The Future of Medical Care: Our Mission and Vision of Transforming the CGHMC.
We now pave the way for the development of tomorrow as the hospital reveals its most recent construction activities and what may be in store in the offing. This includes extensive looks at the conversion of the MRI Building into a fully integrated Cancer Institute, the expanded molecular lab, a new ER Triage and more. This may also make room for the 14-storey Dormitory currently in development and the Dr. James Dy ‘ Garden Skysuites’.
Planning for expansion and envisioning changes for optimum growth in health care is the driving force for any medical facility in order to thrive. Under the helm of Mr. Kelly Hun Sia, the CEO of the CGHMC and the Medical Director Dr. Samuel Ang, the year 2020 burst with a discernable energy that was noticeably uncontainable. Immediately, the dynamic duo moved to further implement changes that would make the CGHMC the world class medical institution that she once was in the 1970’s.
Dr. Ang mentioned that “ We were the benchmark hospital in the 1970s and we must regain that status”. Fortuitously, in January 2020, the CGHMC Molecular lab was being constructed and when the Covid 19 crisis broke out, this pandemic hobbled the delivery of services of the hospital, straining its resources and endangering its personnel.
Pushed by the sense of urgency, dread for its staff and the need to counter this virus more effectively, the 20 million peso Molecular lab construction was speeded up, DOH approved and by mid-April, started to service the crucial RT PCR swab tests needed to identify the positive covid patients.
To a great degree, this sometimes disconcertingly, irritating or painful examination, helped protect the employees, staff and patients by segregating the infected patients. Much more so, to accommodate the moderate to severe Covid positive patients, the CGHMC utilized the soon to be torn down Annex Building to exclusively house the ER Triage for covid suspect patients and opened an RT-PCR swabbing center on the second floor for commercial purposes.
Having separate structures was an advantage as the administration was able to isolate the admitted Covid patients and Building 2 (the New Building) was designated the Covid building with the upper 4 floors converted into Covid wards with the MRI, Service Pavilion and Building 1 admitting the non-covid patients.
At the height of the second surge, more that 180 Covid patients were being treated at the CGHMC. Separate vaccination areas were immediately established as soon as the Covid vaccines were available with the present vaccination center in the College grounds, an air conditioned facility that looks to be one of the best vaccination centers.
All these nimble moves had helped the CGHMC navigate these initial troubling times.
The MRI building will house the facilities of the Cancer Institute integrating the Radiation Oncology, Medical Oncology, Chemotherapeutic Units in this building along with the PET Scan. This one stop shop includes the professional consulting services, pain management and rehabilitation after cancer treatment.
The Institute of Urology is moving forward with the projected acquisition of the newest Da Vinci Robotic System to augment its near complete urological armamentarium. The Institute is widely acclaimed to have the acquired the very first (in Asia and in the Philippines) Koelis Ultrasound machine that enables the urologist to perform more accurate, safe and less infective prostate biopsies, because of the fusion of the MRI and real-time ultrasound images. Looking forward, as expansion implies progress, the Dr. James G. Dy Garden Skysuites, a projected 14-storey building, to further house and expand the newer and technically advanced diagnostic and therapeutic services of the hospital, will be erected as an L-shaped edifice. This will abut the MRI building with a driveway in between, move to its elbow in the area of the present Charity Pavilion and then to the area of the Annex Building. Both the aforementioned two 50 year old structures will be torn down to make way for the Skysuites. Such is progress. The old gives way to the new. Change is a continuum. Progress begets advancement. The future, then, is brighter … better.
