Bringing back health to the city in difficult times

The Medical City Ortigas wins two awards at the Healthcare Asia Awards 

The unexpected emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic introduced a myriad of challenges to the market and many of its industries, with the medical and healthcare sectors being affected the most due to the public health nature of the crisis and the added strain on their operations to prevent transmission. The Medical City Ortigas understood that such obstacles required innovative thinking and unprecedented flexibility to adapt and, in the process, was awarded the Medical Tourism Initiative of the Year - Philippines Award and the Hospital of the Year - Philippines Award at the Healthcare Asia Awards 2022. 

The awards programme recognises remarkable performances or cutting-edge development from healthcare organisations across Asia. The Medical City’s effort to jumpstart the COVID-stagnated medical tourism field and initiative to thrive despite the mounting challenges brought by the pandemic has distinguished them from their competitors and exalted them to the status of award winners at the Healthcare Asia Awards. 

Back to Health, Back to the City 

With movement restrictions in place for most countries and their residents, medical tourism essentially ground to a halt during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. Its long track record of accepting and assisting patients travelling to the Philippines enabled The Medical City to easily adapt to the ever-changing travel restrictions. Its partnership with various government agencies likewise ensured a seamless experience for foreign patients. 

Launching the Back to Health, Back to the City campaign, The Medical City encouraged more foreign travellers to visit the country and avail of the hospital’s services, including medical procedures, travelling to tourist spots, shop hop experience, and wellness relaxation to partner hotels. The Medical City offered foreign travellers a 15% discount on all in-patient and out-patient procedures. Despite travel restrictions, The Medical City has sustained and even surpassed the pre-pandemic numbers of international patients seeking medical care and procedures.

The Medical City: Thriving in Difficult Times 

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted many industries and spawned many changes in the world. But for The Medical City, not only did the pandemic expedite transformations but it also reaffirmed that past efforts to prioritise patient safety and quality of care that they had begun before the pandemic were the right courses of action. 

Despite mobility restrictions and other challenges during the pandemic, The Medical City Ortigas was able to earn two prestigious recognitions from the Joint Commission International (JCI), the world’s premier healthcare quality improvement and accreditation body, after submitting itself for assessment and testing by the JCI. Through this, The Medical City achieved a record of six total Gold Seal of Approval®, a symbol of quality that reflects an organisation’s commitment to providing safe and effective patient care. 

The accreditation was done through JCI’s virtual survey from the 11th to the 14th of October 2021, involving a comprehensive inspection of the facility, review of practices and procedures, and examination for evidence of sustained compliance and improvement. On the 18th and 19th of October 2021, the virtual inspection and certification survey for the Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI, medical term for heart attacks) programme was conducted. It targets a 60-minute or less Door-to-Balloon time that simulates a heart attack patient walking through the hospital’s Emergency Department with the blocked coronary artery opened in the Catheterization Laboratory within 60 minutes. 

Since the first accreditation done on The Medical City by JCI in 2006, the hospital has been continuously fulfilling and maintaining the standards needed to be upheld, assuring each person coming to The Medical City that they will receive healthcare services at par with the best in the world. 

The AMI programme remains the first in the Philippines joining the ranks of 14 other AMI programmes around the world. With the commitment to rapid response, a holistic approach to heart health, and positive patient outcomes despite the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, the AMI Clinical Care certification was awarded for the third consecutive time.

A new hospital information system and electronic medical records were also launched in the middle of 2021 as a move toward The Medical City’s digital transformation that introduced features and functionalities in its core IT systems and a more robust, flexible, and efficient set of systems to enable key hospital processes and services. Such services include reinforcing the ongoing telehealth and remote healthcare services that allow patients to receive the best medical care from the comfort of their own homes.