QualiMed: Quality, affordable, accessible healthcare

Ancient Roman poet Virgil said that the greatest wealth is health. There’s a wealth of wisdom in Virgil’s words, but what if a great portion of the population have no access to healthcare? What if a child dies of diarrhea just because his parents could not afford to bring him to a hospital? Or another child or patient dies because of the tiresomely long wait for medical help to arrive in a crowded hospital?

These tragic scenes may be repeated many times over throughout the length and breadth of the country where healthcare facilities are sorely lacking.

Now comes QualiMed, a huge network of different health facilities strategically located all over the country, offering quality, appropriate, affordable, and accessible healthcare.

Thanks to the partnership between Ayala Land, Inc., the country’s top real estate developer, and the Mercado General Hospital, there’s a QualiMed in a mall near your neighborhood. The Mercado General Hospital owns and runs the Daniel O. Mercado Medical Center, a tertiary hospital in Tanauan, Batangas, recognized by the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) as a center of excellence.

Health in the mall

“Possibly, all Ayala Malls will have a QualiMed. Right now, we’re in TriNoma, the first one. Fairview is the next, it will be four times the size of TriNoma’s QualiMed,” says Edwin M. Mercado, MD, QualiMed president and CEO.

Dr. Mercado explains that QualiMed in Fairview is more of a day surgery center where minor outpatient surgical procedures can be done. He notes, “The trend now is to reduce the need for hospital beds to minimally invasive or what they call keyhole procedures, where the patient can be sent home after treatment. Recovery is faster and the cost is lower. PGH (Philippine General Hospital) pioneered the concept of a day surgery center, which we are replicating on a smaller scale in Fairview.”

On the other hand, QualiMed TriNoma is more of a primary clinic where the basic services are available but specialists are on standby and patients with higher medical needs can be referred to other centers.

Dr. Mercado elaborates, “QualiMed will be a whole system so we’ll have clinics that will refer higher cases to hospitals and we’re looking at putting up our flagship hospitals which probably have 250-300 beds in the near future. We have a hospital in Batangas and an ambulatory service center in PGH. What we’re trying to fast-track are the mall-based clinics which could be either a primary clinic or a day surgery center.”

Fact is, QualiMed has a grand mission/vision to be present in most of the regional centers and developments all over the country. “We’re very fortunate to get Ayala to notice us probably because we’re not the usual cut-and-paste type of a healthcare player,” enthuses Dr. Mercado. “For one, our target is not the typical high-end ‘A’ market but the middle segment, the ‘B-C’ market, which we think is the broader segment of the pyramid.”

With its giant network of healthcare facilities all over the country, QualiMed offers services that are 30 to 40 percent cheaper than the premium hospitals. “Aside from benchmarking with the premier hospitals, we’re also benchmarking with the public hospitals,” Dr. Mercado points out. “When we talk to healthcare specialists, we’re only 50 percent more than the public hospitals. In most countries, it’s more than that. Our eventual goal is to provide quality private healthcare at almost the same price point as a public hospital.”

Services are 30-40 percent cheaper than those offered on the market. Then there are “bundled services” to bring down prices even lower than the regular rates. QualiMed has salaried doctors and employs a group practice model, thus regulating the (dreaded) professional fees, which are already factored into the rates of its services.

“We’re coming up with packages for very intensive cases not covered before by PhilHealth like open heart surgery and kidney transplant (dialysis is now covered by PhilHealth),” shares Dr. Mercado. “For every type of surgery, PhilHealth will give a package payment. So, it’s incumbent upon the provider to really lower the cost so we can fit our total hospital bill within the payment of PhilHealth. Actually, the patient will only come up with a minimal out-of-pocket.”

Primary to quarternary care

The QualiMed Health Network has three facility formats that are strategically located to make transition of patient care from one facility to another smooth and worry-free.

There are the multi-specialty clinics that provide preventive and promotive care. These clinics are less crowded than the usual hospital facility. There are cases where children die of diarrhea or pneumonia in crowded hospitals because they were not given urgent treatment. These clinics are equipped with such facilities as doctor’s clinics, laboratory, radiology, ECG, drug testing, and vaccination services. Examples are the QualiMed multi-specialty clinics in TriNoma (now operational), Fairview Terraces, MetroPoint Pasay, UP Town Center, and Cebu Business Park.

