{"id":8235780,"date":"2025-03-13T13:26:50","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T13:26:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aese.pt\/testimonial\/margarida-ornelas\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T11:47:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T11:47:54","slug":"margarida-ornelas","status":"publish","type":"testimonial","link":"https:\/\/www.aese.pt\/en\/testimonials\/margarida-ornelas\/","title":{"rendered":"Margarida Ornelas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“Modernity must go hand in hand with humanization”. This is how Margarida Ornelas faces her daily life, as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the IPO of Coimbra. The positions of responsibility she held throughout her professional career led her to enroll in PADIS \u2013 Senior Management Program for Health Institutions<\/a>, in 2013. <\/p>\n\n

Talent Management, Work and Transparency are the values by which it is governed, aware that humility allows us to reflect and evolve as people and as professionals.<\/p>\n\n


What are the main milestones in your professional career, which contributed to reaching the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors of IPO Coimbra? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

After a degree in Law from the Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra, I headed to Lisbon, to the National School of Public Health, to specialize in Hospital Administration.<\/p>\n\n

I had the privilege of having started my professional career in July 1998 at the S\u00e3o Sebasti\u00e3o Hospital, in Santa Maria da Feira, a hospital with an innovative status: a public hospital, with public management, governed by business rules. I collaborated in the preparation of the opening of this Hospital, participating in this new management experience that aimed to seek an efficient and quality operating model, sustained in financial terms. <\/p>\n\n

With the opening of the Hospital, on January 4, 1999, I began to take over the management of a Responsibility Center, an operational structure of intermediate management, with maximum autonomy, in a context of great proximity to the Board of Directors and teamwork. Initially I was the administrator responsible for the Medical Responsibility Center and, in 2002, I started to manage the Surgical Responsibility Center, acting with delegation of competences. This Hospital, with its management model, would gain great external recognition. <\/p>\n\n

I followed the change of the legal status of the S\u00e3o Sebasti\u00e3o Hospital to a public limited company with exclusively public capital and, later, its transition to a public business entity and hospital center – Centro Hospitalar de Entre o Douro e Vouga, E.P.E. (CHEDV), integrating the Hospital de S\u00e3o Sebasti\u00e3o, the District Hospital of S\u00e3o Jo\u00e3o da Madeira and the Hospital de S\u00e3o Miguel de Oliveira de Azem\u00e9is, which would constitute a new challenge. In March 2012 I started working as an Executive Member of CHEDV, having held this position until June 25, 2018, when I took office at the IPO of Coimbra, as Chairman of the Board of Directors. <\/p>\n\n

In my career as a hospital administrator and in the two terms I assumed as Executive Member, I was responsible for different activities and portfolios, which allowed me to have a holistic view of the organization, also greatly enriched by the institutional culture, based on an excellent teamwork environment.<\/p>\n\n

Finally, I cannot fail to mention the commitment I have always made to education and training throughout my professional career. In this sense, I highlight, for example, for its relevance, the frequency, in 2013, of the Senior Management Program for Health Institutions (PADIS). This proved to be a very enriching training experience, especially for the interactive process of learning and sharing that the Program itself enhances. <\/p>\n\n


What were your main achievements?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

In the Management of the Responsibility Centers at the S\u00e3o Sebasti\u00e3o Hospital and later at CHEDV, always bearing in mind the orientation towards results, in the management activity, I believe I have contributed to the growth of the care activity; the indicators of efficiency of the services; the activity carried out with substantially lower costs than those verified in reference hospitals of the same size and complexity and the good results of patient satisfaction.<\/p>\n\n

On the other hand, having followed the different phases of the evolution of the S\u00e3o Sebasti\u00e3o Hospital, I have been gaining personal and professional skills, throughout a growth that can be said to be together with the organization, for almost two decades.<\/p>\n\n

More recently, I have had the great satisfaction of working at the IPO of Coimbra, an institution that has positioned itself as a reference in the provision of quality health care, accessible, in a timely manner, within a framework of sustainable economic\/financial development.<\/p>\n\n

Having to select the main events, I would highlight those achieved during the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic, because we have never experienced such difficult times, with the need to reinvent ourselves. These results are not the result of an individual effort, but rather of enormous resilience and continuous effort by all, in a broad teamwork. In this sense, I highlight the main achievements in the context of a pandemic: the positive balance conferred by the adoption of prevention and containment measures taken in a timely manner, with systematic monitoring; the reinforcement of the Institute’s mission, as a reference for oncological disease in the Central Region, with the response to other hospitals having been enhanced; attention to the humanization of care, an integral part of the institution’s cultural capital, because despite the physical distancing, humanization has not been lost and, in some cases, even gained a new dimension; good management of care capacity; the focus on the area of Research, a fundamental pillar of the Institution, and even with the pandemic, scientific activity has not stopped; the focus on complying with the demanding investment plan in progress – more than 37 million euros of investment recently awarded, namely: the construction of the new Peripheral Operating Room, completed in 2020; the energy efficiency program; the creation of a new Virology Sector; the installation of 2 new linear accelerators (in progress) and the contract for the requalification of the Surgery and Imaging building, whose work is expected to start soon. <\/p>\n\n


What are the main lessons that make you the leader you are today?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

First of all, I have learned that modernity must go hand in hand with humanization. In the area that I follow – Health – and despite the positive nature of innovation, sophistication and all the technological advances that the future holds, we must focus more and more on people: on patients (responses that value their experience, proximity to care, full respect for the person and their dignity) and on professionals. Nothing is done in organizations without people, so it is necessary to have great social sensitivity in management, fostering internal cohesion. <\/p>\n\n

Secondly, I have found that most of the difficulties in organizations are related to communication failures, or the absence of multidisciplinary responses that enhance networking. These seem to me to be fundamental premises to be safeguarded for the success of organizations. <\/p>\n\n

Finally, the humility that makes us question and evolve as people and as professionals.<\/p>\n\n


What values do you govern yourself by and that you transmit to your teams?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

I would say that the values are based on the combination of 3 T’s: Talent Management, Work and Transparency.<\/p>\n\n

We all have our talents, we have to discover and monetize them, sharing them. Only then do they have value. <\/p>\n\n

Talent, however, without Work is worthless. I strongly believe in the ability to work and that, through effort, everything can be achieved. <\/p>\n\n

Finally, Transparency, Ethics at Work and in interpersonal relationships, as a mandatory reference that should guide our path.<\/p>\n\n


If you could go back in time, what would you do differently?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Honestly, I wouldn’t do anything differently, because I understand that we have to learn from mistakes and difficulties. It is part of our growth to make mistakes and make sometimes less good options, because only then can we get back on our feet, with greater dynamism. <\/p>\n\n


Professionally, how do you see yourself in 5 years?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

As a career hospital administrator, I see myself working in this capacity, not anticipating where or in what specific professional circumstances. My motto in 5 years will be the same as the one I follow today: “I decided not to wait for opportunities, but to look for them. I decided to see each day as a new opportunity to be happy” (Walt Disney). <\/p>\n\n

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