How to choose a good hospital

When a relative gets sick, one of the most difficult decisions is choosing which hospital to bring him to. You worry that what if you did not choose the right hospital and he got worse?

To help you in this decision, let us look at five parameters when choosing a good hospital. By the way, under Health Secretary Enrique T. Ona, government hospitals have been getting a major upgrade in facilities and modern equipment.

ʉۢ Good facilities. Here are the key questions:

a) Is the hospital equipped with the necessary equipment, laboratories to treat the condition? Depending on the patient’s condition, does the hospital have a CT Scan, a dialysis center or a cardiac catetherization laboratory?

b) Does the hospital meet quality standards given by certification bodies, local and international? Ask the information desk about brochures showing the hospital’s credentials.

c) Is the hospital clean? Visit the hospital and look at their waiting rooms and patients’ rooms. Is the Emergency Room clean and orderly? A clean hospital may mean fewer infections for the patient.

d) You can ask other patients who have used the facilities about the following: quality and comfort of the patients’ rooms, the attitude and friendliness of the hospital staff, the quality of food in the canteen, the presence of a chapel, and the availability of parking spaces.

Ideally, a hospital should have a quality assurance department that monitors their level of care. Do they have patient satisfaction surveys?

ʉۢAccessible location. During an emergency, time is crucial. Some conditions like heart attack, stroke, and bleeding need to be treated as soon as possible.

And since you have to visit your relative often, the hospital should be reasonably near your home. Consider the traffic situation, too. During emergencies, your doctor may need to talk to you immediately to decide on an important treatment. Quality of care is important, but accessibility should also be a factor in the decision.

• Good doctors and hospital staff. Both the medical staff and the hospital can make you well. Getting a good doctor is probably the most important decision of all, since your doctor decides on your treatment plan.

Another factor to consider is whether your doctor has admitting privileges at the hospital. Because of our traffic situation, most doctors have only one or two “base” hospitals, where they admit most of their patients. Ask your doctor which hospital he or she prefers to have you admitted to.

Aside from your doctor, a great portion of your medical care will be given by the nurses, the residents, and the hospital staff. This is because, once admitted in the hospital, even the best doctors cannot be by your side 24 hours a day.

Is the hospital’s nursing staff adequate in terms of numbers and training? What’s the ratio between the nurses and Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients? Does one nurse handle one, two or three ICU patients simultaneously?

 Does the hospital have experience and success with my condition? Because of the wide range of medical diseases and equipment needed to treat each condition, some hospitals become “experts” in treating certain diseases. Hence, your particular medical condition can affect your choice of hospital.

Research shows that hospitals and doctors who tend to do the same procedure over and over again (say gallbladder surgery or heart surgery) tend to become experts in these conditions. This means that their success rate becomes very high and their complications rate (and deaths) is lower. Thus, the saying “practice makes perfect” is really true.

In the country, there are government and private hospitals. Government hospitals, such as the Philippine Heart Center, become very skilled in handling heart cases because of the sheer number of heart patients their doctors see every day.

Other hospitals also become experts in handling children’s diseases, kidney diseases, cancer cases, and so forth. You need to do some research and to ask around.

If you’re up for a surgical procedure, you need to ask your doctor (nicely) some questions: a) What is the hospital’s track record in doing the medical procedure? b) How often do you (your doctor) perform the said procedure? c) What is the outcome of the procedure, in terms of success rate, risks, and complications?

ʉۢReasonable costs. Here, we have two scenarios depending on whether you have a PhilHealth and/or a health card.

If you have a health card, check if your health plan covers care at the said hospital. How much is your limit when it comes to hospital bills? Be sure that you don’t exceed your limit (say of P100,000 per year), because once you do, your bill can suddenly skyrocket.

If you have PhilHealth, be sure to fill up the form before you leave the hospital. Inquire about hospital packages for executive check-ups,  pregnancy and delivery. These may come out cheaper.

If you don’t have a PhilHealth or a health card, then you have to pay for everything on your own. Here, you have to be doubly careful.

Take note, however, that more expensive procedures do not really guarantee better care for you. At the end of the day, your doctor can do a lot to give you quality care without getting you bankrupt.

As a very rough guide, serious intensive care patients admitted in a private hospital can have bills reaching a million pesos or more in a month’s time. Have a heart-to-heart talk with your trusted doctor first before going into any long-term hospital stay.

There’s nothing wrong with asking him about his professional fees. My advice: Find a good doctor and trust him or her for life.

Finally, narrow down your choice to two hospitals. You can have a more expensive option and a less expensive option to choose from. Then, depending on the medical needs at the time, you can select which hospital to go to.

By the way, a little prayer for guidance does help, too.

Good luck!