The Institut Guttmann is an international centre of reference in neurorehabilitation, specialising in the medical and surgical treatment and comprehensive rehabilitation of adults, young people and children with spinal cord injury, acquired brain injury or other disability that is neurological in origin. Its objective is to provide specialised, comprehensive, intensive, continuous and personalised care, based on scientific evidence and with the highest levels of compassion, science and technology.
It is part of the Catalan Health System (SISCAT), registered under number U0898244T in the Register of Health Centres, Services and Establishments of the Department of Health, and has an agreement with CatSalut to care for beneficiaries of the public health system. Having established agreements with the main occupational accident mutual societies, insurance companies and the largest private medical companies, it provides care to many patients, as well as directly to private patients.
The Institut Guttmann is accredited as a reference hospital by the Department of Health of the Generalitat de Catalunya, and as a “Centro de Referencia Nacional – CSUR – para el tratamiento de la lesión medular compleja” (National Reference Centre – CSUR – for the treatment of complex spinal cord injury) by the Spanish Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality. The reputed Joint Commission International certification guarantees that the centre meets international standards of quality in health care and organisational management. With over 56 years of experience treating people affected by neurological disabilities, the Institut Guttmann’s care model is based on the intervention of an expert multidisciplinary team put together and customised for each patient. This model, along with the quality and experience of the hospital’s professionals and its modern facilities that continuously incorporate the most innovative technologies in the specialty, make the Institut Guttman one of the world’s leading hospitals in its field.
Portfolio of services
The Institut Guttmann’s portfolio of services includes all clinical features needed to provide the most flexible and efficient clinical response possible to medical and surgical treatment and the comprehensive rehabilitation of adults, young people and children with a disability of neurological origin.
The medical team
The medical team of the Institut Guttmann is published on the institute’s website. You can enter via this link.
Hospital Activity
The year 2020 was marked by the pandemic, and healthcare activity was clearly affected by this exceptional situation. This made it necessary to carry out care activities different from the institution’s own activity and directly related to Covid-19, in collaboration with Hospital Germans Trias. This obviously led to a reduction in our usual activity.
Therefore,
- During the first wave, 2 hospitalisation units (a total of 72 beds) were dedicated to Covid-19 activity in coordination with Hospital Germans Trias, and a total of 233 patients were treated in these units during the period from March to May.
- Along the same lines, at the beginning of April the sports hall was fitted out as a “Field Hospital” with the capacity to treat up to 70 more patients. This was a hospital extension of the HGTiP that did not need to be put into operation in the end. It was dismantled in April 2021.
- Faced with this scenario of containment and limitation of activity, we rescheduled all outpatient activities and external consultations, forcing us to suspend 1,600 external consultations and 120 patients being treated as outpatients.
After the first wave of the pandemic, it was detected that many people who had suffered from Covid-19 had sequelae caused by the disease. This prompted our care team to design the proposal for a “Neurorehabilitation programme for the treatment of sequelae in post-Covid-19 patients”, with patients referred by CatSalut, proposing a 6-month pilot to treat a maximum of 250 patients from Catalonia.
The key points of the activity of this post-Covid Neurorehabilitation programme include:
- 121 people were seen, of which 92 met the criteria to participate in the programme and underwent Outpatient Rehabilitation in a day hospital regime. In total, 1,137 rehabilitation sessions were carried out.
Regarding care activities, a total of 4,785 patients were seen in the hospital in 2020, of which 973 (20%) were attending for the first time.
| ACTIVITY 2020 | |
| PATIENTS CARED | 4.785 |
| Catalunya 95,07% (Barcelona 82,4%, Girona 7,8%, Lleida 4,4% and Tarragona 5,4%) | 4.549 |
| Rest of Spain 3,53% and from overseas 1,40% | 236 |
| HOSPITALIZED PATIENTS | 726 |
| Catalunya 80,99% (Barcelona 74,7%, Girona 11.7%, Lleida 7,1% and Tarragona 6,5%) | 588 |
| Rest of Spain 13,36% and from overseas 5,65% | 138 |
| PATIENTS CARED FOR THE FIRST TIME | |||||
| 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | |
| Total new patients | 1.043 | 1.104 | 1.129 | 1.064 | 973 |
| By type of injury | |||||
| Spinal cord injury | 235 | 234 | 225 | 230 | 178 |
| Acquired brain damage | 551 | 606 | 639 | 580 | 524 |
| Others (GB, PNR, Dystrophy, myopathies and others) | 119 | 132 | 137 | 254 | 271 |
Of all the patients seen, 726 were hospitalised. The Children’s Functional Rehabilitation Unit saw 286 children aged up to the age of 16. Ninety-eight patients from overseas were seen and 235 surgical interventions were performed.
The distribution by age and sex of patients seen in 2020 was as follows:
| PATIENTS BY AGE AND SEX | ||||
| Patients | Women/girls | Men/Boys | Both | % |
| From 0 to 16 y/o | 112 | 174 | 286 | 5,98% |
| From 17 to 30 y/o | 134 | 272 | 406 | 8,48% |
| From 31 to 45 y/o | 375 | 641 | 1.016 | 21,23% |
| From 46 to 60 y/o | 644 | 1.015 | 1.659 | 34,67% |
| Over 60 y/o | 546 | 872 | 1.418 | 29,63% |
| Total | 1.811 | 2.974 | 4.785 | |
| % | 37,85% | 62,15% |
Our patient’s opinion
The Client Care and Quality areas have enhanced improvements intended to benefit our patients, always considering their perceptions of our centre. The result obtained from opinion surveys regarding the quality perceived by hospitalised patients in the questionnaire on the overall assessment of care is 83.7%.
It should be noted that 97.4% of the patients surveyed stated that they would return to the hospital. Of the 30 items assessed, 47% are positive ratings (standard or excellence level, above 75%) and 53% are below 75% (improvement level), so we have subsequently activated a plan for improvement.
90.7% Sympathetic treatment received from nursing staff
100% Confidentiality of personal data
89.47% Coherent information
90.48% Free expression of rights and obligations
95.35% Feeling of being in good hands
97.44% Would return to this hospital
94.59% Pain management
Regarding specialised outpatient care, the quality perceived by patients in the survey on the overall assessment of care is 84.6%.
It should be noted that 93.6% of the patients surveyed stated that they would recommend our institution.
Of the 22 items assessed, 59% are positive ratings (standard or excellence level, above 75%) and 41% are below 75% (improvement level), with a subsequent plan for improvement. Therefore, also in this case, the results are positive if we frame them within a year marked by the pandemic.
- 83.64% Treatment received by physiotherapists and occupational therapists
- 100% Has not experienced any harm or incident
- 80.77% Comfort, convenience and cleanliness of the facilities
- 85.90% Trust in our professionals
- 93.59% Would recommend our institution
During 2020, 19 complaints were received, of which 8 were directly related to the pandemic. They all received a written response within an average of 6.7 days. Of the total, 15 were related to the care process and 4 to services and compliance with internal regulations.