ELECTION FEVER IS ABOUT TO GRIP ANEW THE PHILIPPINE HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION. 1st of a Series.

With the kind indulgence of non-Philippine Hospital Association members, this post is made at the behest of the PHA COMELEC.  It is dedicated to the upcoming annual electoral exercise of the organization. Past elections proved to be filled with excitement and controversies that Some might actually find the series of articles that will focus on the PHA Electoral Process a good read. 

ELECTION RULES for the Year 2011 which

will lead to the selection of its new set of

leaders.  The dynamism in an organization in

most part is dependent on its leadership. The

Philippine Hospital Association (PHA) at about

this time of the year, is teeming with

anticipation on the PHA Election Rules

package that were released for distribution to

the general membership on August 23, 2011. 

They consist of the following:

1.     Advisory of the PHA Comelec Chairman (text below)
2.     The 7-page Election Rules for 2011 (text below)
3.     Authorization Form for Gov’t Hospitals of its Designated Rep
4.     Authrzn Form for Private-Partnership of its Designated Rep
5.     Authrzn Form for Private-Designated Rep Single Proprietor 
6.     Authorization Form for Private-Corp of its Designated Rep
7.     Nomination Form
8.     Acceptance of Nomination Form

(You may click on the  links above to download the appropriate forms)

The Election:

-Where:  Manila Hotel Luneta Park

-When:   November 24, 2011, commencing at 8am & ending at 4pm.

For the last two years, registrations and elections at the PHA have been Computer Assisted :

-delegates qualified to participate in the poll exercise, cast their votes through a computer terminal.

-pictures of the qualified candidates are flashed on the monitor and choices are made by ticking on the voter’s choice among the candidates.

-At the end of the day, when the voting had been closed, the votes are electronically tallied and the results are known within minutes from the close of the balloting.

This is in contrast to the old system whereby

counting took the PHA Comelec up to past

midnight, in the presence of the

representatives of the various candidates.


PHA beat by about half a year  the PCOS

electronic voting/counting machines used in

the 2011 National Election by the National

government.

After the tally, the COMELEC Chairman

announces  the results to the candidate who waited

anxiously.

The winners or the new Board immediately

convenes and meet in a room within the hotel that

as reserved by the COMELEC .  The Board then

hold their own election of President, VP-Luzon,

VP Vizayas , VP Mindanao , Treasurer, Secretary

and PRO.

After this organizational meeting, the December

Board Meeting is then scheduled that serves as the

Planning Meeting for the incoming year as well as

the group’s Christmas Party.

The PHA election is always full of excitement,

from the nominating period and campaigning to

the winners’ installation and announcement of the

new set of Board and Officers the following day

before the general assembly.

For the advanced information of its PHA members,

all the necessary and related documents on the

PHA Elections are included in this post.


Higlighting the schedules, they are as follows:

August 23 , 2011		COMELEC Advisory on the PHA Election by snail mail, by email, by text messaging, by posts in the website (http://pha.ph), blogsite (http://www.phablog-recorder.blogspot.com, Facebook (philhospitalassn@yahoo.com), Twitter (@PHA1949).  Forms are likewise made available with the Advisory.
Sept.20,2011		Deadline for submission of Nominations.
Sept. 22, 2011		All nominations are sent out by PHA Secretariat to the nominees
October 7, 2011		Deadline for Acceptance of Nominations and submission/completion  of requirements
October 7, 2011		COMELEC meets to evaluate nominations and finalize the list of OFFICIAL CANDIDATES
October 8		List of Official Candidates are released with direct and formal advice to the candidates concerned
October 12-November 24		Campaign period
November 23, 2011		Comelec attends the final Board Meeting of the old Board and reports with updates on the Election to be held the following day.
November 24, 2011		Election day, with casting of ballots commencing at 8am and ending at 4pm.

The PHA COMELEC encourages all its members to actively participate in the nomination and electoral process as an exercise of their rights and show of concern for the organization in an atmosphere of constructive dynamism. 

Hospitals as Schools Partners in Mental Health Service Provision

This is a guest post by Prof. Jerome Babate , Chairman of the Board of the RO DIAGAN Cooperative Hospital in General Santos City.

There is a little shift of my focus this time as this is largely intrigued by a host of problems encountered by our schools on health aspects (food poisoning, malnourishment, among others). The nurse in my persona prodded me to look into school issues from the lens of a health care consultant. 

