Cotabato regional hospital bags good governance award

MANILA, Philippines — The Cotabato Regional and Medical Center (CRMC), a level III apex hospital catering to the Bangsamoro region and Central Mindanao, was honored for successfully implementing the first stage of the Institute for Solidarity in Asia's system for performance governance.

Besides receiving the "Initiated" Status from ISA for the accomplishment, the CRMC bagged the Silver Trailblazer Award for exceeding the standards of the Initiation Stage.

Dr. Helen Yambao, chief II of the CRMC Medical Center, presented the achievements of their institution in a public revalida conducted by ISA on Oct. 13, 2020. In it, she shared three main challenges of the hospital which ISA's Performance Governance System aimed to address through a long-term strategy to become a multispecialty center.

These challenges included a wide catchment area (being the only teaching training hospital in BARMM and Region XII), the overcrowding of patients and the lack of capability to provide specialty services.

In response, the hospital's initial strategy aims to build specialty centers for heart, trauma, cancer care, women’s health and neonatology, diabetes, physical medicine and rehabilitation and mental health by 2022. More establishments will also be set up by 2028. These centers are being pursued through major modernization and expansion plans.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the CRMC also had to adapt to the urgent demands of the health crisis. This resulted in a parallel response as the regional hospital stepped up to become a COVID-19 referral center and sub-national laboratory while still maintaining its delivery of general health services.

For these initiatives, the panelists of the public revalida, composed of ISA trustee Guillermo Luz, Association of Nursing Service Administrators of the Philippines president emeritus Dr. Maria Linda Buhat, former health secretary Dr. Esperanza Cabral, Research Institute for Tropical Medicine parasitology head Dr. Fe Esperanza Espino and Wyeth Philippines Medical field operations director Orlando Clavinez, recognized CRMC for its excellent implementation of the governance strategy even with the COVID-19 pandemic altering and disrupting the regular pace of hospital operations.

In her acceptance speech, Yambao dedicated the success of CRMC to the people of Region 12 and BARMM, saying that “this is just the beginning of our transformation journey towards becoming one of the Islands of Good Governance.”

The Institute for Solidarity in Asia, a non-profit organization committed to transforming the public sector, is a content partner of Philstar.com.