Making history in healthcare

One-stop shops are a boon for consumers in a hurry to purchase goods in just one place. And so, if not better, are one-stop health facilities which provide one-day ambulatory services. Patients undergo surgical procedures, and within hours, head for home — without having stayed in the hospital for one or two nights, and experiencing trauma over high hospitalization bills.

The University Physicians Medical Center (UPMC) is making history with its one-stop health facility. It is a private outpatient diagnostic and surgical facility within the newly-renovated University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UPM-PGH) Faculty Medical Arts Building (FMAB) that aims to provide an efficient clinic environment for doctors and hassle-free patient-centered services. The UPMC is operated and managed by the Daniel Mercado Medical Center (DMMC) as a joint undertaking with the University of the Philippines.

UPMC is the trade name of the Mercado Ambulatory and Surgical Centers, Inc. (MASCI), a subsidiary of the Daniel O. Mercado Medical Clinic (DMMC). It came about after three years of bidding and negotiations when the UP Board of Regents, the highest policy-making body of the UP, approved a lease, conversion and development contract with DMMC to rehabilitate the old dispensary at the entrance of the UP-PGH compound on Taft avenue, Manila, the lease covering a period of 25 years.

DMMC paid for the building’s conversion (or total rehabilitation), rents the facility for P1 million a month, and pays for loans it acquired through the doctors’ fees for spaces for their clinics. On January 10 this year, the FMAB was inaugurated, with DMMC and UPMC president, Dr. Edwin Mercado, explaining the Mercado family’s involvement in the project.

The services available at FMAB are an ambulatory (same-day) surgical center, cardiovascular, industrial and occupational health services, intravenous therapy, laboratory and drug testing, a pharmacy, radiology and nuclear medicine, and physical rehabilitation and sports medicine.

UPMC was organized to provide outpatient care, which is becoming the fast growing trend in healthcare delivery. No hospitalization means savings for patients. With the advancement in technology, major surgical procedures can now be performed without need of confinement. Likewise, UPMC offers a complete range of advanced, yet more affordable diagnostic procedures — which means more savings for the patients.

What’s more, it has a complement of professional medical, dental and paramedical practitioners affiliated with UP Manila, the National Health Sciences Center, and PGH — the National Hospital. The over 300 doctors are considered as experts and leaders in their respective specialties, covering internal medicine, family medicine, surgery, pediatrics, OB-Gyne, ophthalmology, neuro-sciences and psychiatry, orthopedics, otorhinolaryngology and dentistry.

President Benigno Aquino III sent his congratulatory message for the FMAB’s inauguration, describing the project as “an innovative public-private partnership, combining UP’s commitment to professional excellence and DMMC’s expertise in the management of medical facilities.”

In his message at the inauguration, Dr. Edwin Mercado, UPMC CEO and president, spoke about his father, author of an ideal caring health delivery system. The late Dr. Daniel Opulencia Mercado, the youngest in a brood of seven children, was orphaned at the age of 11, compelling him and his siblings to work hard to earn their living. The older ones had to quit school and started a ready-made clothing business. Daniel sold newly-tailored clothes to “sukis” in Baclaran and as far as Bicol — enduring long rides on trains and calesas.

A bright student, Daniel graduated as high school salutatorian in Tanauan, a small town in Batangas. His brothers pooled their resources together and sent him to the UP College of Liberal Arts, and eventually to the UP College of Medicine. By necessity he was very frugal, walking home to Pasay from the college in Herran (now Pedro Gil), and eating binalot na tuyo and rice for lunch. After years of hardship, he obtained his medical degree, and then went for internship at the Washington Casualty Hospital and University of Maryland. Then he proceeded to do general surgery residency but on his fifth year, he turned down an offer for chief resident because his girlfriend back home, Estela Magsino, threatened to drop him if he did not return. He dutifully returned and took Estela for his bride.

Actually, Dr. Edwin said, his father did not feel at home in America. He established a small lying-in clinic in the sleepy town of Tanauan, Batangas. He promised Estella he will build a house when they had their second baby, but as it turned out, Estella gave birth to twins. True to his word, Dr. Daniel took out a loan and built a modest house with a three-room lying-in clinic and a pharmacy (run by Estella, a pharmacist). In 1957, the Mercado Clinic was born, and on whose foundation DMMC would evolve.

Dr. Daniel’s reputation as a good primary care doctor spread to nearby towns. He was able to expand his clinic to a 200-bed secondary hospital. In time, his five children finished college; three of them became doctors, one a nurse, and another pharmacist.  

Dr. Edwin, a 1987 UP college of medicine graduate, and who had gone to the University of Cincinnati Hospital to specialize in joint diseases, agreed to run the hospital, but he told his father, operational costs would be controlled, and facilities upgraded. (His father was so “mabait,” said son Edwin that sometimes he would not charge patients, or charge them only very minimal fees. The old man agreed, and Edwin recruited 12 PGH doctors of varied specializations to invest in the hospital by holding clinics in it. In five years, the hospital had created an impact with Dr. Edwin’s team’s new management concepts.

In 2006, Edwin said, “We had reached the point of saturation; it was time to grow beyond Calabarzon.” The family scouted around for areas where they could build a medical facility. Then they saw an ad inviting parties to bid for the lease, rehabilitation and operation of the old PGH dispensary which had become a store room unfit for tenancy. What a blessing: their search had ended. DMMC won the bid.

As to what the FMAB can do for PGH, the FMAB, said Dr. Edwin, complements the existing services and facilities offered by PGH. Doctors at FMAB provide the client base that is the source of additional patronage for PGH’s pay wards and specialized units. In fact the doctors’ rental fees go to help with the operation of PGH. Additionally, patients who need to be confined are referred to PGH.

 UP faculty members who rent clinics at FMAB benefit from the project as a great majority of them do not receive compensation from the UP College of Medicine for medical care rendered at the PGH.

Dr. Edwin appreciates the efforts of people to make FMAB a success. These include the facility’s medical and ancillary director, Dr. Jose V. Tecson III, the board of directors, practicing doctors, and Dr. Michael Tee, a rheumatologist, who does good imaging for the project as the UP College of Medicine’s public affairs director.

It’s very fitting that the FMAB is the Mercado children’s tribute to their father, who passed away in 2000.

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