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The Top 3 Hospitals in the National Capital Region are St. Luke's, Professional Services Inc. Medical City, and Medical Doctors Inc. Makati Medical Center. They had the largest fixed asset investments from 2000 to 2003. Also, the 3 have 22 percent of total book value of fixed assets in the private health-care sector. Dr. Jose F.G. Ledesma doesn’t put on white lab coat. More than thousand of doctors in St. Luke’s Medical Center Inc. doesn’t wear white lab coat. Ledesma was the chief executive officer of St. Luke’s for 13 years. Ledesma told the BusinessMirror that the traditional white coats which mark the professional medical team is a way of St. Luke’s to cut their expenses. We are aware that hospital pays for the doctors’ tailors. According to Ledesma, those white coats add enhancement to patient safety. Ledesma said that a lot of cost is associated with patient safety. This means that there were health-care errors as well as misdiagnosis and unnecessary injuries that patients suffer while in a hospital. These are the studies done by Boston, Massachusetts-based National Patient Safety Foundation Inc. (NPSFI). According to NPSFI, health-care error happened because of a fault in the delivery of care to a patient. It may be because of the staff is doing the wrong application in any health-care setting. Based from the studies, lab coats were carriers of bacteria or viruses that can be transferred to patients when doctors are doing their rounds. The probable causes of the problem are: - doctors don't regularly wash their coats; and
- they move around even outside the hospital with their coats on, the risk of bacteria sticking to their coats is high.
Wearing of sterile surgical scrubs or uniforms is still mandatory. Ledesma stated that the hospital still spends P3 million per year for hand sanitizers only to promote a nearly-sterile environment. They already have a 10-member inspection control team, not merely because of the A(H1N1) virus occurrence. Ledesma said, "Last month, the 650-bed St. Luke's Hospital had opened its patient safety office, nearly a year after the health department issued an administrative order implementing a national policy on patient safety". So far, they are planning to spend P100 million a year just to avoid medical errors. The errors include misdiagnosis as well as giving of wrong medicine". An average of 10,000 medical errors a month and 30,000 medication errors a year happened in a typical hospital. Malpractice suits are the outcome of these errors and these are the add-ons to the cost of hospitals. More than a hundred of pharmacists are being trained in clinical pharmacy abroad while two dozen underwent a two-week intensive training in NPSFI. They positioned one pharmacist in the nurses' desk on all floor of the hospital in Quezon City. A hundred of people die every year from medication errors in US. St. Luke's new P9-billion, 600-bed hospital will be situated in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City. Based from the 2006 Family Income and Expenditure Survey, 3.7 percent or below P10,000 is the cost of expenses in medical care. This cost is only small because households income is P250,000 or above every year. Jovi C. Dacanay and Maria Cherry Lyn S. Rodolfo for the Philippine Institute for Development Studies said in their paper titled "Challenges in Health Services Trade: Philippine Case", customarily, the health-care industry of the Philippines has been principally financed by taxes and out-of-pocket payments of individuals. For this reason, Ledesma added "being aggressive in expanding is vital since there is still a great potential in growing the industry." Securities and Exchange Commission reported that St. Luke still had almost P5 billion in its reserves at the end of 2006, with approximately P0.6 billion in excess of revenue larger than their expenses for that year. The health-care business has remained tough and healthy; crisis or no crisis, putting on his dark navy business coat to go on rounds. [via BusinessMirror.com.ph] |
