CLINICAL PATHOLOGY LABORATORY

History

The Clinical Pathology Service of the Cova da Beira Hospital Centre began its activity in the Santa Casa da Misericórdia Hospital, which later became known as the Hospital of the District of Covilhã. In January 2000, this Service occupied the new facilities of the new Pêro da Covilhã Hospital and also integrated the Clinical Pathology Service of the Fundão Hospital. Both these hospitals are now part of the Cova da Beira Hospital Centre (CHCB).

Mission

The mission of the clinical pathology service consists in:

• Collecting biological products from patients that resort to the service, conducting an analytical analysis of the parameters requested, in order to complement the clinical diagnosis and establish an adequate therapy;
• Taking samples under secure conditions, determining the degree of satisfaction of users in order to improve the quality of the service provided;
• Carrying out reliable analytical determinations in a timely manner, based on technical updating, quality and automation;
• Motivating employees by delegating responsibilities at different levels of competence and promoting professional training;
• Participating in pre-and post-graduate teaching;
• Participating in research projects.

Description of the Service

The Clinical Pathology Service has been certified by the Portuguese Association of Certification (APCER), according to the NP EN ISO 9001:2000 standard, since February 1, 2006; by the Portuguese Association of Certification (APCER), according to the NP EN ISO 9001:2000 standard; by the BUREAU VERITAS Certification, according to the ISO 9001:2008 standard, since May 17, 2013; and is accredited by the Joint Commission International; the Service continues to work on the "Quality Improvement Programme”.
This Service is computerised, and uses the "Laboratory Information System - Modulab Gold" as its operating system. It is connected to the Emergency Services via the "Alert System" and also possesses the "PSM System" that generates the entire pre-analytical laboratorial process.

Laboratorial Areas

The Service has two Laboratories:

Pêro da Covilhã Hospital:

• Ground Floor – Laboratory - Technical areas and support areas
• 1st Floor – Sample Collection Centre – Customer services area

The Laboratory of the Covilhã Hospital, in addition to the administrative and sample collection area, has 6 main diagnostic areas:

• Haematology
• Microbiology
• Immunochemical
• Virology
• Autoimmunity
• Emergency (links to the respective sections)

Fundão Hospital:

• Laboratory - Technical area and customer service

The Laboratory of the Fundão Hospital also has, in addition to an administrative area, a sample collection room and a diagnostic area that includes Haematology and Biochemistry.

Team work enables us to achieve a smooth operation of the Service, thus ensuring quick customer service, while also taking into account the quality of the results made available to the clinicians. In order to guarantee the quality of our Laboratory, we conduct Internal Quality Control on a daily basis and External Quality Control on a monthly basis.

The entire team is encouraged to attend training actions or courses, to ensure that knowledge is kept up to date.

Opening hours

Pêro da Covilhã Hospital:
The Sample Collection Centre is open to the public from 8h00 to 18h00 (1st Floor) and the Emergency Service of the Laboratory (Ground Floor) is open 24h/day, 365 days a year.

Fundão Hospital: Open to the public from 8h00 to 17h00.

Teaching Activity

The Service participates in the following training of students of the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of Beira Interior (UBI):

• Bachelor's Degree in Medicine - being responsible for teaching the Microbiology Block (3^rd year) Bachelor's Degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Pharmacology of Infection Block - being responsible for the teaching of the Microbiology Module (3^rd year).
• Haematology (3^rd year)
• Voluntary internships of graduates holding a Biochemistry bachelor's degree or other bachelor's degrees
• Support to master's students of the Bachelor's Degree in Medicine

Other training activities include:

• Conduct regular training actions to maintain employees continually up-to-date
• Internships of Diagnosis and Therapy Technicians of the Health Technologies School of Castelo Branco.
• Curricular internships of the Covilhã and Fundão Secondary Schools.
• Participates in various Scientific Research programmes.

Commitment

The Service seeks to continue to develop technologically, maintaining close ties with services, from a clinical, scientific and assistive viewpoint, in order to continue the “Quality Improvement and Humanisation Policy”, through the care provided to users/patients.

Management
Dr. Maria Conceição H. de Faria
Phone: (+351) 275 330 000 ext.13001

Coordinating Technician
Luís A. S. D. Parreira
Phone: (+351) 275 330 000 ext.13004

PÊRO DA COVILHÃ HOSPITAL

Emergency Section
Person Responsible: Dr. Isabel Torrão
Extension: 13006

All the analyses considered urgent are undertaken at this section, according to protocols established by the service.

It is equipped with the Vacuum System for transportation of biological products, being connected to the following services: General Emergency, Paediatric Emergency, Obstetric Emergency, Intensive Care Unit and CVA Unit, Differentiated Acute Care Unit and Operating Room.

