A haven for healing

If looks could heal, then the Asian Hospital and Medical Center would be a panacea.

Its façade reminds one of a five-star hotel, and its glass and steel main lobby looks like the terminal of the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. If the Asian Hospital and Medical Center in Alabang, Muntinlupa were a woman, she could easily be described as drop-dead gorgeous. But her beauty isn’t concrete deep – beyond her concrete walls and glass windows is a robust heart and a healing soul, complemented by 850 medical specialists and some $20 million worth of medical equipment. And though one is tempted to drool over the quilted comforters, duvets and picture windows in all the rooms – which, incidentally, have a panoramic view of Laguna de Bay – one cannot help but notice the hospital’s other assets. "What you see is better than what I will say," says Evelyn Singson, the attractive AHMC chairperson, on the day she toured the press around the hospital’s facilities.

Each room in the 258-bed main hospital building is done in pastel shades of anti-microbial wallpaper, with cushy sofas and armchairs. Each patient has his own telephone set with NDD and IDD connections. There are only two rooms in the entire hospital that has four beds, and only eight rooms that have two beds, all the rest being single-bed private rooms. A waiting area for patients and visitors on the hospital’s mezzanine has its own baby grand piano.

A reflecting pool in the hospital’s wide and breezy courtyard was added for a more refreshing ambiance. The heart-shaped chapel features the works of National Artist Napoleon Abueva.

Still, what you see isn’t all that you’re going to get in the hospital, the first major medical facility to be built in Metro Manila in the last 25 years.

"This hospital was conceived with the idea of giving the highest quality care to the patient in a very cost effective manner in a total healing environment," says Dr. Rodrigo Floro, the hospital’s medical director and vice president for medical affairs. Floro, who has been living in the US for the last 20 years, is certified by the American Board of Abdominal Surgery. He served with the US Forces during Operation Desert Storm in 1991, for which he received a Commendation Medal for Meritorious Service. He returns to Manila to fulfill a dream to serve the land of his birth.

"In this hospital, the patient is king," adds Evelyn Singson, who sits on the board of many prestigious firms. She poured her heart on the building of the AHMC because she felt, "The Filipino patient deserves something better.

"My mother was confined in the ICU of a hospital for a very long time. And I observed how many hospitals are run. And I thought to myself, ‘The Filipino deserves something better.’ It’s not a criticism of other hospitals. It’s just that the supply is below demand. There’s no pressure for other institutions to really do much better because even if they don’t, the patients will flock to them. So I thought, how do I help lift the standard of health care? The best way is to build something that will become a benchmark."

Singson and world-renowned cardiovascular surgeon Dr. Jorge Garcia were brought together by an acquaintance and they paddled toward the same goal. He brought with him a high-powered team of doctors and nurses. Like Dr. Floro and Evelyn Singson, Dr. Garcia believes people who seek medical attention need to be treated better.

"One thing I have observed here in the Philippines is that… I see patients waiting for the doctors, and they are crowded in the corridors. Some of them wait as long as two to three hours. That should not happen. So we’re trying to bring here an organized medical practice. You make an appointment, you’ll see the doctor promptly, and you don’t have to wait. In my practice in the States – if I see a patient waiting there more than half an hour – I get upset about it. And it’s amazing how the Filipino patient is very patient. We’ve got patients up and down, saying where’s the doctor? How come you haven’t seen… So we like to change that pattern," observes Garcia, who has performed about 500 open-heart operations yearly around the world. He has operated on former President Fidel Ramos (for a blocked carotid), former Executive Secretary Renato de Villa, comedian Dolphy, and just last week, Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo.

Garcia, who shuttles between the US and the Philippines every three weeks ("I don’t get jet lag," he says), is credited for convincing a lot of US-based and US-trained doctors and nurses to set up a practice at the Asian Hospital.

"We have a lot of Filipino talent. I believe in Filipino talent. I’ve seen a lot of doctors and nurses in the States. They all excel. You look at Filipinos in the US. Filipinos, they do very well there. They adjust very easily; their work ethic is just excellent. And that’s what I’m saying. You put the Filipino in an environment where they can excel, an environment that’s really transparent with no hanky panky. Remember when Clark Base was still here, Filipino drivers go there, they obey the traffic, they obey the law. So this hospital will provide that kind of environment, that culture, this good aspect of this Filipino place. This is a working environment where all doctors are free to excel in their specialties," adds Garcia, who last week also performed Maze surgery (which aims to correct irregular heart beat) at the AHMC, the first time ever such a procedure was done in the Philippines.

Dr. Floro, for his part, says that the Asian Hospital is aiming to be the first hospital in the Far East to be accredited by the Joint Accreditation of Health Care Organizations or the Joint Commission International, the body that accredits all hospitals in the US.

"We are making sure that the success of the hospital will depend on the quality of doctors we have. We are striving to bring the best doctors here, because they will make the difference. Just like when you go to the Mayo clinic in Minnesota. You don’t know which doctor will attend to you but you know whoever will be, he is the best."

Singson, Garcia and Floro are understandably proud of how the AHMC looks. But they are prouder still of how the hospital will serve its patients. "We want this hospital to be a benchmark. We want to lift the bar of excellence for health care in this country, it just takes people to put it together," says Evelyn Singson.

"We ask everybody to smile here. We want each patient to leave this building saying, ‘This hospital treats me like a king’," adds Dr. Floro. So are prices of confinement and treatment in the Asian Hospital princely, too?

"Oh, our prices are very competitive with other big hospitals in the country," says Dr. Garcia.

The 10th floor family suite, which includes two TV sets with DVD, two telephones, a kitchen, living room, bathroom and other amenities comes at P15, 000 per night. The Ambassador Suite costs P9,000 a night. A regular single-bed private room (with sofa bed for the bantay) costs P2,500. A bed in a two-bed room costs P1,300, but each patient has his own phone and TV set with matching earphone.

And anywhere in the hospital you may be in – Ambassador Suite or semi-private room – if you ask for a manicure, and your doctor does not object, the AHMC guest services staff will produce a manicurista for you.