WVMC dedicated hospital for COVID-19

ILOILO City – Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC) in Mandurriao district has been designated as dedicated facility for confirmed coronavirus disease  2019 (COVID-19) cases in Region 6.

A memorandum of agreement (MOA) for this was inked by the Department of Health (DOH) Region 6, government and private hospitals here.

WVMC will allocate 450 beds for confirmed COVID-19 cases, said Dr. Jane Juanico, DOH-6 focal person on COVID-19.

Protocols for admission have been agreed, too, to efficiently manage the medical personnel and resources of Iloilo City, said Juanico.

Aside from confirmed cases, WVMC will also accommodate persons under investigation (PUI) with severe signs and symptoms, PUI with mild signs and symptoms, elderly (with or without co-morbidities), non-elderly (with uncontrolled co-morbidities), and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) patients from Region 6.

West Visayas State University Medical Center (WVSU-MC) has been designated as dedicated non-COVID facility for service patients.

But it may also be designated as a COVID hospital in case of an overflow of COVID-19 cases at the WVMC, said Juanico.

WVMC shall first transfer the first 200 non-COVID-19 cases to WVSU-MC to accommodate the all confirmed COVID-19 cases and those PUI and SARI cases that they should cater.

It will gradually free-up its patient bed capacities to reach the 450-bed capacity for COVID-19 cases.

WVSU-MC, among others, will allocate a total of 212 beds for non-COVID-19 cases from WVMC.

The Western Visayas Sanitarium in Santa Barbara, Iloilo has been identified as dedicated facility for all PUIs (with mild signs and symptoms) and non-elderly with controlled co-morbidities.

Meanwhile, private hospitals (such as Saint Paul’s Hospital Iloilo, Iloilo Mission Hospital, Iloilo Doctors’ Hospital, Qualimed, Amosup Seamen’s Hospital, The Medical City, Medicus Medical Center, and Metro Iloilo Hospital and Medical Center), subject to their respective policies on service case studies, agreed on the following:

* allocate an additional 10 percent (as part of their corporate social responsibility or CSR) of their authorized bed capacities for charity or service ward patients, in addition to the 10 percent required by law;

* accommodate non-COVID-19 patients referred by WVMC which cannot be admitted by WVSU-MC

* if classified a Level 3 Tertiary Hospital, shall be the first to absorb the patients of WVSU-MC coming from WVMC; and

* if classified a Level 2 Tertiary Hospital, shall accommodate excess non-COVID-19 patients if the Level 3 Tertiary Hospitals’ 20 percent authorized bed capacities have been saturated

For its part, DOH-6 shall compensate the cost incurred by the hospitals for the 10 percent of their CSR; and form a committee to monitor and control the use of equipment and medical supplies coming from private hospitals, institutions and private individuals that could augment the equipment and supply needs of the government hospitals especially the WVMC, Sanitarium and WVSU-MC, among others.

In related story, WVMC is now ready to accept specimens for COVID-19 testing.

“Before ginapadala naton sa Manila or Cebu, subong diri na sya available,” said DOH regional director Dr. Marlyn Convocar.

She also said Western Visayas “is assured of 5,000 COVID-19 test kits from the DOH central office./PN