Section equipment:

• 1 Haematology Cell Counter – DxH of Beckman Coulter
• 1 Coagulometre – Top 500 IL - Izasa
• 1 Integrated system for Biochemistry and Immunology – Unicel Dxc 880i – Beckman, with 2 modules: Biochemistry Dxc 8801 and Immunology Dxi 880
• 2 Gasometres – Gem Premier 3000 IL - Izasa
• 1 Equipment for Urine – Urisys Roche
• 1 analyser VIDAS (BioMérieux)

Autoimmunity Section
Person Responsible: Dr. Isabel Torrão
Extension: 13011

Section equipment:

• Automatic equipment for T. of Elisa and T. of Immunofluorescence – Mago Plus - Isoder
• Automatic equipment for T. of ChemiLuminescent – Zenit RA - Menarini
• Automatic equipment of Elia – Unicap 100 - Phadia
• Microscope for Immunofluorescence
• Semi-automatic equipment for reading Immunoblott strips – Eurolinescan - Euroimmun 

Haematology Section
Person Responsible: Dr. Patricia Ibarzabal
Extension: 13002

Microbiology Section
Person Responsible: Dr. Conceição Faria
Extension: 13007

Immunochemical Section
Person Responsible: Dr. António Navarro and Dr. Paula Gouveia
Extension: 13008

With the development of new technologies that allowed to integrate into one analyser clinical biochemistry modules and immunology modules, the separation of these two areas became obsolete and there thus emerged an "open space" section where biochemical and immunological parameters are determined.

In order to meet these requests, the section has various analysers that use different methodologies to determine and quantify the different parameters:

• 1 pre-analytical RSD 800 (Roche Diagnostics) device
• 1 cobas 6000 analyser (Roche Diagnostics), formed by two modules, c501 (clinical biochemistry) and e601 (immunology)
• 2 Architect i2000SR analysers (Abbott Diagnostics)
• 1 Immunocap 250 (Phadia) analyser
• 1 VIDAS (BioMérieux) analyser
• 1 semi-automated system of electrophoresis in agarose gel Hydrasys (Sebia)
• 1 Elecsys 2010 (Roche) analyser

Virology Section
Person Responsible: Dr. Sofia Almeida and Dr. Paula Gouveia
Extension: 13008

The Laboratory is part of the Portuguese Network of Laboratories for the Diagnosis of Influenza, conducting research on the A and B Influenza viruses using Molecular Biology techniques (PCR in real time).
In this section, testing for the cytomegalovirus is conducted using different biological samples, being the country's laboratory with more experience in conducting the diagnosis of the congenital infection by the cytomegalovirus after 3 weeks of life by testing for the viral DNA in the Guthrie cards, receiving samples from all over the country (including the autonomous regions).
Since 2012, testing for HPV 16, HPV 18 and other types of high-risk HPV has been conducted since 2012. In this section, tests are also undertaken to diagnose infections caused by the human herpes virus type I and type II and by viruses responsible for respiratory infections in children (adenovirus, influenza virus A and B, parainfluenza virus and respiratory syncytial virus).

Secretariat
Extension: 13000
E-mail: secretariado.patcli@chcbeira.min-saude.pt

1^st FLOOR - Sample Collection Centre

Secretariat
Extension: 13013
Opening hours from Monday to Friday from 8h00 to 18h00.

Sample Collection Rooms
Extension: 13427

The Sample Collection Centre comprises 4 sample collection rooms where outpatients are cared for according to the existing priority lists.

FUNDÃO HOSPITAL

Secretariat
Extension: 18470
E-mail: secret.mcdts.hf@chcbeira.min-saude.pt

Laboratory
Extension: 18471

In the Fundão laboratory the most urgent analyses of the Haematology and Biochemistry areas are conducted, while other requests are sent to the Covilhã Laboratory.

Sustainable Practices

The Clinical Pathology Service shares the objective of CHCB, forwarding paper and card, plastic, batteries and lamps to recycling, thus providing its fundamental environmental contribution to all, being aware that the time to act is Urgent and that it is up to us.

Our priority green objective is to reduce the consumption of paper and, in that respect, we have already implemented some solutions:

• Electronic requests for all the Services of this Hospital Centre with a view to reducing the amount of paper printed.
• All the analytical results are delivered to the clinicians in computerised form, and the majority of the results from External Laboratories are sent to us via E-mail and subsequently scanned and attached in our Laboratory Information System.

An upcoming challenge shall be:

1. Using recycled paper
2. Printers programmed to print front and back.

We also recycle as much plastic as possible. The Service also collects plastic caps, which are then forwarded to the Volunteering Service of C.H.C.B. and to various institutions, thus helping to improve the quality of life of disabled persons.