to innovation. In this context, we have PET-CT equipment that allows us to analyse molecular aspects of diseases such as cancer and neurological or cardiovascular disorders. This equipment, which can carry out between 4,000 and 5,000 tests a year, also offers the possibility of introducing new radiopharmaceuticals that improve the management of diseases with a specific molecular profile.
General Hospital
Traumatology Unit
Maternity and Children's Hospital
The mission of the Neurosurgery Department is to guarantee excellence in care, education and research, with an international outlook. We have a particular focus on the needs and preferences of patients with diseases of the nervous system that require surgical treatment.
At the Neurosurgery Department, we apply the most advanced technologies and a multidisciplinary approach in a context that allows us to train neurosurgeons with strong ethical and moral values. All this, as part of the public health system that is accessible to all citizens.
Our Department is divided into three physically separate care sections located in three areas of the Vall d'Hebron hospital complex: the General Hospital, the Traumatology, Rehabilitation and Burns Hospital and the Maternity and Children's Hospital. Finally, the Neurotraumatology and Neurosurgery Research Unit, which integrates all of the Department’s translational research, complements these three care sections, applying the knowledge garnered from basic research to the prevention and treatment of clinical cases.
The General Hospital is home to most of the Neurosurgery Department’s activity, housing most of its human resources, patients, beds and financial resources. The team is made up of a chief clinician, seven specialist doctors and a Head of Department. Three of the doctors share their activities with the Maternity and Children's Hospital, and form the main group of physicians devoted to paediatric neurosurgery. The other doctors also collaborate on neuropaediatric care, both with emergency care and low-prevalence pathologies, in which our Department is super-specialized. Adult patients are admitted here who have had cranioencephalic trauma and a programmed pathology of the rachis (spine).
The care offered by the Neurosurgery Department covers three fundamental aspects: general neurosurgery (adult patients), neurotraumatology and paediatric neurosurgery. Despite this differentiation, we are a cross-cutting department that addresses the following diseases:
The educational mission of any neurosurgery department at a high-tech hospital does not end with the training of undergraduate students and specialised training, but rather we are devoted to continuing training of all doctors with links to neurosurgery.
Our Department organises several clinical sessions, as well as annual doctoral courses and different continuing education programmes aimed not only at residents and neurosurgeons in the Department, but also specialists in intensive care, anaesthesia and, in some cases, nursing staff. On the other hand, most of our sessions offer a considerable number of continuing education credits.
The training programme for residents at the Neurosurgery Department includes a general educational programme, a rotation scheme, a plan detailing the objectives and surgical skills that must be acquired, the obligation to comply with the "Resident’s Logbook" and an appropriate evaluation system.
One essential aspect that is often overlooked is the importance of the role of nursing staff in neurosurgical care. We are keenly aware of this, and for years now the neurosurgery nursing staff at the General Hospital and the Neurotraumatology ICU have been integrated in the educational activities of the Department. Also, a symposium specific to nursing is included in the International Symposium on the Monitoring of Intracranial Pressure and Cerebral Haemodynamics that is celebrated biannually. The management of this event, as well as the contents and speakers chosen, falls to the nursing staff, who have total autonomy in organising their Symposium.
The Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department offers comprehensive. multidisciplinary treatment for patients, with the aim of achieving the highest level of autonomy, functional capacity and quality of life, using therapeutic measures and technical support aimed at correcting or minimising the disability diagnosed.
Ours is a transversal department, meaning we collaborate with many other medical and surgical departments at the Hospital. Our ability to provide support in all healthcare areas guarantees coordinated care for patients throughout their stay. We are a reference centre in Catalonia for various highly complex processes (spinal cord injury, acquired brain damage, spina bifida, burns) and we also engage in teaching and research.
At the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department, we collaborate directly with various other medical and surgical departments at the hospital and share multidisciplinary patient care units. We are involved in virtually all units that deal with rare illnesses.
