Sant Joan de Déu Barcelona Children’s Hospital

Sant Joan de Déu (SJD) Barcelona Children’s Hospital is the world’s top hospital specializing in the fields of pediatrics, gynecology and obstetrics. Part of the Catalan and Spanish healthcare system, the hospital provides treatment of the most complex diseases in children under the age of 18 and for maternal health.

What services does it provide?

The hospital is a leader in prenatal care and in improving children’s health, with a special focus on high-risk pregnancies and deliveries and providing highly specialized care for women, children and adolescents. We’d like to focus, however, on the hospital’s pediatric services.

The university hospital provides medical and surgical treatment for children under 18 years of age, generally treating the most complex cases: oncological (retinoblastoma, neuroblastoma, leukemia, sarcoma, etc.), neurological (epilepsy, dystonia), cardiac (arrhythmia), orthopedic (implants, complex, severe scoliosis, arthrogryposis), urological (congenital defects of the kidney and urinary system), and others.

Also, a team of experts in fetal surgery perform complex intrauterine operations.

Sant Joan de Déu is one of the world’s major pediatric hospitals for the treatment of highly complex diseases.

Why?

• Vast experience

As one of the Spanish healthcare system’s leading pediatric hospitals, SJD is able to hit major performance objectives and has registered one of the highest number of pediatric patients over the past decade. Its Emergency Department alone treats over 120,000 patients every year, the highest of any hospital in Europe, an achievement made possible only through excellent organization and coordination. Thirty-seven complex operations are performed each day for over 13,000 per year. Close to 900 children per day (more than 225,000 per year!) are treated by specialists. Many of the patients admitted to the hospital are transferred from other centers and departments due to the high complexity of the case.

• World-renowned experts

The leading authorities in their fields work here; from Josep Brugada, Eduard Gratacós, and Jaume Mora to Jordi Rumiá, Fredy Prada and José María Caffarena… practically every department can boast of a having a world-renowned doctor among its ranks. With so many international stars to choose from, we’ll limit ourselves to a single example here. Dr. Brugada is a name every medical student in the world knows because of the disease discovered and named by him and his brother. His expertise has made him the world leader in radiofrequency ablation: he has performed over 30,000 of these procedures with outstanding results. Dr. Gratacós has performed over 1,700 in-utero fetal surgeries, many of which were the first of their kind in the world. This explains why the doctors and nurses who specialize in pediatrics train at this leading university hospital.

• The most innovative techniques

As a university hospital, SJD is synonymous with research and innovation. It was here where the first child in Europe was fitted with a bionic hand, and the SJD was a pioneer in intra-arterial chemotherapy as therapy for retinoblastoma to avoid the need to remove the eye and in the implantation of deep brain stimulation (DBS) electrodes for dystonia. The Sant Joan de Déu Children’s Hospital is the first in Europe to use cutting-edge immunotherapy to treat high-risk neuroblastoma, a technique that drastically increases survival rates. Clinical trials conducted at the hospital explore multiple therapeutic strategies that provide new hope for curing pediatric diseases traditionally considered untreatable. According to scientific publications, SJD is one of the most active children’s hospitals in the world. The hospital has developed ground-breaking innovations (over 20 international patents in recent years) in a range of different fields, from new technologies to information devices and technology that improves the conditions of young patients.

• Results

The hospital’s performance indicators are registered in international rankings and, when objectively compared to other centers, score among the world’s best in terms of effectiveness. For example, SJD boasts a 98% survival rate in highly complex cardiac surgery in children; the eye is saved in 90% of the cases of late-stage retinoblastoma; a survival rate of 90% for patients with localized brain tumors; 84% of the patients fully recover from localized Ewing’s sarcoma, and 85% with localized osteosarcoma. Today, the hospital conducts clinical trials with CAR T-cell therapy in treatment-refractory lymphoid malignancies with promising results: children who were receiving palliative treatments have been able to return to school.

• Hospital and friend

When the hospital hires new doctors, the most important requirements are talent, widely recognized expertise and the skills to contribute advances in the professional’s chosen field. But the hospital goes above and beyond technical skill to also seek out physicians who display commitment, passion for their work, and a series of essential values.

The focus on personal commitment to pediatric care is reflected in every detail. Sant Joan de Déu was the first children’s hospital in the country and one of the first in the world to get rid of visiting hours and restrictions for pediatric patients. Parents can be at their child’s side in practically every area of the hospital: in the patient’s room, in intensive care and neonatology, even in the operating room until the anesthesia takes effect.

Kids can watch their favorite movies in 3D while getting an MRI thanks to cutting-edge glasses, and dogs are sometimes brought in to help with post-surgery rehab! The hospital was Europe’s first to employ a child life specialist (trained professionals with expertise in helping children and their families), a practice that has extended to hospitals across the continent.

Even the facilities are carefully designed to ensure children are happy and well! Not only is the hospital one of the most beautiful in Europe, but it provides a host of interactive elements that kids love: comfortable visiting rooms and huge spaces for playing, interactive games and a two-story slide. The hospital is so well loved that even volunteers have to go through a tough selection process!

Foreign patients at the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu

Several hundred patients from all corners of the world seek treatment at Sant Joan de Déu every year: mainly from Europe, the CIS countries, the Persian Gulf and also Latin America. Sent by physicians, charitable foundations, and by the parents themselves after recommendations from other families, approximately 20% of the hospital’s admissions are children from other countries, mainly complex cases of childhood cancer (often for bone marrow transplantation and immunotherapy), severe forms of epilepsy or dystonia, and severe forms of musculoskeletal or kidney and urethra diseases.

The hospital provides translators in several languages, and foreign families can work with volunteers who speak their native language.

The hospital receives extensive support from volunteers and benefactors, both private and large international companies and celebrities; young patients get particularly excited about the Barça legends who often visit the hospital.

A bit of history

Sant Joan de Déu (or SJD)–a difficult name to pronounce for a foreigner–belongs to the Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God, a religious institute dedicated to caring for the sick. One of Spain’s most beloved religious figures, St. John of God was born in 1495. After his spiritual conversion he founded his first hospital in Granada in 1538 to care for the poor and sick: “Do good, brothers, for your own good!” Establishing a house where he tended to the needs of the sick poor, St. John of God created something revolutionary for the time, from providing the sick with individual beds to the separating patients by type of disease and the implementation of hygienic measures; focusing on the humane treatment and care of the individual, not just their disease.

What was born as an initiative by “crazy” St. John, who started out caring mainly for beggars who became his followers, was eventually organized into one of the most powerful Catholic orders in the world.

Today, the Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God’s medical and social centers treat people of all religions in 53 countries on five continents and has over 7,000 volunteers. Of its 400 medical centers worldwide, the internationally-renowned Sant Joan de Déu Children’s Hospital is without a doubt the order’s flagship center.

The Spirit of St. John of God is alive and well, reflected in every little detail of this 150-year-old hospital, and solidarity is a key factor. Today, many professionals at this hospital volunteer their free time to work at schools with less resources in Africa or Latin America, clearly passionate about helping those most in need. Many are also involved in training programs for local professionals.

As we mentioned, anyone who wants to volunteer at SJD has to pass a tough selection process: both young and adult volunteers find great joy and honor in this opportunity to help children. An honor that many people strive to earn and be worthy of every year.