OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP — LARGE SCALE

DR. ALFREDO R. A. BENGZON, M.D. PRESIDENT & CEO THE MEDICAL CITY

Dr. Alfredo R. A. Bengzon is the President and CEO of The Medical City (TMC), the country’s largest healthcare network. A Doctor of Medicine Graduate of the University of the Philippines in 1961, Dr. Bengzon had his residency training in Neuropsychiatry at the Philippine General Hospital and was a research fellow in Neuropharmocology at the Freie Universitat Berlin in Germany. After his stint in Germany, Dr. Bengzon moved to the University of Wisconsin for his residency in Neurology.

For his fellowship training, Dr. Bengzon was a senior fellow in Electroencephalography at the Montreal Neurological Institute in Canada, an international post- doctoral research fellow in Electromyography at the National Institute of Disease and Blindness in Maryland, United States and an international fellow in Computerized Tomography at the Cleveland Clinic.

He joined The Medical City, then known as ABM Sison Hospital, upon his return from his fellowship training in May 1967. However, the hospital experienced financial difficulties and in 1969, the management team had to make a very difficult decision – they had to decide whether to close the hospital down or find new investors so that operations could continue.

The management team decided that they would continue to operate the hospital and to achieve this goal, it was decided that leaders from the medical and business professions would combine to create a revolutionary model of governance where both professions would complement rather than conflict. Soon thereafter the hospital was able to raise funds, purchase a new wing and acquire new equipment. In 1975, ABM Sison Hospital was renamed The Medical City.

The experience during the early years of ABM Sison Hospital made Dr. Bengzon realize that doctors were bad managers and bad with finances. To make himself a better manager, he enrolled in an MBA course (Senior Executive Program) at the Ateneo De Manila and graduated in 1972.

After the renaming of the hospital, TMC embarked on expansion programs that included the opening of the first satellite clinic in Antipolo in 1996, the transfer of the hospital to its present site in 2004 and acquiring Great Saviour International Hospital which was later renamed The Medical City Iloilo in 2011.

To date, TMC healthcare network is composed of hospitals in Clark, Iloilo, Sta. Rosa, Pangasinan, Guam, a clinic in Dubai and 39 ambulatory clinics in and around Metro Manila and in key cities in the provinces. The guiding principle of the healthcare network is patient partnership, where the doctors and patients collaborate to come up with the best care plan for the patient.