At our Department, in addition to doctors specialising in physical medicine and rehabilitation, we also have physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, auxiliary technicians in nursing care, monitors and administrative staff. Teamwork is the defining feature of our specialty. Our multidisciplinary rehabilitation team also includes specialised nursing staff, an orthopaedic technician and a social health worker.
Our cross-cutting department consists of two main areas of care, community and tertiary: we assist patients in our catchment area but also those from elsewhere who need highly specialised care. We work in an acute hospital where increasingly complex cases are handled, and we aim to adapt to ensure hospital stays are as short as possible.
At the Neurorehabilitation Day Hospital, patients who have a neurological disability and need comprehensive rehabilitation treatment can receive it in a single place, and, if they do not require nursing care, they can sleep at home.
Our Department works in three main areas: Osteoarticular, Neurorehabilitation and Specific Pathologies.
Officially accredited as a CSUR centre of reference (Reference centres, departments and units), the Spinal Cord Injury Unit is a reference centre in Catalonia and the rest of Spain for the treatment of people who have suffered spinal cord injuries. We offer comprehensive care in cases of acute and subacute spinal cord injuries. We offer physiotherapy, occupational therapy, sphincter re-education, infiltration treatment with botulinum toxin, risk assessment of injuries caused by a blow or by diseases, assessment of support for sitting independently.
Neurological rehabilitation. We offer comprehensive, intensive care, where required, to patients with strokes, cranial traumatism or acquired brain damage in general. We offer treatments involving physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, swallowing disorders and neuropsychology. At the Day Hospital, we provide neurorehabilitation (physiotherapy, occupational therapy, swallowing disorders and neurorehabilitation). We apply rehabilitation techniques using virtual reality, and offer infiltration treatments using botulinum toxin.
The Rheumatology Section is a clinical care section that is integrated under the Internal Medicine Department. The musculoskeletal system consists of a person’s bones, muscles, joints, tendons and ligaments. It is a highly structured system whose purpose is to move and support the rest of the body's structures.
Rheumatology deals with disorders and diseases of the musculoskeletal system. It is a very wide-reaching specialty that covers almost 200 diseases.
At the Rheumatology Section, we aim to offer specialised quality care to patients with musculoskeletal system diseases, both in adults and children.
We have extensive, recognised experience in the care of patients with chronic inflammatory arthritis, such as rheumatoid arthritis.
We also provide highly qualified care in the treatment and pregnancy of such patients, in collaboration with the Obstetrics Department, with the aim of making pregnancy and childbirth possible, guaranteeing the safety of mother and baby, without aggravating the arthritis.
For patients with chronic inflammatory arthritis, we offer quality care adapted to their needs, with a team of professionals who are experts in the latest biotechnology medicines, both in the day hospital and in specific outpatient clinics. We adapt as much as we can to avoid loss of working days for patients, and to offer the highest level of excellence in healthcare conditions.
The Paediatric Rheumatology Division has always been a reference centre in our Section. We have a close relationship with the Paediatrics Department and we provide care for paediatric patients from all over the country with rheumatic diseases, such as chronic inflammatory joint diseases, systemic autoimmune diseases or self-inflammatory syndromes.
The Expertise in Central Sensitisation Syndromes Unit consists of two lines of care, one for fibromyalgia and one for chronic fatigue syndrome. This Unit’s mission is to lead the way in the central sensitisation syndromes (CSS) for patients, patient associations and health professionals. We have a long history in this field, and we are a centre of reference in both diseases (note: place EU CSS link here).
Rheumatology is a medical speciality that requires specialist professionals who can perform specific techniques in order to provide comprehensive care for patients. To this end, we are a centre of reference in musculoskeletal ultrasounds, both in adults and paediatric patients.
At the Rheumatology Section, we have professionals who are highly specialised in the treatment of metabolic bone pathologies, such as osteoporosis. We provide care for patients who have undergone lung transplants in order to avoid or treat bone complications deriving from either lung disease or immunosuppressive treatments. We also work side by side with the Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology Department to provide comprehensive solutions for patients with osteoporotic fractures.
