Lourdes Hospital: Healthcare services with a heart

MANILA, Philippines - What do celebrities like Imee Marcos, Sharon Cuneta, ER Ejercito, Rowell Santiago, Anjo Yllana, and John Prats have in common? Aside from fame and the limelight, they were all born at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Sta. Mesa Manila. Then, as many of the illustrious members of society would attest, it was the premier hospital in Manila, with a sterling image that drew the elite to be among the many patients admitted into its historic halls.

Lourdes Hospital was founded by Dr. Carlos Casas on July 15, 1948 and co-managed by Dr. Basilio Valdes as medical director. Soon after, in post-war Manila, four nuns of the Servarum Spiritus Sancti (Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit) were asked to join the nursing services staff. It was not long after, in November 1957, that the Missionary Sisters bought the hospital from Dr. and Mrs. Carlos Casas. The heritage of compassionate quality health care lived on as the Sisters managed the hospital through the next decades into the 21st century.

As history would have it, from an esteemed position of being one the country’s leading hospitals Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital underwent serious challenges wrought by modernization and technological advances. In November 2010, that the Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit (SspS) community entered into a 20-year lease arrangement with the East Manila Hospital Managers Corp, a subsidiary of the Metro Pacific Investments Corp.   The management contract stipulates that at the end of 20 years, the hospital will be returned to the SspS.

Today, 63 years later, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital (OLLH) remains to be a landmark in Sta. Mesa, Manila.   It has donned a new logo and a new façade to signal the commitment of the new management team headed by Dr. Marivic Lualhati. She and her team have pushed to speedily contemporize the hospital without losing the traditions of the warm holistic healthcare provided by the SSpS Nuns. She enthuses that the Christ-centered legacy of the SSpS community shall certainly live on as it has been so meticulously imbued among the staff, many of whom were retained by EMHMC. In fact, this has been incorporated into the hospital’s new mission of becoming “a Christ-centered community of professional healthcare providers promoting holistic healing.” The vision is to become “the standard of service excellence,” as OLLH’s contribution to the healthcare industry.

Dr. Lualhati adds, “As part of the MPIC pledge to infuse P350 million in the next five years, we have began investing in new digital diagnostic machines; and our new Eye Center boasts only the best in world-class equipment. We want to be world-class, not only in service, but also in equipment, without sacrificing the affordability that Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital has always been known for.”

In the pipeline is the latest digital mammography equipment that promises less radiation, faster results, and less discomfort for the patient.   It will have sharper images of the breast, capturing changes that can lead to a more precise screening of breast cancer, a leading cause of mortality in women.   In tandem with this acquisition is a digital x-ray machine that will have faster, shorter imaging time.

Dream team: Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Sta. Mesa, Manila gets a new logo and a new façade to signal the commitment of the new management team headed by Dr. Marivic Lualhati. In photo are Augusto Palisoc Jr., chairman of East Manila Hospital Managers Corporation; Dr. Ma. Victoria T. Lualhati, OLLH president & CEO; Sister Eden Panganiban, Provincial Superior of Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit (SSpS); Jose Ma. Lim, president & CEO of Metro Pacific Investments Corporation.

The Eye Center is OLLH’s first center of excellence. It is equipped with technologically advanced machines that will be capable of visualizing blood vessel structure for the diagnosis of optic disc and retina diseases. 

The Eye Center is a precursor of things to come for Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital. This is just the beginning of the realization of OLLH’s vision to become the standard of excellence in the healthcare industry. Other Centers of Excellence have been mapped out in the next three years.

The pace of work at the hospital remains to be frenzied even after the inauguration on July 15. Rooms have been renovated to ensure patients get optimum comfort in pleasant and clean surroundings.