- The eight health centers of the group are reinforced with more than 500 professionals to face the pandemic, they invest more than two million in protection material in just three months and care for more than 6.000 patients with COVID.
- This year home hospitalization increases by 55%, care for the 2.800 elderly is reinforced in residences in the hospital areas and the use of the YOSalud group's health portal, which has 300 users, increases by 200.000%.
El Ribera healthcare group has incorporated four hospitals and a laboratory division in 2020, thus consolidating its growth and diversification despite the COVID-19 pandemic situation. The group's new reference laboratory, cialab, and the health centers of Santa Justa Bank and Almendralejo (Badajoz) and polusa (Lugo), in addition to the highly specialized surgery center in the Czech Republic, OB Klinika adds 200 beds and more than 190 professionals to the care capacity of the group, also made up of the university hospitals of Torrevieja, Vinalopo, Torrejon y Deniaalong with the hospital Povisa (Vigo). Ribera thus exceeds 6.500 professionals, 1.800 hospital beds, 82 Primary Care centers and more than 800.000 affiliated citizens and patients.
In a year in which the most important challenges have been to guarantee health care for all COVID patients, maintain the quality of care for non-COVID patients, transform health centers to adapt them to the needs of the toughest moments of the pandemic and guarantee the protection of professionals, with a contagion rate six times lower than the average for Spain (3,4%), the Ribera health group has invested more than 12 million euros in the renovation of facilities, such as the Povisa Emergency Department , the facade, main access and operating rooms of Ribera Santa Justa, the Aspe health center and technology such as the Torrejón contrast-enhanced mammograph or the new Vinalopó CT, among others.
But without a doubt, the most important investment, unexpected as it was, but which was managed with agility, efficiency and guarantees, was the one made to care for patients and protect professionals in the first wave of COVID that caused the first State of Alarm and the population confinement. Between March and May alone, more than 6.000 patients with COVID were treated in Ribera hospitals. Almost 1.400 were hospitalized and half a thousand were cared for in their homes, thanks to the expansion of the Home Hospitalization Unit. To all of them must be added the more than 2.800 elderly people from the residences of the hospital areas who were attended daily by the group's professionals. And so that it was possible to attend this increase in healthcare pressure with guarantees, Ribera hired more than 2020 professionals in 500 to reinforce its staff due to the pandemic, and guaranteed their safety with the advance purchase of millions of masks, reinforced gowns and gloves, in addition to respirators and beds, which represented an investment of more than two million euros in just two months. Between the end of April and May, more than 7.000 tests were carried out on the group's professionals, in order to guarantee their safety and that of the patients they cared for.
The humanization of health care has been key in a particularly tough year and the Ribera group has developed more than 150 actions of Corporate Social Responsibility, putting the focus on personalized attention and patient care, who these months have been forced to be without the company of their families in hospitals. Actions like the program take care at home, with more than 100.000 views, more than 3.500 messages and drawings received through a web platform, and more than 200 donations, distributed among the professionals and patients of the group's centers, confirm Ribera's roots and social involvement in the communities it serves.
2020 has also been a very important year for the consolidation of the group's technological area, with growth of up to 80% in online consultations, the increase in the use of the YOSalud group's health portal of 300% or the incorporation of video calls and COVID test results to your application. The expansion of its subsidiary futuRS, about to open its headquarters in Madrid and double its workforce, and the continuation of the Corporate program with Lanzadera, through which five startups in the healthcare field have already been sponsored, highlight the success of its commitment to open innovation. In addition, the development of key applications based on data processing, such as the predictive model to anticipate which COVID patients will require admission to the ICU and prevent their worsening, confirm the advantageous position of the Ribera group in this area. COVID has not prevented the renewal of the prestigious quality accreditations of the Joint Commission International in the hospitals of Torrevieja and Vinalopó and the Ribera group already reaches fifty in all its centers. To these recognitions are added the TOP20 awards obtained and the inclusion of Ribera in the Chair of Business Culture of the University of Valencia.
In addition, its new CEO, Elisa Tarazona, appointed after the incorporation of her predecessor, Alberto De Rosa, as executive director of Centene for Europe, a new stage for the group has begun at the end of 2020, with the intention of "consolidating the responsible health model, focused on people, of the Ribera health group". “Our proposal for 2021 is to continue improving, investing and creating to reach more people with our model”, he added.
