Customs, 3 DOH hospitals present impact reports for governance initiatives

MANILA, Philippines – The Bureau of Customs, Mariveles Mental Wellness and General Hospital, East Avenue Medical Center and Valenzuela Medical Center recently underwent their public revalidas hosted by the Institute for Solidarity in Asia (ISA) throughout the month of November. 

These revalidas are a mechanism for public institutions to present the maturity and impact of the initiatives they have rolled out in pursuit of long-term strategic goals, and are part of the requirements in ISA’s flagship governance reform program, the Performance Governance System (PGS). 

Gold Trailblazers

Customs Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero reported the accomplishments of the Bureau in line with their goal to become “a transparent, responsive, and world-class Customs administration by 2022”.

As of this year, the BOC was able to: partner with the World Customs Organization (WCO) Mercator Programme, a mechanism for assisting governments worldwide to implement the Trade Facilitation Agreement; stay on track to surpass 2020 revenue collection despite the COVID-19 pandemic, and; achieve the full automation of six frontline processes that allow customer contact points to be faster, more responsive, and less prone to corruption. 

In recognition of these initiatives, the deliberating panel granted the “PGS Compliant” status as well as the Gold Trailblazer Award to the Bureau—their second one after achieving the same award during the first stage of the PGS. 

Meanwhile, the three DOH hospitals were all conferred “PGS Initiated”. Among them, Mariveles Mental Wellness and General Hospital (MMWGH) represented by their chief, Dr. Ma. Lourdes Evangelista, also clinched the Gold Trailblazer Award for their initiatives to make mental health services more accessible especially during the pandemic through their "Zero Kilometro" system for online consultation, counseling, and infomercials on mental health.

The panelists for MMWGH also took this opportunity to discuss the challenge that lies ahead for the Bataan-based hospital in terms of lobbying for coverage for mental health services under the state health insurance system. 

Agility in responding

Also joining the list of conferred hospitals is the East Avenue Medical Center (EAMC) located in Quezon City. Striving to be a “1000 authorized bed apex hospital with DOH-recognized specialty centers for Trauma, Ophthalmology and Dermatology”, EAMC plans to build an ER-OR complex for trauma cases, a retinopathy of prematurity clinic, and six specialty clinics for dermatology cases, as reported by hospital chief Dr. Alfonso G. Nuñez III.

In line with its effort to capacitate regional hospitals starting up their own specialty centers, EAMC also partnered with other health facilities to accept and rotate trainees from identified regional centers to facilitate the knowledge transfer.

In terms of COVID-19 response, EAMC repurposed its newly constructed building into a 300-bed EAMC Center for Emerging and Re-Emerging Infectious Diseases, and is now pursuing the construction of a Molecular Biology Laboratory to support the EAMC-CERID facility.

Finally, Valenzuela Medical Center (VMC) highlighted their initiatives in response to challenges of congestion within the hospital. With a goal to become “a family-centered hospital in Geriatrics, Ophthalmology, Maternal-Neonatal, and ER basic trauma by 2022”, VMC Chief Dr. Maria Estrella B. Litam reported their efforts to expand hospital services to an annex building to unload the main facility. 

To continue catering to non-COVID cases, VMC also established telemedicine services, and has vowed to strengthen its coordination with the local government in order to address the high number of pregnancy-related medical cases—VMC’s leading cause of admission.

All these hospitals were recognized by their respective panels for their agility in responding to the challenges of the pandemic while simultaneously continuing the pursuit of a governance strategy to level up their hospitals.

Before the year ends, more public hospitals are expected to deliver their revalidas, a process that ultimately reviews not only their governance mechanisms but more importantly, how these mechanisms are rewired and adopted to cater to both long-existing health care challenges and the emerging needs brought on by COVID-19.