Quality


Accreditations, authorisations and awards

The Fundació Puigvert advances in its quality and safety culture, while ensuring process efficiency (both care and non-care) in order to respond to the needs of our team of professionals and the people we care for. 

Several accreditations, authorisations and awards received attest to this effort and endorse our excellence in the different areas of our activity.

Quality Coordinator: Aina Blanch

Awards

1993 EDIMSA Award for the Best Healthcare Institution in the country in teaching

1994 ALCER Silver Plaque Award to the Fundació Puigvert for its work on behalf of patients suffering from kidney diseases

2000 Creu de Sant Jordi awarded by the Generalitat de Catalunya to Ms Esperança Martí

2000 25 years of the Unió Catalana d'Hospitals Award for her outstanding work: Esperança Martí

2002 ADER Recognition of the Urology and Nephrology Departments

2003 Diario Médico Best Ideas Award. Diploma awarded to the institution in recognition of the robotisation of urological surgery in Spain

2005 Diario Médico Best Ideas Award given to the Living Donor Kidney Transplantation Team of the Nephrology Department for the idea of cross-over transplantation

2005 Recognition by the Catalan Urology Society to the Fundació Puigvert for its teaching

2007 Diario Médico Award for the Best Healthcare Ideas awarded to the Course on patients with chronic kidney disease, organised by the Nephrology Department

2008 Diario Médico Award for the Best Healthcare Ideas awarded for the penile reconstruction surgery performed by the Fundació's Andrology Department and the Plastic Surgery Department at the Hospital de Sant Pau

2012 Best in Class (BIC) Recognition of the Urology Department as the best in Spain within its specialty

2013 Diario Médico Award for the Best Healthcare Ideas to the Nephrology Department for the first slightly incompatible transplantation in Spain thanks to immunoadsorption

2014 ONT 25th Anniversary Awards. Award to the Kidney Transplantation Team for its leadership and promotion of cross-over transplantations in Spain

2017 Spanish Fertility Society. Accreditation of the Assisted Reproduction Programme of the Fundació Puigvert and the Hospital de Sant Pau as a collaborating centre of the National Activity Registry (the official register of Assisted Reproduction Techniques of the Ministry of Health)

Accreditations and authorisations

The Fundació Puigvert is part of the Hospital Network for Public Use (XHUP). It is a highly specialised tertiary referral hospital with a service provision contract with the Catalan Healthcare Service (CatSalut).

Authorised by the Healthcare Department of the Generalitat de Catalunya (Regional Government of Catalonia) with the registration number of Healthcare Centres, Services and Facilities H08000498.

The Foundation holds several accreditations, the most important of which being European Prostate Cancer Centre of Excellence (EPCCE).

The Fundació Puigvert is one of 17 centres in Europe, the only one in Spain, to receive the EPCCE (European Prostate Cancer Centres of Excellence) accreditation in 2022. Obtaining this accreditation is based on the ability to address prostate cancer from three areas: care, teaching and research. The Oncological Urology Unit of the Fundació Puigvert features a specific multidisciplinary working group.

Within the framework of the Europe's Beating Cancer Plan, EPCCE-accredited centres will be key to providing prostate cancer patients with the appropriate healthcare resources from the time of diagnosis and throughout their treatment, using the criteria pre-established by the European Association of Urology (EAU), with a solid, multidisciplinary healthcare network and direct research involvement and engagement. Finally, teaching and continuing education in order to train more experts in the field.

Acute inpatient care centre of Catalonia

The Fundació has been accredited since 2006 by the Health Department according to the Catalan Accreditation Model for Acute Care Centres, based on the European EFQM model. 

National Centre for Kidney Removal and Transplantation

The Fundació Puigvert is a National Benchmark Centre for Living Donor Kidney Transplantations and is authorised by the Health Department to perform living donor kidney transplantations and cross-over kidney transplantations. It is authorised by the Health Department to perform cadaver kidney removals and transplantations, living donor kidney transplantations and cross-over kidney transplantations. It is a National Benchmark Centre for living donor kidney transplantations.

Hospital Sant Pau Teaching Unit – The Fundació Puigvert

The Foundation is attached to the Faculty of Medicine of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) as part of the Hospital Sant Pau Teaching Unit – The Fundació Puigvert (undergraduate education), as well as a Specialisation School (postgraduate education), by Ministerial Order of 26 July 1967 (BOE [Official State Gazette] 30 August).

Training programme for medical specialists (MIR – Resident Medical Interns)

It is accredited by the Ministry of Health, Social Policy and Equality to carry out the training programme for medical specialists (MIR – Resident Medical Interns) in Urology and Nephrology.

European Board of Urology (EBU)

It is accredited by the European Board of Urology (EBU) of the European Association of Urology (EAU) in Urology training on a European level and is thus the only hospital in Spain to hold this accreditation for five years (until 2026) and for 6 specialties:

  • Urothelial cancer
  • Prostate cancer
  • Kidney cancer
  • Kidney transplantation
  • Kidney stones
  • Incontinence and female urology
  • Paediatric urology

European Academy of Andrology

It is accredited by the European Academy of Andrology for specialised training in andrology. Certified as a Training Centre in Andrology by the ECA (European Academy of Andrology)

Clinical Psychology (FEAP and EFPP)

The Fundació's Clinical Psychology Department is accredited by the Spanish Federation of Psychotherapists' Associations and by the European Federation for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in the Public Sector (EFPP) for the training of residents and specialists in psychotherapy.

