We are the combination of four hospitals: the General Hospital, the Children’s Hospital, the Women’s Hospital and the Traumatology, Rehabilitation and Burns Hospital. We are part of the Vall d’Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus: a world-leading health park where healthcare plays a crucial role.
Patients are the centre and the core of our system. We are professionals committed to quality care and our organizational structure breaks down the traditional boundaries between departments and professional groups, with an exclusive model of knowledge areas.
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The commitment of Vall d'Hebron University Hospital to innovation allows us to be at the forefront of medicine, providing first class care adapted to the changing needs of each patient.
At Vall d’Hebron, we are a national leader in organ and tissue donation, ranking among the centres with the highest levels of activity in this field. We are also a leading centre for adult solid organ transplantation and one of the foremost centres for paediatric transplantation.
All the activities carried out by the Organ and Transplant Programme Coordination Unit adhere to the highest standards of quality, safety, equity, efficiency and compassion. Our aim is to manage and coordinate every aspect of organ and tissue donation and transplantation, provide the highest level of health protection, and help improve survival and quality of life for adult and paediatric patients who need a transplant.
Our unit comprises medical staff, specialist nursing professionals, healthcare support workers, and administrative and research support staff.
The services provided by the Organ and Transplant Programme Coordination Unit cover the planning, coordination, management and comprehensive oversight of care activities associated with donation and transplantation, as well as the logistical and organisational aspects of these activities.
Our main responsibilities include ensuring the quality, safety and traceability of the entire organ and tissue donation process, covering both deceased and living donation. We do this by systematically monitoring procedures and coordinating the various professionals and units involved.
All these activities follow a patient-centred model of care that places the needs, safety, dignity, rights and wellbeing of patients, donors, recipients and their families at the heart of everything we do. This approach promotes comprehensive, personalised and coordinated care, ensures that people receive appropriate information and support throughout every stage of the process, and helps maintain continuity of care.
Donor detection and assessment
We continuously monitor the hospital’s clinical departments and units that care for patients with particularly complex clinical conditions. We have established pathways and communication systems to identify and assess patients at an early stage when their clinical circumstances may warrant consideration for donation. Throughout this process, we ensure personalised care that respects the needs, dignity and decisions of patients and those close to them.
We also systematically review hospital deaths to identify, in accordance with established clinical criteria and applicable regulations, cases in which tissue donation may be considered. This activity includes specific programmes tailored to the needs of paediatric and neonatal populations, always taking a comprehensive approach that supports families and respects the individual’s wishes.
We carry out a comprehensive, individualised clinical assessment based on a detailed review of the potential donor’s medical history and current clinical condition. This assessment includes the diagnostic tests needed to identify and rule out potential transmissible diseases, as well as to determine the suitability and safety of the donation process.
Our aim is to ensure that organs and tissues intended for transplantation meet established quality and safety criteria, minimising risks to recipients while also ensuring appropriate protection for the healthcare professionals involved.
Family and legal procedures
We ensure that death is formally confirmed in accordance with the applicable legislation and procedures. We meet with families to establish the patient’s wishes regarding donation, obtain the necessary consent and support them throughout the process. Where required, we also arrange the relevant judicial authorisations.
Donor care and preservation
We support donors and their families by providing specialised, state-of-the-art clinical care throughout donor management, both before organ retrieval and during the procedure. Our aim is to ensure the highest standard of care and help preserve donated organs in the best possible condition for the patients who need them.
Logistics and coordination
We work closely with the Catalan Transplant Organisation and the Spanish National Transplant Organisation to allocate and distribute donated organs to the people who need them most. We coordinate the logistics of the donation process and ensure the safety of donated organs.
We also oversee organ retrieval, packaging and preservation in the operating theatre, ensuring the highest levels of efficiency and quality.
We promote scientific research and technological development to increase the availability of organs, tissues and cells, expand their functional capacity, and ensure the highest standards of quality and safety, ultimately improving patients’ health and lives.
We also investigate the mechanisms of ischaemia–reperfusion injury that occur during donation and transplantation in depth. Our aim is to develop new techniques and treatments to prevent or reduce this injury, or to treat its effects effectively.
We coordinate the Organ, Tissue and Cell Donation and Transplantation Research Group at the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR). Through this group, we lead a multidisciplinary team of professionals from different fields who take part in publicly and privately funded research projects. Our goal is to develop innovative strategies to optimise every stage of the process, from donation and preservation to the processing and transplantation of organs, tissues and cells.
One of the strategic functions of the Organ and Transplant Programme Coordination Unit is to provide training, share information and disseminate knowledge about donation and transplantation. This work is aimed at the general public, healthcare professionals and other groups directly or indirectly involved in these processes.
Our activities take place at local, national and international levels, using a range of communication and training formats and channels to increase awareness, promote understanding and help people make sense of organ and tissue donation and transplantation.
For healthcare professionals, we design and deliver specialised training programmes on donation and transplantation in the context of end-of-life care, aimed primarily at doctors and nurses. We use our own Moodle training platform, to provide educational programmes tailored to the needs of different professional groups and make training accessible beyond the hospital setting.
Through this platform and other channels, we train more than 500 professionals every year through programmes and courses funded by public and private organisations, both nationally and internationally. These activities help professionals update their knowledge, develop specific skills and share best practice in donation and transplantation.
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