To help cocreate value in the country’s health-care system, the chief executive officers (CEOs) of top hospitals in the Philippines gathered at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to share ideas and best practices pivotal to the operations of local hospitals.
The Hospital CEO Forum 2018, themed “Creating Excellent Outcomes in the Philippine Healthcare System,” is the first yearly forum conceptualized and organized by the ADB, Novartis Healthcare Philippines and Sandoz Corp. Philippines, with the support of the Swiss Embassy in the Philippines, Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) and Wallace Business Forum.
ADB Senior Health Specialist Gerard Servais said hospitals have a significant role in society as places for healing and preserving good health.
“The first Hospital CEO Forum will help hospitals prepare for the challenges of the future, particularly in delivering sustainable, inclusive and resilient health care,” he said.
For PhilHealth President and CEO Dr. Roy Ferrer, this event will “equip local hospitals in adapting to their crucial and evolving role within the health-care system, especially in response to the changing health-care needs of Filipinos and their emerging technologies.”
Partnering in this forum was the Swiss Embassy’s way to contribute to the discussion on the fulfillment of a universal quality health care in the country.
“I believe that through best practices, the Swiss health system might serve as an aspirational benchmark to possibly trigger and drive transformational reforms in other countries, including the Philippines,” Swiss Ambassador Andrea Reichlin said.
“And although clearly, we have no exportable and reproducible models in mind, our ambition is to share lessons learned among partners as at the end, we collectively aspire for the same goals: to allocate efficiently scarce resources, and put our citizens and patients at the center of our attention and services, legitimizing at such our respective institutions and policies. In line with this, we are also keen to note that the Philippines has already begun its reform cycle in health financing and service delivery, especially since recently, the President of the Republic certified as urgent the bill seeking universal health care for Filipinos,” he added.
Meanwhile, Novartis takes pride as a partner in this event that aims to facilitate positive changes and lead to enhanced patient care.
“An important area of focus for the future is building the skill of hospital managers to drive innovation, introduce new ideas and novel approaches that can result in significant patient benefits,” said Cheryl Maley, president and managing director of Novartis Healthcare Philippines.
“The forum will allow hospital CEOs to share insights on how hospitals can manage challenges and take advantage of trends in technology investment, connectivity, innovations, public-private partnerships and the changing health-care environment,” noted Dr. Eduardo P. Banzon, ADB principal health specialist for sustainable development and climate change.
“We envisage the annual Hospital CEO Forum to serve as a strategic platform to facilitate continuous dialogue between the government and private-sector stakeholders on issues and information relevant to models and practices on hospital management systems,” said Christine Fajardo, organizing committee head, Hospital CEO Forum 2018 and corporate affairs head, Novartis Healthcare Philippines.
The forum featured resource persons who shared insights on how hospitals can improve access to hospital care and other levels of care within an integrated network while striving for improvement in quality and patient safety; models of integration of health-care provision at various levels featuring innovations on public-private partnerships and financing arrangements; and trends and practices on the use and sharing of data on health outcome and patient demographics across various management units.
Among the resource persons were former Health Secretary Dr. Enrique Ona, who spoke on achieving UHC through equitable provision of quality health-care services.
The daylong event had three sessions: ensuring universal access to hospital services, integration of health-care service delivery, and sharing and utilization of health outcome and health-care utilization data across hospital management units.
Forum participants included top executives of Metro Pacific Hospital Holdings Inc., Philippine Heart Center, St. Luke’s Medical Center-Global City, Qualimed Health Network, Rizal Medical Center, Philippine General Hospital, Southern Philippines Medical Center, Davao Doctors Hospital, National Telehealth Center/National Institutes of Health, Tarlac Provincial Hospital Cardinal Santos Medical Center, and The Medical City, among others. Roderick L. Abad