Within our region, we prioritise patient care continuity and establish close collaborations in the field of primary care. We are also pioneers in a number of pathologies, and we are establishing fast-stream referrals for patients with urgent or priority conditions.
At the Rheumatology Section, we are responsible for significant, high-quality research, mainly in the area of rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile idiopathic arthritis and other immunomediated diseases.
Our research is specifically aimed at the identification of biomarkers and new therapeutic targets that will allow us to offer more personalised care and, ultimately, cure these diseases. We are highly specialised in the area of the latest high-performance technologies, such as genomics, transcriptomics and metabolomics.
The results of our research have been published in prestigious reviews, proof of the dissemination and quality of our discoveries. We are also a reference centre in clinical trials in collaboration with the Clinical Research Support Unit of the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute.
The Rheumatology Section is a teaching unit that is officially authorised for the training of medical interns in Rheumatology. One of our priority objectives is to attract and train talented doctors in order to use the knowledge we have gained to benefit society and train highly qualified professionals who are able to face the challenges of medicine in the future, which will focus on "personalised" and "precision medicine". Our residents carry out extended visits to internationally renowned centres in both Europe and the United States.
At the Rheumatology Section, we carry out extensive teaching activity, both in continuous education within the department itself, and in the organisation of seminars and courses aimed at professionals from other hospitals and other medical specialities. One of our objectives is to enhance the health workshops aimed at patients.
We offer theoretical and practical classes in Rheumatology to medical students from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. We are a centre of national and international reference, with a very high number of requests for internships, especially in the area of paediatric rheumatology, rheumatoid arthritis, and musculoskeletal ultrasounds.
At the Spinal Cord Injury Unit, part of the Rehabilitation and Physical Medicine Department, we offer comprehensive care to patients with acute spinal cord injury and pathologies derived from chronic spinal cord injury, such as pressure wounds, acute respiratory failure, urinary infections with sepsis, autonomic dysreflexia, among others.
At the Spinal Cord Injury Unit, we seek to treat people with spinal cord injuries in order to alleviate the related disability and, therefore, improve the quality of life, health and social participation of patients. Here, patients receive comprehensive care for all the deficiencies and disabilities that can be caused by a spinal cord injury.
Every year, the Spinal Cord Injury Unit receives more than 80 patients with acute spinal cord injuries. We also admit about 60 patients with chronic spinal cord injuries to treat complications. Outpatient clinics cover around 1,400 patients, with 200 initial visits yearly, 1,200 subsequent visits and 200 visits from other hospitals.
We have a team of specialised multidisciplinary professionals: rehabilitation doctors who are experts in spinal cord injuries, nurses, clinical assistants, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, phoniatricians, speech therapists and social workers, along with other professionals from other hospital departments, such as the ICU, Spinal Surgery and Neurosurgery. Our mission is to make a referral to the hospital in the best conditions, with early diagnosis and personalised rehabilitation treatments.
A&E and EMS now follow a system of protocols, both for adult and paediatric patients, and care for spinal cord injury has been standardised, taking into account all the professionals who will be handling the disability.
We also take into account the neurological level and seriousness of the injury in order to reduce the hospital stay and achieve the best possible functionality, always including patients and their families.
This collaboration between the professionals involved takes place at clinical sessions twice a week and at the sessions with the rachis surgery team once a week, where the case of the acute patient is commented on and decisions are made about the most appropriate surgical treatments for each vertebral fracture.
The Spinal Cord Injury Unit is a reference centre in Catalonia, Andorra and the Balearic Islands in the care of patients with acute spinal cord injuries. We offer treatment and teach medical residents studying Rehabilitation and Physical Medicine in Catalonia, and we are also very active in research.
Clinical follow-up of people with acute spinal cord injury accounts for 40% of research carried out by the Department, which is reflected in the growing number of articles published and their impact over recent years.
The Spinal Cord Injury Unit participates in international clinical trials related to acute spinal cord injuries. We are currently conducting the first international trial with mesenchymal cells in acute injuries, in coordination with surgery of the spinal column and neurosurgery, which is funded by a joint venture between a pharmaceutical company and a biotechnology laboratory.