Paediatric Urology EBPU

The Fundació is also accredited by the European Board of Paediatric Urology (EBPU) as a European Accredited Institution for Paediatric Urology Education (FEAPU).

EUROGEN – European network for rare urogenital diseases

The Fundació is an affiliate member of the European Commission's EUROGEN network. EUROGEN is one of the 24 reference networks for rare urogenital diseases (rare anorectal and urogenital diseases [WS1], and rare voiding dysfunctions [WS2]).

Network of Clinical Expertise Units (XUEC)

The Fundació Puigvert is a Clinical Expertise Unit of the XUEC for orphan kidney diseases. In Catalonia, the Catalan Healthcare Service (CatSalut) has developed a care strategy for orphan diseases: the Network of Clinical Expertise Units (XUEC).

The XUECs are networks of Clinical Expertise Units in orphan diseases that were established with the aim of working together and sharing their knowledge. The XUECs coordinate with the healthcare and social care centres closest to the affected person's home, in order to provide a customised and more efficient service. The Nephrology Department and the Uropaediatrics Unit of the Urology Department of the Fundació Puigvert with the Hospital de Sant Pau, the Hospital San Joan de Déu with the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, together with the Hospital Universitari de la Vall d'Hebró, make up this XUEC in Orphan Kidney Diseases. Please refer to the CatSalut resolution here.

With this acknowledgment, the three Clinical Expertise Units (CEUs) assigned to each network lead the diagnosis and care of people affected by one of the mentioned diseases:

  • Immune-mediated interstitial nephropathy
  • Inherited glomerular diseases
  • Tubulopathies
  • Thrombotic microangiopathies
  • Renal hypoplasia/dysplasia
  • Autosomal dominant dysplastic kidney disease

Orphan kidney diseases encompass a wide range of congenital, inherited and acquired disorders. It is estimated that at least 2 million people in Europe suffer from orphan kidney diseases.

The Fundació Puigvert boasts extensive experience in inherited kidney diseases as well as in congenital anomalies of the urinary tract, backed by more than 200 publications on the subject and several research projects. Moreover, it participates in international clinical trials on these diseases.

CSUR: Reference Centre, Service or Unit

The CSURs are of a state-wide nature:

Reference centre: a healthcare centre whose main activity involves the care of certain disorders or groups of disorders that meet one or more features as set out in Royal Decree 1302/2006.

Reference service or unit: a service or unit of a healthcare centre or service whose activity involves the performance of a technique, technology or procedure, or the care of certain disorders or groups of disorders that meet one or more features as set out in Royal Decree 1302/2006, even if it also treats other diseases for which it is not considered a reference service.

A Royal Decree-Law of 2006 established the creation of a designation committee in which the Ministry of Health and the autonomous regions participate.

This initiative identifies and accredits reference healthcare units with research potential. This is a preliminary step for Europe to acknowledge them as well.

A CSUR's mission is as follows:

  • To provide coverage throughout the country and care for all patients on equal terms, regardless of their place of residence.
  • To provide care through a multidisciplinary team: health care, support for diagnostic confirmation, defining therapeutic and follow-up strategies and acting as a consultant for the clinical units that routinely treat these patients.
  • To ensure continuity of care between the patient's life stages (child-adult) and between healthcare levels.
  • To have records and information available in order to assess results and be able to determine lines of progress.
  • To provide training and support to patients and their families.
  • To provide training to other professionals.

The Fundació Puigvert is accredited as:

CSUR for Complex Glomerular Diseases

Glomerular diseases are a type of kidney disease where glomeruli are damaged and neither waste is eliminated nor important substances, such as proteins, are retained, so that fluid may be retained. They are difficult to diagnose and manage. The Fundació Puigvert boasts extensive experience in these diseases and features cutting-edge technology for their diagnosis as well as access to the most innovative treatments and clinical trials.

CSUR for the Exstrophy-Epispadias Complex

The exstrophy-epispadias complex (bladder exstrophy, epispadias and cloacal exstrophy) is a complex and rare congenital anomaly involving the musculoskeletal system as well as the urinary, reproductive and intestinal tracts. It causes urinary, sexual and reproductive disorders.

It is one of the most severe anomalies of the bladder, while presenting a great clinical variability that can range from a simple fissure in the bladder wall to the most severe form (cloacal exstrophy), where the intestines, bladder and genitalia are exposed externally.

The bladder is completely open and fused with the anterior abdominal wall and cannot store urine. The urethra is open dorsally (epispadias), whereas the genitals also have anomalies (bifid clitoris, curved and short penis).

It can be associated with other genitourinary malformations and even with renal agenesis (defective development or lack of some part of an organ).

The Fundació Puigvert boasts extensive surgical experience and applies a multidisciplinary approach to this complex urological pathology.