Personally, I recognize that school success is facilitated by factors in students' lives such as psychological health, supportive social relationships, positive health behaviors, and schools free of violence and drugs. Accordingly, mental or psychological health in childhood and adolescence is defined by the achievement of expected developmental cognitive, social, and emotional milestones. Mental health leads to the student's developing satisfying social relationships, and demonstrating effective coping skills. Let us remember that mentally healthy children and adolescents enjoy a positive quality of life; function well at home, in school, and in their communities. Reads interesting and idealistic!

However, to attain such state, we need a collaborative and coordinated effort among schools, families, and communities to ensure that all children and adolescents achieve positive academic and behavioral outcomes.

One of the most important of these positive outcomes is psychological competence, a set of skills and attitudes that leads to positive mental health and a strong sense of well-being.To that end, I advocate the inclusion of comprehensive mental health services in the schools, emphasizing prevention and early intervention.

Having mentioned earlier, schools are the logical point of entry to develop the efficacy of mental health services to children and adolescents. As a suggestion, our schools in the urban areas may partner with our hospitals (its one way of developing the latter's corporate social responsibility) to craft mental health services for children. School-based and school-linked services can be designed to address students' mental health needs using a range of service options ranging from prevention to intensive intervention.  The key to making mental health services effective is to ensure that they are accessible to students and families

ACCREDITATION: THE PHILIPPINE EXPERIENCE

(This is a blog post by the President of the Philippine Hospital Association, Dr. Ruben C. Flores. He is currently the Medical Center Chief of the Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital.  This is the article he submitted to the Asian Hospital Federation for feature in their Journal to come out in the Third Quarter of 2011.)     

Dr. Ruben C. Flores
Phil. Hospital Assn. President

     Accreditation as a way to ensure compliance to quality standards and continuous quality improvement is just beginning to take root in the Philippines’ health care system.

The passage of the National Health Insurance Act of 1995 saw the establishment/creation of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PHIC).  Because PHIC as per RA 9241, Article 1, Section 2 is mandated to promote the improvement of quality through the institutionalization of quality assurance at all levels of the health care delivery system, accreditation was the next step. 

Thus in 2002, PHIC launched its Benchbook for national application.  The Benchbook standards were developed based on International standards, more particularly, the ACHS and JCI standards for hospitals adopted to the Philippine situation taking into account the local circumstances, laws and culture.  This Benchbook was perceived as a new way of incentivizing hospitals to adopt quality improvement activities in order to be granted by PhilHealth an accreditation status. Accreditation is linked with PHIC reimbursement. 

This PhilHealth Benchbook aims to assess the other aspects of hospital operation focusing on the process and outcome beyond mere structural standards compliance.  Specifically the Benchbook look at the following areas:

1.    Patient Rights and Organizational Ethics

2.    Patient Care

3.    Leadership and Management

4.    Human Resource Management

5.    Information Management

6.    Safe Practice and Environment

7.    Improving Performance

This Benchbook was adopted as the new accreditation standards for hospitals and was implemented in 2010.  In its first year of the PhilHealth Benchbook implementation, many hospitals exerted efforts to comply with the standards and the table below shows the percentage of achievement per level:

Level of Accreditation	Number of Hospitals	Percentage
Center of Safety	1246	87.99%
Center of Quality	126	8.90%
Center of Excellence	44	3.11%
T O T A L	1416	100%

Based on the survey results, the following can be concluded.

1.    Benchbook compliance seems not a significant problem among higher level hospitals (Lavado et al, 2010)

2.    Some lower level hospitals experience hardship in complying with the standards because of the administrative and financial constraints.

3.    Training and educational assistance should enable the majority of hospitals to obtain accreditation in one to two years.

4.    The impact of the Benchbook on improving health outcomes has yet to be established.

The Philippines can be considered unique in a sense because accreditation is being undertaken by a government instrumentality.  

To further institutionalize the national accreditation initiatives, a body that will undertake the accreditation of hospitals was espoused by the Department of Health. Towards this end, a national multi-stakeholders consultation meeting was conducted last June 10, 2011.

In this meeting, the Philippine Council for the Accreditation of Healthcare Organization (PCAHO) was unanimously endorsed by the delegates to the Secretary of Health to be designated as the National Accrediting body for hospitals adopting the PhilHealth Benchbook standards as the accreditation tool. 