The teaching activity of the Spinal Cord Injury Unit covers undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing education of professionals in the field of spinal cord injuries. Another highlight is our organisation and management of an online training programme through the 4Doctors web platform.
We also have a preferential agreement with the Step By Step foundation, which organises an International Spinal Cord Repair Meeting (ISCORE) every two years, where the latest advances in basic and applied research are presented.
We give nutritional and diet support to hospitalised patients across all clinical departments at the Hospital, and carry out follow-up monitoring at outpatient care for those patients who need it. We also provide outpatient care for patients referred from other healthcare areas of the Hospital and primary care centres that require specialist nutritional and dietary support. Patients requiring nutritional support are treated at the Horta Primary Care Centre. We actively collaborate in educational programmes to detect nutritional problems and for home monitoring of enteral nutrition, that is, feeding via a tube.
As a transversal unit, we support the General, Maternity and Children’s and Traumatology, Rehabilitation and Burns Hospitals, as well as the Primary Care Office in Sant Andreu; we also collaborate with a range of different medical and surgical specialties. We also participate in and direct a number of joint protocols with various other areas of the Hospital, and we maintain a very close working relationship with the Pharmacy Department, both in developing artificial nutrition and in selecting nutritional products. We act together with the Biochemistry Department in monitoring the nutrition of patients and in pursuing lines of research. We also provide support for the Pere Virgili Health Park.
We work to educate patients and family members, as well as providing courses for our staff through our continuing education programme, and we collaborate on continuing education in primary care. We organise training courses for primary care nursing staff, nursing staff from the Hospital and our orderly staff. We also educate patients and relatives about managing enteral nutrition, parenteral nutrition, as well as nutrition in cases of nephrology and inflammatory bowel disease.
During a hospital stay, the nutrition support we provide might cover:
Once a patient has been discharged, we continue to monitor nutritional treatment through:
In short, we prepare diets for hospital patients, always taking into account menu alternatives, menus for treatment and diet changes depending on patient cycles. We work together with the Catering Unit to organise and prepare the hospital’s catering operation.
Finally, we also take care of preparing and distributing baby bottles, baby food and special liquid meals for healthcare units, as well as collecting and cleaning utensils.
Our teaching work includes:
Vall d'Hebron handles the most priority 0 and 1 Code Polytrauma cases (the most serious cases) in Catalonia, and we are the only Centre for Specialised Trauma Care, with the highest possible category for patient care with polytrauma.
As a level three hospital, we offer all the departments and units necessary for 24-hour emergency and specialist care of patients with emergency trauma. This is known as Traumatology Intensive Care, which includes: conventional and interventional radiology and CAT (scans); care for acute bone marrow trauma; neurosurgery and thoracic, vascular, cardiac and maxillofacial surgery. General, orthopaedic and traumatology surgery, as well as surgery of the rachis (spine) and other highly specialised services.The Hospital has a special department for exploration of patients in such cases, with the possibility of x-rays and an adjoining operating theatre. The centre also treats paediatric patients using the same systems, but at the Maternity and Children’s Hospital. We also have a top level care ward, with several separate bays, a polytrauma care ward, an observation ward, two operating theatres, as well as support from the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and the Resuscitation Ward.Our Unit is responsible for an intensive training programme in advanced trauma care for the professionals involved. All of our staff know how to proceed at all times, and have highly defined tasks to guarantee our ultimate goal: ensuring the survival of patients with polytrauma and their recovery.
The Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology Department is a wide-reaching department that serves people with pathologies, from the primary care level, in consultations carried out within the Department and local outpatient centres, to the most complex level of orthopaedic and traumatological pathologies. We work with all surgical techniques, and specialise in adapting the techniques we use. We can boast a long tradition and high level of prestige at all levels: local, regional, state and internationally.
Our Department is home to a large number of practitioners involved in admitting patients with both simple and complex traumatisms and poly-traumatisms in the Accident and Emergency Department, as well as throughout the duration of the treatment.