Then there are the ambulatory or day surgery centers that offer surgery services that don’t require the patient to be admitted; procedures are done in an outpatient setting. This eliminates admission fees and other related charges. Example is the QualiMed Manila (now operational). On top of the services being offered in clinics, the day surgery centers offer minor and major surgery, dialysis, hearing tests, 2D echo, and pharmacy, among other services.

Lastly, there are the full-service hospitals (primary to quarternary), which offer the most comprehensive healthcare services. Boasting hundreds of beds for inpatients, these hospitals have capabilities for emergency rooms, major surgeries, intensive care units, and a whole range of specialty and sub-specialty doctors.

Going beyond the mall

“For Ayala Land, Inc. (ALI) it’s a chance to do something beyond the mall, beyond the housing, beyond the cinema, beyond the hotel. This is something special to us,” says David Y. San Pedro, head, ALI Corporate Planning & International Business Development.

QualiMed, ALI’s first healthcare venture, completes ALI’s promise of  “enriching land, enriching lives for more people.”

San Pedro asserts, “The mandate from our principals is not just to create a commercially viable enterprise but a socially relevant one, too. People trust the Ayala brand and they recognize very clearly that Ayala has a lot to offer with respect to improving the lives of Filipinos by making healthcare affordable and accessible. So, it’s not just making sure that this venture is commercially successful but making sure we reach out. A roof to sleep under, a school where you can study, a hospital to go to when you’re sick, a church to pray in — all these basics ALI now provides.”

Dr. Mercado smiles and says, “We’re learning a lot from our partner who’s already sharing with us all the best corporate practices.”

Mutually benefiting from each other, QualiMed adds value to ALI developments. “Whenever there’s a healthcare facility, it’s one thing potential residents look at,” says Dr. Mercado.

A healthy dose of TLC

Amid a cozy, friendly ambiance (say goodbye to cold, intimidating clinics), patients are assured of a healthy dose of tender loving care from the QualiMed staff. And of course, only the most competent doctors, supported by advanced medical equipment and healthcare technology systems.

QualiMed assures patients will be prescribed only the appropriate procedures based on best practices and clinical practice guidelines. There will be no overprescribing for patients — or too many procedures or diagnostic tests just to earn profit.

“We want to be differentiated from other players; we’re very strict in monitoring the performance of our doctors,” stresses Dr. Mercado. “We’re imposing what we call clinical practice guidelines and we will track the compliance of our doctors through our electronic medical records. It’s not boxing in our doctors, it’s more for us to get a feedback or to determine which is the most applicable healthcare solution for the current problems of the Filipinos. Our very strict credentialing stipulates all the prerequisites for doctors to practice at a QualiMed facility.”

Dr. Mercado adds, “We have a mentoring program we’re developing for Filipino-American doctors based in the US and they’re very excited about this because this is an opportunity for them to return home, where there’s a system of healthcare facility in place and they can already practice. But more important for them is to be able to mentor the young doctors. For them, it’s some sort of a payback.”

To which San Pedro adds, “We’re offering doctors the chance to get away from that type of a system so they can actually work in a QualiMed facility without having to buy a share in the hospital or fit out a clinic. So, for us, it’s really an alternative model for doctors who find themselves abroad because they can’t break into the hospitals here.”

San Pedro has reasons to be visibly excited about this venture: “We’re investing in infrastructure. We can design it, build it, design it up to current standards now. A lot of the hospitals we have currently have older facilities, they’re not wired for a local network. We don’t have that problem. We can deliver a different type of healthcare at an affordable price.”

The clinic is open as early as 6 a.m. and there’s an industrial health specialist who can attend to those who come in for a pre-employment exam. “They can come in for their blood draw and then they can take the x-ray,” says San Pedro. “We’ve scheduled different specialists at different times of the day. Every day, we’ve got a full complement of specialists.”

Patients’ electronic records are accessible in all the QualiMed sites. “Even your x-ray and lab tests, everything is computerized,” says Dr. Mercado. “Your chart can be pulled out, you don’t have to carry it.”

To further carry out its brand promise of alagang abot-kaya (to make the patient’s experience truly sulit), 10 new QualiMed hospitals and 10 new clinics (some already fully operational, some under construction) are in the pipeline. “Right now, we have underway a hospital in Nuvali, Laguna and a hospital in San Jose Del Monte, Iloilo, which will be operational in July or August,” says San Pedro.

Surely, this healthy partnership between two premier institutions is geared towards one big goal: To improve the quality of life of the marginalized Filipinos. Because those who have less in life should have more in healthcare.

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Visit www.qualimed.com.ph.