The COVID-19 pandemic put Vall d’Hebron to the test

December 2019. News of a mysterious virus began emerging from China. March 2020. The mandatory lockdown shook society. And Vall d’Hebron University Hospital faced the greatest challenge in its history, transforming into a hospital dedicated exclusively to treating COVID-19.

In 2020, Vall d’Hebron, a tertiary hospital with 122 specialities, was transformed into a hospital dedicated to treating a single disease: COVID-19 pneumonia. Although the first patient with COVID-19 was admitted to Vall d’Hebron on 1 March 2020, SARS-CoV-2 put the adaptability and foresight of Vall d’Hebron’s professionals to the test: by the end of January, a coordination committee was set up, consisting of the management team and the heads of the most directly involved specialities, while action protocols and contingency plans were drawn up to cover 12 different scenarios.

The pandemic disrupted many people’s lives. And put healthcare systems to the ultimate test. Vall d’Hebron, the largest hospital in Catalonia, rose to the challenge thanks to the talent, dedication and teamwork of its professionals.  
The number of patients reflects the scale of the pandemic: 2,096 patients were treated at the hospital in the first wave of COVID-19, 341 of whom were admitted to the ICU, which went on to become the largest of its kind in Spain. In total, Vall d’Hebron treated 8,541 patients up to the end of the seventh wave in 2022, 1,826 of whom were admitted to the ICU.

In March 2020, Vall d’Hebron expanded its ICU capacity from 56 permanent beds to 186 beds for critical patients in just two weeks. Vall d’Hebron expanded with 13 new ICUs, equipping additional spaces, such as the old ICU, which was no longer in use, the Simulation Area and the new Haemodialysis Area. The vacuum, compressed air, and oxygen systems remain in place and are ready to be used again if needed. The Health Pavilion, located in the Vall d’Hebron Olympic Games Sports Pavilion, was also opened. Initially, it accommodated non-critical patients, but it was later repurposed for patient rehabilitation and as a multi-purpose Day Hospital. Later, the Garbí Building, managed by the Hospital and situated in the Parc Sanitari Pere Virgili, was built to treat acute and critical COVID-19 patients. The Garbí Building, a legacy of the pandemic, has since been repurposed to enhance care for patients with neurodegenerative diseases. At the beginning of April, the pandemic reached its peak, with an average of one patient per hour being intubated at Vall d’Hebron.

The health crisis brought on by the pandemic accelerated the reform of the Emergency Department, which had begun a few months before the virus outbreak. The new management model, designed to streamline care and provide comprehensive, flexible, and more personalised treatment in a more patient- and family-friendly environment, was fast-tracked with the arrival of the pandemic.

A particularly notable aspect of local engagement was the work carried out in elderly care homes, where teams of nurses, along with the Infectious Diseases, Preventative Medicine and Epidemiology Departments, coordinated with the AIS-BCN Nord Primary Care Centre to implement a major cohort-based intervention. Vall d’Hebron, led by the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department, was also the leading centre for pregnant women with COVID-19 from across Catalonia who required hospitalisation. During the fifth wave, from 15 July to 15 September 2021, pregnant women accounted for 15.1% of the 924 patients treated in Vall d’Hebron, the highest percentage recorded up to that point, leading to the recommendation to vaccinate this group. Likewise, the Psychiatry Department played a key role in developing the GestioEmocional Web App, created by the Catalan Health Service, to support the public in managing their emotions during COVID-19.

Not all the pressure fell on healthcare services. With the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, the Vall d’Hebron Clinical Laboratories dedicated all their expertise, as well as their technical and human resources, to developing a diagnostic technique for a new virus, as no diagnostic reagent or commercial testing method was initially available. The technicians focused their efforts on processing SARS-CoV-2 samples, which was initially a highly manual process. Today, Vall d’Hebron Clinical Laboratories process around 150 samples per day, but in 2020, just a few months after the start of the pandemic, this figure reached as many as 6,000 per day. Staff numbers were increased, and new machinery, including robots for conducting mass PCR tests, was introduced to manage the enormous volume of samples. The automation and digitalisation of the Clinical Laboratories is another lasting legacy of the pandemic.

These figures illustrate the sheer scale of the pandemic and the challenges faced by professionals at the Vall d’Hebron. However, the pandemic cannot be understood through numbers alone. The pandemic is also reflected through personal sacrifices made by many professionals, living away from their families or sleeping in separate bedrooms when they returned home, in the formation of healthcare teams with diverse professional roles, laying the foundation for a future model based on knowledge areas; in the support and bonds formed with patients who spent, days, weeks or even months in the hospital; and in the hundreds and thousands of human stories, sometimes with heartbreaking endings. This is the most important legacy of the most intense period Vall d’Hebron has ever faced.

The way the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital managed the health crisis was even praised by the World Health Organization (WHO), which deemed it exemplary. 
 
At this link, you can find a selection of images showcasing the work of the Vall d’Hebron professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic.