The Medical City sustains health care leadership, bags back-to-back international awards

Premier health institution The Medical City (TMC) is and has always been a safe place for all. But something had to be done to allay the public's fears about visiting hospitals, especially during the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Aside from fear of contracting the virus causing COVID-19, fear had also gripped those with chronic diseases or other health needs. Some people were ignoring symptoms altogether because they were scared to set foot in the ER or even in the doctor’s clinic.

To communicate that the hospital is indeed a safe place for all, The Medical City launched the “TMC One Complex, Two Hospital Systems” in April 2020. The two-in-one hospital system delineated separate areas and pathways – including emergency rooms, diagnostic labs, hospital wards, and elevators for COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 cases.

TMC had to reassure people that it would be safe to visit a hospital to seek treatment for COVID-19 as well as for other reasons. The TMC leaders saw that if people avoided hospitals when they needed urgent treatment, they would only become part of a second pandemic with illnesses that might have been resolved if treated early.

This campaign by The Medical City main hospital in Ortigas was replicated in other TMC enterprise hospitals – TMC Clark, TMC South Luzon, TMC Pangasinan, and TMC Iloilo.

This out-of-the-box strategy has earned back-to-back wins for TMC Ortigas − two awards at the 2021 PR Awards and COVID Management Initiative of the Year at the recently concluded Healthcare Asia awards.

The two much coveted awards from PR Asia are the Gold Award for Best PR Campaign for Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals and the Silver Award for Best COVID-19 Related Response. The winning campaign bested 400 other entries from across Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the ANZ regions.

Healthcare Asia awards program, on the other hand, aims to honor hospitals and clinics that have risen above the challenges and made a remarkable impact to their patients most especially amidst the massive disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is TMC Ortigas’ fifth award from Healthcare Asia since 2018. In 2020, TMC Ortigas bagged the coveted Hospital of the Year award and Customer Service Initiative of the Year for its Red Coat Ambassadors Program.

In 2019, lauded for his naturally endowed leadership skills and his ability to foster, encourage, and inspire his medical community, TMC President and CEO Dr. Eugenio Jose F. Ramos took home the CEO of the Year Award. TMC Ortigas, in 2018, clinched the Marketing Initiative of the Year award for "Sing-A-Lung," the hospital's pulmonary test that patients can sing.

A safe place for all

“The concept that we started actually made it much easier for a lot of other hospitals to figure out exactly how not only to deal with COVID cases but also how to open up part of their hospitals to non-COVID which actually is a lot more and which have more serious conditions as well that require hospitalization,” said TMC President and CEO Dr. Eugenio Jose F. Ramos.

“When the COVID pandemic started in March 2020, there were a lot of unknowns... we did not have a full understanding of how to treat it. As we were able to regain our bearing quickly, we started to band together and to start thinking how do we handle the issue of fear and uncertainty, the prevailing attitude and condition and emotional state of a lot of people here in Manila and the rest of the world when the COVID pandemic started to surge.”

“We realized that there was a need for us to handle and manage that fear and uncertainty and to make sure that the rest of the community and patient population would be able to gain confidence and trust that it was safe to go to The Medical City hospital not only because they may have COVID but because they are afraid of COVID,” said Dr. Ramos.

“TMC One Complex, Two Hospital Systems” refers to the new normal hospital operation of TMC Ortigas that provides patients with clear-cut processes and division for COVID-19 patients in isolated areas and separate safe access for non-COVID-19 patients who need consults, diagnostic tests, intervention, and management of their diseases. Exclusive pathways have been identified from the moment a patient enters the hospital to his planned appointment or destination.

The “Back to Health, Back to Hospital” campaign was then launched to assure the public that the hospital is safe and continues to run as normal. Videos and social media posts highlighted the higher-than-standard protocols the hospital had put in place to convey the message that it is even safer than malls or other establishments.

TMC Ortigas covered all bases with different video content such as actual tours of the facilities, messages from doctors, as well as testimonials from patients. The message was that patients’ health and safety are The Medical City’s top priority, and that delayed care could often lead to more problems.

Other COVID-19 related initiatives

TMC Ortigas also initiated partnerships with local government units, and the Department of Health (DOH) which covered COVID-19 testing, efficient contact tracing, and management of patients. It also formed an alliance with the big hospitals in Metro Manila and led a collective appeal to the government to designate hospitals for COVID-19 so that efforts, manpower, and resources could be centralized and better controlled.

In July 2020, TMC Ortigas launched its Drive-Thru COVID-19 Testing using ECLIA. ECLIA detects antibodies produced in patient’s blood due to COVID-19 infection. In August, the hospital expanded its drive-thru services adding COVID-19 gold standard RT-PCR test, and other diagnostic laboratory procedures, providing patients a safe and convenient way to get tested while limiting exposure to others.

Some agile projects completed to address the COVID-19 challenges included Teleconsult and Home Care services in case patients cannot leave their homes, as well as Lab on Wheels which provides home service collection of samples for routine testing at TMC Ortigas clinical laboratory. Further, its Vaccine on Wheels provides pre-vaccination teleconsultation and home service administration of flu vaccine.

TMC Ortigas also launched an Online HMO Concierge that provides personalized medical coordination for HMO and Insurance patients online. A Medical Concierge for patients visiting the hospital was likewise established to increase efficiency and revitalize patients’ hospital experience.

Through its efforts, TMC had the largest share of voice or 48% of the Philippines' top five hospitals in 2020. Foot traffic rose to 20% between May and December 2020. This proves that there was a steady rise in the number of patients returning to TMC Ortigas despite the pandemic.