This new development would effect a shift on the task of accreditation from being performed by government (PHIC) to one that is carried out by a private entity thru a 3^rd party accreditation scheme.  PCAHO is actually a multi-stakeholder organization dedicated to quality improvement initiatives and accreditation and has been in existence for almost thirteen (13) years now.  PCAHO was borne out of an ADB Funded Project – Strengthening of Licensing and Regulation of Hospitals, DOH, 1995-1997 – that saw the need for Accreditation of Hospitals for the improvement of the Quality of hospital services.  The Department of Health currently recognizes PCAHO as the National Accrediting Body for Accreditation of Health Facilities for Medical Tourism and the Certifying Body for the QSS of medical clinics of OFW and CDTL.  PCAHO is currently an institutional member of the International Society for Quality in Healthcare (ISQua) and an Associate member of the ISQua Accreditation Federation (IAF).  It is also a National member of the Asian Society for Quality in Healthcare (ASQua) and a member of the Executive Board.  It has been invited to serve on the JCI Asian Pacific Advisory Council

The task ahead is Herculean. PCAHO has to gain the credibility and acceptability in the hospital community by establishing a track record for competence in accreditation at par with local and eventually international standards.

It is to be hoped that with this new development, accreditation in the country will leapfrog and thereby ensure safe, quality, and excellent health services to the Pilipino and the global community. 

                                         By:  RUBEN C. FLORES, MD, MHA

                                                                                 PHA- President

“Leaders” in the Health Sector Member Agencies Answer Call for Unity In Responding to Emergencies and Disaster.

Representatives of the 14 Signatory Agencies and Organizations
together with the Department of Health Officials

A multi-sectoral Memorandum of Agreement signing was held at the Heritage Hotel at noontime of July 20, 2011 where each signatory pledged their respective support and cooperation in responding in unity to  emergencies and disasters. They affirmed that their commitment to coordinate will not be driven by necessity but more of an obligation to society. It was well attended by about 300 representatives of various agencies and sub-agencies under them.

Signatories to the MOA were heads of the different agencies and organizations:  the DOH, Phil. Hosp Assn,  DILG, DND, DSWD, DOJ, DOTC, DepED, UP Manila, PRC, Phil Medical Assn, PNA, PLGPMI and PSSEI.

USEC Teodoro Herbosa of the DOH congratulated everyone on their efforts and resolve to be solid in their support for this initiative in disaster containment in order to save lives.  He also said that this is very timely especially that the month of July is declared DISASTER CONCIOUSNESS MONTH by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council with its theme of “MAKIALAM, MAKIISA SA PAGSUGPO NG PANGANIB MAY MAITUTULONG KA”.

The intentions and objectives of this initiative are good but only if proper mechanisms are put into place and followed through. On the part of the Philippine Hospital Association,  President Ruben C. Flores said that it shall coordinate closely with the Department of Health and set forth on a campaign of information dissemination with its over 1,800 hospital members to lay down the expectations from all of them in the events of emergencies and disasters.  The PHA will utilize its networking capabilities and membership with the International Hospital Federation and the Asian Hospital Federation in gaining additional valuable knowledge on their own effective practices in preparing and responding to emergencies and disasters.  It is expected that IHF and AHF members with first hand experiences in major disasters in their respective countries will be able to give valuable contributions in this regard.



The Two Presidents:
Left:  Dr. Ruben Flores-Philippine Hospital Association
Dr. Oscar Tinio-Philippine Medical Association



The Philippine Hospital Association’s Experience With Two Infinity Signs That Have Metamorphosed Into a Butterfly

It was July 17, 2011,  Sunday and a fine day it was, when the Philippine Hospital Association (PHA President Ruben C. Flores, PHA Treasurer Edgardo Salud and PHA E.O. Mac Caliwara), landed at the Cauayan Airport in Isabela at a few minutes before 10am, some 25 minutes ahead of schedule.  Private security guards were on hand to guide the passengers through the designated path that will keep them at a safe distance from the propellers of the plane.  In Manila, much attention was given to the weight load that goes unto the plane, where all hand carried luggages were weighed and added up.  Ladies who were secretive of their weights, had no choice but to comply with the body weighing requirements of the airline. The measures, as explained by the groud staff, were resorted to for “purposes of having a correct balance” in the plane.  Even the manner of alighting from the plane after landing were also done by rows , again, purportedly to maintain proper balance, even when the plane had already been secured and parked. At the Cauayan airport 3 army personnel in fatigue uniforms and their Armalite rifles were stationed at the arrival area with the intention of being seen by everybody as if to say, “you’re in safe hands” even if it did conjure an image of terrorists's attack. Too much movies! A mother posing for photo at the tarmac with child in tow was hurriedly asked by the airport security to clear the area and to move on towards the arrival area. Not tourist friendly, one would think.

