The European Private Hospital Awards (EPHA), an initiative of the European Union of Private Hospitals and the Portuguese Association of Private Hospitals (APHP), distinguished once again Hospital da Luz. The awards were assigned last May 25, in Lisbon, and Hospital da Luz Learning Health, the Luz Saúde company dedicated to training, research and innovation activities, was the winner in the category “Excellence in workplace”, for creating and developing an innovating training program destined to client service technicians in health institutions. This was the second edition of the European Private Hospital Awards, intended to recognize the increasingly greater contribution of private hospitals all over Europe. Four out of the seven awards of the event were assigned to Portuguese private hospitals, which, in the opinion of Óscar Gaspar, the APHP president, is reflective of “the level of excellence and entrepreneurism in the Portuguese private hospital sector” and demonstrates clearly “its capacity to combine quality, efficiency and innovation”. The Minister of Health, Manuel Pizarro, declared, on its turn, that the country “should invest in the cooperation between the public and private sectors in health”. In the first edition of these awards, in 2022, Hospital da Luz Learning Health had already been distinguished for its Simulation Centre, the largest in Portugal and one of the largest in Europe, offering over 100 simulators and manikins with the latest technology for the training of present and future health professionals. In the photo above, Cristina Freitas and Francisca Leite, the director of the Training Area and the executive director of Hospital da Luz Learning Health, respectively, who accepted the award. Innovative training for client service technicians The Training Program for Client Service Technicians of Hospital da Luz is a specific training for such professionals, created and developed by Hospital da Luz Learning Health, with the collaboration of Luz Saúde central directions. “The client service technicians are ‘the face’ of our units and, as such, it is important to ensure that they are adequately prepared for the job, which is complex and specific of our activity. Presently, however, there is no external training, technical or higher course to prepare these professionals for the exercise of their functions”, states Cristina Freitas, the director of Training at Hospital da Luz Learning Health, explaining the added value of this project. Therefore, the training program has for goals: To ensure an adequate, cross-sectional and quick preparation of these professionals, equipping them with the capacity of autonomy and a comprehensive knowledge of all topics; To promote the integration of all collaborators in an innovating and convenient manner, facilitating the acquisition of knowledge and competences essential for carrying out their functions; The training comprises several theoretical-practical modules, with a strong component of simulation training, in scenarios of client service , that replicate the real environments where the trainees will have to work in. Those scenarios were created in the Simulation Centre of Hospital da Luz Learning Health. The overall balance of the course, according to the evaluation by trainers and trainees, was “very positive”.