As it is located within Vall d'Hebron University Hospital, we are able to take a multidisciplinary approach to the treatment of patients with musculoskeletal pathologies, in close collaboration with the Radiology, Neurophysiology, Anaesthesia, Intensive Care, Rehabilitation, Neurosurgery and Plastic Surgery Departments.
Our objectives are excellence in care, research and teaching. Our Department has a significant number of resident doctors, and hosts regular visitors from other centres from Spain and abroad.
We are specialised in paediatrics, shoulder surgery, microsurgery and neuroorthopaedics, wrist and hand, hip, ankle and foot, knee, osteoarticular reconstruction, septic and tumoural pathology. We also specialise in patients with traumatism and surgery of the spine.
The Department is organised into functional units and subunits, each of which deals with a particular area of the pathology. This means professionals can train in a wide-reaching specialty with a multitude of surgical techniques that are constantly evolving.
Many of our units are considered reference centres by the Spanish Ministry of Health, such as the Septic Pathology Unit, the Pelvic Osteotomy Unit and the Children's Orthopaedic Unit. Finally, the Department is also present in other areas, such as the Outpatient Surgery Unit at the Pere Virgili Health Park.
The main objective of the Pharmacy Department is the safe and efficient use of medication with the utmost excellence. Our Department supports care activity and is recognised as a collaborating centre of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), thanks to our role in preventing medication errors.
Our Department offers a consolidated portfolio of services, and we have a pharmaceutical team that monitors all registered prescriptions and pharmaceutical treatments.
We are responsible for distributing, dispensing and preparing medications with automatised systems and robotics, with one of the most significant technological systems in Europe. We use a system of drug-use indicators based on case histories to assess use of medication. This helps us detect opportunities for improvement, both in terms of security and reducing variability in clinical practice, meaning avoiding differences in the way our staff prescribe treatments.
The Department enjoys ISO 9001-2008 certification, which specifically covers prevention of medication errors. We have established a quality policy aimed at satisfying the needs and expectations of patients, and providing the services that contribute to improving quality of care through personalised attention for effective, efficient and safe drug treatment, while improving our systems.
Our main objective is to ensure our Department continues to contribute value to patients, bearing in mind the conditions at any given time in the Hospital, the Catalan Health Institute and the Catalan Health System in general. For this reason, between 2009 and 2015 we followed a strategic plan that uses the Balanced Scorecard methodology. This strategic plan takes into account new scenarios, social changes and emerging trends, which all necessitated a thorough review of our methodology, in a spirit of critical creativity and continuous improvement.
Rapid evolution in concepts and technology has resulted in the Pharmacy Department receiving several awards and honourable mentions for our clinical innovation and excellence.
The work we carry out at the Intensive Care Medicine Department greatly affects that of other specialties, as well as the care that can be offered by the Traumatology and Rehabilitation Ward.
Structurally, we distinguish between two levels of treatment complexity at the Traumatology Intensive Care Department: one intensive, or high complexity, and another semi-intensive, or medium complexity. The Neurotraumatology Intensive Care Medicine Department has an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and a Semi-Intensive Care Unit.
The Neurotraumatology Intensive Care Unit presents the following characteristics:
Most of the research and clinical trials carried out at the Neurotraumatology Intensive Care Unit are carried out through the Neurotraumatology and Neurosurgery Research Unit (UNINN), set up in 1992.
The UNINN is composed of a multidisciplinary team (neurosurgeons, intensivists, anaesthetists, neuroradiologists, rehabilitators and neuropsychologists), and support staff contracted by the Unit. It has carried out several subsidised research projects, doctoral theses and multicentre, international clinical trials, which are carried out largely at the Traumatology Intensive Care Medicine Unit.
The Neurotraumatology and Neurosurgery Research Unit has two co-directors, namely Dr J. Sahuquillo and Dr M. A. Poca, from the Neurosurgery Department, and Dr A. Garnacho, from the Neurotraumatology Intensive Care Unit.
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