Creating better access to health care
In today’s skyrocketing inflation, Filipinos shuns going to the hospital, except during extreme cases of affliction, when hometreatment is no longer a wise move. This is because hospitals give us discomfort and frighten us so much, especially when the confinement is for a week or more, knowing that hospital bill runs like a taxi meter.
These discomfort and uncertainties are lessened when one is confined in the homey ambience and familial treatment given a patient at the VRP Medical Center, once a family-owned healthcare facility but has allowed another partner, Mount Grace Hospitals Inc. (MGHI), into its operations to share its expertise, technology and systems.
MGHI is a network of hospitals providing excellent medical care in strategic areas nationwide that combines service excellence, professional engagement and operational efficiency to ensure that quality, affordable and compassionate care is available to customers.
VRPMC president and chief executive officer Virma Vergel De Dios said the entry of MGHI in 2013 was as a minority (35 percent) partnership in the hospital corporation. VRPMC was also the very first partner- hospital of MGHI which has now grown into a network of 16 (and growing) hospitals nationwide.
She said MGHI believes that “better access to better health can be achieved through significant improvements in the way we do things at the hospital level and at the network level.” It provides the necessary support for various areas: Human Resource, legal, finance/accounting, information technology, bulk purchasing and biomedical services to its network of hospitals, Vergel de Dios explained. Strategic location
VRPMC prides itself of being in a strategic location “whether northbound or southbound, there is no other level three hospital along EDSA that is fullyequipped,” Vergel de Dios said.
She said the recent improvements and developments under- taken by the hospital has “definitely increased our customer base with new and loyal customers in the private, HMO, corporate sectors.” Vergel de Dios said the hospital has also attracted more medical specialists to join it without the need to put any investment.
“Our HMO patient base has also grown in double proportions due to our affordability and quality service,” she said. Polymedic General Hospital
When her late father Dr. Victor R. Potenciano founded the hospital in September 1967 with Col. Pelagio Potenciano (MD), Dr. Arsenio Francisco and her mother Irma P.E. Potenciano and Dr. Flora Caviles as incorporators, it was originally named Polymedic General Hospital Inc. (PGHI).
“It grew through the years until on February 28,1998, the PGHI board decided to rename the hospital after my father. It has always been my father’s dream to have his own hospital to serve as many patients as possible. Being a doctor for only close to 4 decades, serving patients runs deep as his core value,” Vergel de Dios said.
As the only daughter of her father, Dr. Potenciano wanted her to pursue nursing, which she did and practiced this profession for almost 15 years. She was requested to take higher studies to pursue her journey to hospital administration. All throughout, her father was her main inspiration in continuing his legacy. “Indeed, we weathered difficult time after his passing in 1986 and the obstacles seemed never ending but the entire medical and hospital staff unconditionally sacrificed, cooperated and supported the entire management team who worked triply hard to make the medical center what it is today,” she recalled.
As VRP Medical Center was founded on the fundamental values of totalitarian commitment to respond to patients’ needs and welfare by providing continually- upgraded quality healthcare services in a hazardfree environment, “our key impetus is to further promote a holistic yet quality medical services to our customers that are appropriate, accurate, affordable and humane,” she said. Added services
“This has motivated us to grow with the times. We embarked on a total facelift of our building two years ago where we added 47 modern contemporary designed private rooms, added 12 physicians clinics for new physicians, 3 floors to our original 4 floor parking building, renovated all patients rooms / bathrooms and all nursing units, and most importantly, added more state-of-the-art services like the nuclear medicine department, an out-patient pharmacy, integrative medicine, the vision center, the diabetes obesity center, the balance center, a new dietary department, an impressive Maxicare wing at the 8th floor, a hospital housing facility for hospital staff, medical residents and interns, a family-friendly ICU complex and more,” she said.
The most-recently opened services are the HMO Concierge which specially manages and cares for all accredited HMO/ insurance patients and the urgent care center which immediately and efficiently serves all patients who are non-emergency cases.