Bambino Gesù Hospital


Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù is a tertiary care academic children's hospital located in the Vatican City. As a tertiary children referral centre, the hospital provides over 20 specialties of healthcare through 10 pediatric departments. Its humanitarian programme serves people in 16 countries on four continents.

History

The hospital, which was founded in 1869, by Duchess Arabella Salviati, is based on the model of the Hôpital des Enfants-Maladesis in Paris. In 1924, it was donated to the Holy See. In 1985 Bambino Gesù was officially recognized as a research hospital.
Bambino Gesù is now part of the network of the National Healthcare System in the city of Rome. It is located on an extraterritorial area administered by the Holy See. Since 1980, due to its prestige and to the strengthening of its relations with the Italian National Health System, it has become a significant point of reference for pediatrics at the national level.
The trademark of the hospital in the last thirty years has been the high level of specialization in the treatment of children coming not only from Rome or Italy but also from neighbouring European countries. As a tertiary children referral centre, OPBG offers more than 20 specialties to a 20 million population pool through 10 pediatric departments.
On 22 May 1988, Michael Jackson visited children suffering from cancer in the hospital. He signed autographs and gave away sweets and records to the little patients. He promised a check of 100,000 pounds sterling to the hospital.
Within the framework of the National Healthcare System, the structure of the hospital has undergone significant revision, following the new organization processes of the Italian Public Administration and public healthcare in particular.
On 4 October 2010, a medical team from Children's Hospital Bambino Gesù of Rome made the world's first transplant of a permanent artificial heart in a patient 15 years old.
In 2012, additional hospital buildings were opened near the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, again on extraterritorial property of the Holy See.
The Bambino Gesù Hospital is engaged in humanitarian activities to improve provide healthcare in 16 countries in four continents, providing care for over 900 patients and training physicians, nurses and technicians.

Controversy

Focus of care

In 2017, the Associated Press reported that a 2014 Vatican investigation had found that the hospital had changed its focus to prioritize profit over the health of the children. The AP reported that overcrowding and poor hygiene contributed to deadly infection, including one 21-month superbug outbreak in the cancer ward that killed eight children. It also found that in order to save money, disposable equipment and other materials were at times used improperly, with a one-time order of cheap needles breaking when injected into tiny veins. The report also stated that doctors were so pressured to maximize operating-room turnover that patients were sometimes brought out of anesthesia too quickly. All of these alleged incidents were reported to have occurred between 2008 and 2015.
In January, the Vatican announced the hiring of the international firm Price Waterhouse for a due diligence check on Bambino Gesù. Then, in a secret three-month Vatican-authorized investigation in early 2014 gathered testimony and documentation from dozens of current and former staff members and confirmed that the mission of "the pope's hospital" had been lost and was "today more aimed at profit than on caring for children." While some of the 2014 report's recommendations were implemented, others were not. The Vatican declined to make the report public. In June 2014, Cardinal Parolin decided to strengthen the Cardinal Secretary of State's authority over the Bambino Gesù. The Vatican later commissioned a second inquiry in 2015 and concluded after a three-day hospital visit that nothing was amiss.
The hospital responded in a statement, describing the investigation as a "hoax" and saying that it "contained false, dated and gravely defamatory accusations and conjectures that had been denied by an independent report of the Holy See. After AP published the report, the Holy See released the following statement: “No hospital is perfect. Vatican spokesman Greg Burke. But it is false and unjust to suggest that there are serious threats to the health of children at Bambino Gesu”.

Investments

On 13 July 2017, it was announced that the Tribunal of the Vatican City State had charged both the hospital's former president Giuseppe Profiti and former treasurer Massimo Spina with illicitly using money which was destined for the Bambino Gesu Children's Hospital Foundation to renovate the apartment that became the residence of the former secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. It was later confirmed that their trial will start on 18 July 2017 and that no charges have been filed against either Bertone, the Castelli Re construction company or its owner, Gianantonio Bandera, a longtime Bertone associate.
The trial began on July 18 as scheduled. On the first day of hearings, both Profiti and Spina appeared before the Vatican tribunal and had both their motions to dismiss the trial and bar journalists from covering the trial rejected. It was announced afterward on the first day of hearings that the trial was adjourned until September 7 and that Cardinal Bertone could be called as a witness when the trial resumes.
On September 7, the trial began and went into recess after one day when it was announced that new evidence emerged and the defense and the prosecution requested more time to study a memorandum from Bambino Gesu Hospital's current head given to the tribunal a day earlier emerged. Dates were set for the court to be in session again on Sept. 19, 20, 21 and 22, first to hear from the defendants themselves, and then from roughly 7 projected witnesses, four called by prosecutors and three by the two defense teams between September 21 and 22.
On September 19, Profiti testified that hospital funds were used for the renovation with the idea that Cardinal Bertone could host intimate dinners for eight to ten wealthy potential donors at a time at least half-a-dozen times a year, but also defended himself by further testifying that the expense was justified because he intended to use Cardinal Bertone's apartment for fundraisers that would have more than repaid the investment within four to five years. However, no meetings were ever reported to have been held in Bertone's apartment. On September 22, an official of the Government of the Vatican City State testified that the remodeling project for Bertone's apartment bypassed the normal competitive bidding process and was "singular " and "anomalous." The same day, Spina testified that his immediate superior “told me there were no problems because Cardinal Bertone had clarified the situation with the Holy Father in person.”
On October 3, 2017, Gianantonio Bandera, an Italian businessman whose now-bankrupt contracting firm renovated the apartment, said that Bertone personally oversaw the renovation and contacted him directly without taking bids, as would ordinarily be required.
On October 14, 2017, the three-judge tribunal overseeing the trial acquitted Spina and convicted Profiti of a lesser offense of abuse of office after the defense argued that the money was intended as an investment to benefit the hospital rather than Bertone's apartment. Profiti was also given a one-year jail sentence, less than the three-year sentence the prosecution had sought.