- The healthcare group, which already has 14 hospitals, more than 60 polyclinics and 14 primary care centres, incorporates new diagnostic and surgical services and techniques
- The international area is consolidated in Portugal, Central Europe and the Middle East, its technology company Futurs is focusing on AI, the Ribera Salud Foundation is intensifying its research activity, and its laboratory division, Ribera Lab, is already a reference for diagnoses such as diabetes or colorectal cancer.
The Ribera healthcare group continues with its strategy of growth and consolidation of innovative health projects and has closed 2024 with a presence in two new Spanish regions, Aragon and Asturias, where it has incorporated two hospitals (HC Miraflores y Covadonga) and three clinics linked to them. Three other polyclinics have joined the group, all of them leaders in their areas of influence, and are located in A Coruña (Assistants), Viveiro-Lugo (Polusa Nursery Riverbank) and L'Eliana-Valencia (Gangway). With these additions, the healthcare group now has 14 hospitals (including the Cascais hospital -Portugal- and a hospital specialising in bariatric surgery in the Czech Republic), more than 60 polyclinics and 14 Primary Care centres.
Technological renewal is a priority for the healthcare group and hospitals such as Riverside Juan Cardona (Ferrol) has launched its first operating room with laminar flow in 2024, which enables it to perform high-risk operations (NR5); Ribera Povisa has installed a new orthopantomograph and implanted its first wireless pacemaker; Ribera Polusa has incorporated a neurological rehabilitation tool (the Armeo Spring) into its Brain Injury Unit; Torrejón University Hospital has carried out his first cochlear implant and has incorporated endoscopic surgery into spinal interventions; IMSKE River has launched a new resonance and a DEXA densitometry to complete its Radiology area; and the Vinalopó University Hospitalhas implemented endoscopic mastectomy and transgastric necrosectomy with endorrotor and, in addition, already places personalized 3D prostheses to correct malformations in the thorax. For its part, the hospital Virgin of Charity River (Cartagena) has been a pioneer in robotic surgery for Traumatology.
In addition, co-innovation and alliances with accelerators such as Shuttle and with startups they allow the Ribera group to help improve the quality of life and well-being of its patients. Highlights include, for example, the virtual caregiver for chronic and palliative patients, the digital dermatology and telerehabilitation programs, and the virtual reality system that Ribera Polusa has launched for the treatment of anxiety disorders and phobias.
The launch of new diagnostic, clinical and surgical services and techniques aims to offer comprehensive and local healthcare to citizens. The Ribera Povisa and Ribera Polusa hospitals, for example, have launched a Women's Area in 2024, as the Vinalopó and Torrejón university hospitals already have; Ribera IMSKE has activated the Fibromyalgia Unit and has expanded the Physiotherapy service to provide specific coverage for cancer patients; Ribera Hospital of Molina has opened a Psychiatric Unit; and Torrejón has expanded the Home Hospitalization Unit (UHD) and also administers oncological treatment at home. Along these lines, the Vinalopó hospital has implemented a pioneering project in the Valencian Community to administer immunotherapy at home.
Humanization and health promotion
And with innovation and technology as a basis, humanization in patient care and health education stand out in the set of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) actions that make up the model of responsible health of the Ribera healthcare group. All hospitals in the group have celebrated Christmas with visits and various activities; Book Day with storytelling, poetry recitals and collective readings; Music Day withmicro concerts and music therapy; and Halloween with the Healthy Monsters sticker set, among other important days on the calendar. In addition, the Torrejón hospital has been celebrating the birthdays of its inpatients since 2024, has reactivated therapeutic magic sessions, has launched the Animal-assisted therapy to treat patients with depression and children with autism, the program therapeutic dance for neurological patients and a cold cradle for a warm farewell in perinatal mourning. Vinalopó, for its part, last year performed the first caesarean section with a companion, among other actions.
Along these lines, the Ribera group has carried out some notable collaborations over the past year, such as that of the illustrator 72 kilos in the context of World Health Day, to “give shape and colour to responsible care”; and the one organised with the writer from Vigo Offreds, to help raise awareness about the value of caring, with special phrases and images.
Ribera Hospital de Molina has organised guided tours with people with ASD and offers employment opportunities to people with developmental disorders, in collaboration with the Astrade association. The Ribera Caravaca hospital has a training internship agreement with APCOM to promote the full inclusion of people with diversity and another with ISOL for preventive and therapeutic activities for people with mental health problems.
