ANATOMICAL PATHOLOGY SERVICE

Mission

Undertake morphological (histological, cytological and immunocytochemistry) analysis of organs, tissues and cells, with a view to diagnosing lesions, complementing the clinical diagnosis and enabling the administration of a medical and/or surgical therapy, the definition of a prognosis, as well as the prevention of diseases:

• Carry out reliable exams, on a timely basis, based on permanent technical updating and high quality standards;
• Participation in research projects.

Opening hours: from Monday to Friday, from 08h00 to 17h00.
Analyses reception hours: from Monday to Friday, from 09h00 to 16h00.

Scientific and research activity

The service participates in research projects in partnership with the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of Beira Interior (UBI).

History of the Service

The Pathological Anatomy Service, of the Cova da Beira Hospital Centre, began operating in January 2001 and provides services in the field of Pathological Anatomy and conducts diagnostic activities in the specialisations of histopathology and cytopathology.

The aim of this service is to diagnose lesions, with implications for the treatment and prognosis of diseases, as well as in their prevention, in order to provide adequate treatment to its patients. In 2004 the service initiated the implementation of a Quality System, according to the ISO 9001 standard, having become certified by the Portuguese Association of Certification (APCER) on 13-02-2006. The recognition of the quality of the services provided by our service by an external certifying entity has been maintained, via the renewals of the Certificates of Conformity on 13-02-2009 and 13-02-2012 and recorded in the register of non-conformities detected in each audit. In the 13 audits conducted so far, the results obtained were:

• The Quality policy of the Cova da Beira Hospital Centre (CHCB E.P.E.) views the patient as the central focus and the justification of its activity and, as such, considers the processes related to the user/patient and respective families as a priority, dedicating special attention to their continuous improvement.
• The satisfaction of customers and employees are key factors underlying our performance and that satisfaction is assessed through questionnaire surveys.

In the last assessment (2010) of our customers (doctors requesting analyses), the results were as follows:

• Based on the analysis of the data collected from the employee surveys, it was observed that these demonstrated reasonable levels of motivation, with an overall satisfaction index of 70%. It was also observed, however, that employees are currently more unmotivated than in 2007 when the previous survey was conducted.

The service strives to continually improve the effectiveness of its Quality System, through the use of the quality policy, the establishment of quality objectives, the results of the audits to the service, the analysis of the data resulting from the follow-up of the objectives and of the respective action plans, as well as corrective and preventive actions and the review of the quality management system.

The service has two different processes:

The technical execution of the majority of the analyses is undertaken at the service, and the readied slides are sent to be diagnosed. The slides are sent to contracted laboratories, since there is no anatomopathologist. In 2011 only 13% of analyses were conducted entirely outside the service. 

Director
Dr. Javier Muñoz Moreno

Responsible Technician
Rosa Casado Alegria Tomé
Phone: (+351) 275 330 000 – ext. 12604
E-mail: rosatome@chcbeira.min-saude.pt

Contacts
Phone: (+351) 275 330 000 ext. 12600
E-mail: anat.patologica@chcbeira.min-saude.pt

Location
Pêro da Covilhã Hospital - Ground Floor