The travel by land from Cauayan airport to Santiago took about 30 minutes. The group made a short stop to a supposedly tourist destination (google it) Balingtokatok, Chapel of the Transfiguration and Last Supper but that's another story. The place needs more TLC.

Back to tne hospital story.

What could have prodded the group to go away from the comforts of their homes on a Sunday knowing they need to be back to their respective offices by the first hour of the following day, one may ask? The answers are two folds:  call of duty and  reciprocation.

Call of duty, since as leaders of the organization of hospitals, they are guided by its mission to L.E.A.P., i.e. Lead, Enable, Assist and Protect hospitals towards quality service. The Flores Memorial Medical Center, founded in 1950, celebrates its 60^th year and have extended its invitation to all its friends to attend the inauguration of its new wing. PHA , in its roster of members, have 42 member hospitals in the province of Isabela with 12 belonging to the government and 30 private hospitals. In Santiago City, there are 7 hospital members with 1 from the government and 6 private.

Reciprocation, since there was a time when “Papa Doc” as Dr. Adolfo Flores⁺ (1916-2007) was fondly called, never missed any of the events of the organization.  He was a regular fixture in the PHA scene. 

He was sometimes accompanied by his wife, Dr. Natividad “Mama Doc” Sevilla Flores⁺ (1918-2004).

One of the 11 children of Papa and Mama Doc , Dr. Arturo S. Flores , plays a major role in the operation of the hospital. He is ably assisted by his CPA sister, Sita Coseng, who acts as Administrator. The warmth of their reception for the group added to the excitement of us lowlanders who were profusely perspiring by us lowlprofuse being not accustomed to the high temperature in the region.  We were awed at improvements and facilities of the new wing and on the narrations of Dr. Art about the master plan for the one block property where the hospital is situated. He still have a half block to work on, which he said he is hoping to become a reality in his lifetime.  The hospital's corridors at 2.4meters were wide enough to accommodate two stretchers going in the opposite directions.  An automatic sprinkler system was very evident.  All rooms were equipped with ultra slim LED TVs that were hooked on the wall facing the patient's brand new multi-adjustable hospital beds.  there is  hot water available supplied by a water tank at the roof top  hooked up to solar panels.  CCCTV system pointing to strategic locations of the hospital , including offices , are also in place and can be monitored remotely by management via internet. The database can also be accessed remotely which gives management up to date information about the hospital transactions.

From it's humble beginning as the Flores Clinic in 1950, with tender loving care (TLC) the institution has survived the test of time.

 "Like a butterfly that has undergone metamorphosis from a larvae" it now spreads its wings and is now called the FLORES MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER. The hospital's logo, as patiently explained by Dr. Art, are actually two infinity signs brought together to form an image of a butterfly. It symbolizes change, rebirth and a new beginning.


The much awaited ribbon cutting, led by Dr. Art and Sis Sita, assisted by PHA President Dr. Ruben Flores, Congressman Gigi Aggabao and Mayor Amelita Navarro, commenced at 5pm.

Dr. Art Flores showing the way in cutting the ribbon

Dr. Flores huddles with Cong. Gigi Aggabao and Mayor Amelita Navarro

 It was followed by a program and sumptous dinner at the hospital's garden that has as center piece, a rainwater cistern with a beautiful roman fountain on top of it. 

The PHA group was happy to have touched based with Dr. Jun Costales, Chief Of Hospital of the Southern Isabela General (District) Hospital, Dra. Inesita Javonillo of the Javonillo Hospital in Cordon Isabela and Steve Callang of the Callang General Hospital.

The Bold Bunch - After a bowl of Soup Number 5 at
Dr. Jun Costales' Blends and Bites Cafe place where
Baby Back Ribs is the specialty of the house
From Left:  PHA E.O. Mac Caliwara, Dr. Costales Chief Of Hospital Southern Isabela General,
Edgardo Salud-PHA Treasurer, Dr. Ruben Flores-PHA President and
Dr. Art Flores, host

Blends and Bites Cafe

Dr. Inesita Javonillo
Javonillo Hospital, Cordon Isabela
and Dr. Ruben Flores PHA President

Steve Callang
Callang General Hospital

The group bid it's goodbye to evryone at around 8pm. Filled with hapy memories, they began their long evening trek back by land to Manila, all wearing a smile.  The group arrived safely as dawn was about to break.

Good job, congratulations and thank you, Flores Family!

As a postscript, Dr. Art has informed the PHA that it has been operating at 100% occupancy since its opening.

Dr. Art Flores