Furthermore, health promotion and education in prevention and self-care are a constant in the group's hospitals. All hospitals periodically hold patient councils and have patient schools to help them in their treatment and recovery, such as those in Torrejón for stroke, fibromyalgia and different neurological pathologies, those in Ribera IMSKE for hip or knee operations, or schools for caregivers, both in Torrejón and in Vinalopó to help the family environment, among others.
Sport and health
2024 has also been an important year for Ribera in the area of Promoting sport as an ally of healthThe group has signed and renewed a multitude of agreements with sports entities in the areas of its hospitals: Levante UD, the Valencian Pilota Federation, the Faulcombridge Tennis Cup, the Caravaca Football Club, UD Caravaca, Baxi Ferrol women's basketball, Racing de Ferrol, ADC Lugo Sala, Club Deportiva Minera, Jimbee Cartagena Costa, FC Cartagena or rugby clubs such as Les Abelles and CR Valencia.
Furthermore, the involvement and collaboration of the Ribera health centres with sporting activities of all kinds has been a constant in 2024: the Caravaca Experience race, the Cabanas Beach Rugby tournament, the Camino de Santiago's maritime-fluvial Traslatio route, the O Marisquiño festival in Vigo, the Seis do Nadal Basketball Club summer campus or the 90K of the Camino de la Cruz Foundation (Murcia), among others.
The group continues to collaborate with I walk, the association that helps people with functional diversity to do the Camino de Santiago, while Torrejón has organized new routes, with great success among the public, in the Cervantes Way.
For its part, the Virgen de la Caridad Hospital and the Cardiosalus clinic They have organised two days with testimonies from athletes and patients and presentations from specialists with international reputations. Vinalopó, on the other hand, has organised a new edition of the Muévete therapeutic exercise programme and an open-air gymkhana for kidney health.
Research, sustainability and recognition
The activity of the Ribera Health Foundation has been frenetic in 2024. The signing of the agreement withPratia In order to unite the experience of both entities in the area of clinical research, it has given a significant boost to trials and studies in the Ribera hospitals, including the study on the prevention of preeclampsia and the one that rules out the effect of Covid on the hearing health of babies during pregnancy in Torrejón, the one on early Alzheimer's in Ribera Povisa or the one on the drug Semaflutida to protect the kidney in obese people in Ribera Polusa, among others. In addition, the Foundation participates with different areas, services and subsidiaries of the group in projects financed by the European Commission: ODELIA for the prevention of breast cancer, Nemecys on cybersecurity, and Teadal to create verifiable data flows. It has also adhered to the One Health strategy to promote a global vision of health and has organized a multitude of courses and care days, in collaboration with the group's hospitals. The end of 2024 has been intense for the Foundation due to the launch of the extraordinary campaign to help rebuild social-health spaces affected by Dana in Valencia.
In other matters, Ribera continues to bet on sustainability and the reduction of the carbon footprint. The Ribera Povisa hospital and the Torrejón University Hospital have launched solar panels in 2024, and Ribera Caridad, Ribera Virgen de la Caridad and the Vinalopó Hospital have installed new recycling points and have intensified campaigns to save water and energy.
In addition, all the group's healthcare centres continue to add quality certifications and recognitions. In 2024 alone, the group's healthcare centres and divisions have received almost thirty awards and recognitions, both in the areas of innovation and quality as well as in humanisation, integration and project initiatives. Of particular note due to its uniqueness is the Vigo Gold Medal for the Ribera Povisa hospital, for its 50 years of excellent healthcare activity, its consideration as the best private hospital in Galicia in the healthcare reputation ranking of the MERCO Corporate Reputation Business Monitor, or the significant rise of 11 positions for the Ribera Juan Cardona hospital in this same ranking. Other ranking, that of Economic News, once again places the Ribera healthcare group among the 100 best companies to work for in Spain, for promoting an internal culture of growth, collaboration and care, and its commitment to equality and internal promotion.
International Area, Futurs and Ribera Lab
The international area of the group has focused last year on the consolidation and growth of its projects in Portugal, Central Europe and the Middle East, where Ribera's model of integration and responsible health is spreading strongly. The group's technology company, Futures, for its part, has developed important projects that have received national and international recognition. Many have to do with AI and the development of models to improve and facilitate patient care, such as the project Discharge reports with AI in patients with cataractsor Surgical site infection surveillance project with AI. The laboratory division,Ribera Lab, has become a reference for specific diagnostic techniques for certain cases of diabetes or colorectal cancer, among others, while it continues to integrate laboratories into its network.
