DOH reclassification of hospitals, healthcare facilities hit

MANILA, Philippines - Two hospital organizations are protesting an order of the Department of Health (DOH) reclassifying hospitals and other healthcare facilities, saying this may lead to the closure of many facilities.

In a joint position paper, Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines (PHAP) president Rustico Jimenez and Philippine Hospital Association (PHA) president Bu Castro said that DOH Administrative Order (AO) No. 2012 should not apply to existing hospitals.

“It is the position of both PHA and PHAP that the existing classification be maintained and that the new classification of hospitals as contained in DOH A.O. No. 2012 be applied prospectively to new hospitals to be constructed yet. This would be in accord with the spirit and letter of Section 8, Republic Ac No. 4226 (Hospital Licensure Law),” the position paper stated.

At present, the facilities are categorized based on “service capacities and compliance with standards for manpower, equipment, construction and physical activities,” as provided for under the law.

But the DOH deemed it necessary to reclassify based on the results of the “Survey of the Services and Equipment Available in Hospitals Nationwide” that it conducted last year.

Partial results of the survey had indicated “variation in the service characteristics of hospitals not only among the different categories but also within the same category based on the facilities and services they provide.”

The AO had cited, for instance, the latest category of Level 1 hospitals, which is “not consistent” with Section 8 of RA 4226 on “Minimum Standards and Construction of a Hospital.”

The AO showed the law states in part that “in order for a permit to construct a hospital to be issued, the hospital plan shall provide sufficient bed space for the hospital bed capacity proposed, a laboratory room, operating room, including work rooms for sterilization, anesthesia preparation, x-ray room, pharmacy, dispensary or out-patient department, delivery room, isolation room, autopsy room or morgue.”

Under the ongoing classification, provision of surgical and ancillary services is not required in Level 1 facilities.

“A new classification of hospital and other health facilities becomes inevitable in compliance with statutory requirements and the emergence of new health facilities,” the DOH said.

It added that the move was aimed to upgrade the services offered in health facilities and come up with a more homogeneous category for health facilities with similar services.

“The new classification of health facilities will simplify licensing systems and processes and make the regulatory scheme more effective and efficient,” the DOH added.

But for PHAP and PHA, the DOH should take into consideration that existing private and government hospitals are now classified pursuant to AO No. 2005-0029, under which “hospitals have already been permanently constructed or built accordingly.”

“To illustrate the negative effect of the new classification, the client of a Level 1 hospital, when re-classified to a Primary Health Care Facility without the name ‘hospital’ on it, will now think twice about whether or not he/she will seek hospital care because the word ‘hospital’ no longer appears in its billboard display,” the paper reads.