RMC officials now on ‘floating’ status

Pending probe into the rising cases of neo-natal sepsis at the Rizal Medical Center (RMC) in Pasig City, five hospital officials are now on "floating" status, the Department of Health (DOH) said yesterday.

They are RMC medical director Winston Go; Chief of Clinics Dr. Bernardita Javier; Chief Nurse Louise Marie Flores; administrative officer Buddy Ortego and Erlinda de Villa, supervising nurse at the delivery room.

According to DOH Undersecretary Margarita Galon, the officials have been detailed under Assistant Secretary David Padilla at the DOH central office in Sta. Cruz, Manila.

"While the investigation is going-on, they’ll have to be there. We have to wait for the investigation to be completed (to know what will happen to them)," she said in an interview. Galon added that the DOH Legal Service would observe due process in investigating the case.

Earlier, the officials were absolved of responsibility over the death from sepsis of nine newborn infants at the RMC three weeks ago. Six other babies also got ill with sepsis then but they survived.

The officials were asked to take a leave of absence.

The investigating teams created by the DOH found out that the babies got the infection not from the hospital but from their mothers. They, however, discovered that neo-natal sepsis incidence at RMC had significantly improved this year. The teams reported that from Jan. 1 to Oct. 15, 2005, the prevalence rate of neo-natal sepsis at RMC was 14.4 per 1,000 or 83 cases while the case fatality rate (CFR) for this condition was 7.8 per 1,000 or 45 cases. During the same period this year, the prevalence rate was 32.3 per 1,000 or 127 cases while the CFR is 7.6 per 1,000 or 69 cases.

This prompted DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III to order a deeper investigation.

Duque said that the increase was "pronounced" and there could have been negligence on the part of the hospital.

He added the huge number of cases should have alerted the officials so that proper maternal and child care procedures were observed to control the outbreak. – Sheila Crisostomo