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Sunday, April 16, 2006
Public hospitals earn more
BASED on trends, most district hospitals in Cebu Province expect a rise in income, with some hoping to a difference of 127 percent at the end of the year compared to last year.
This was revealed in last Tuesday’s meeting with the chiefs of the Capitol’s 18 district hospitals.
They noted a rise in their incomes for the first quarter of this year compared to the same period last year.
Dr. Cristina Giango, chief of the Integrated Provincial Health Office, said the district hospitals attribute the rise in their earnings to the Capitol’s aggressive enrollment of indigent families to the Philhealth program.
With the program, poor families are given free medical services, but the medical facilities can get reimbursements from Philhealth.
“This proves me right. I have announced this is in my inaugural address, that we will turn our district hospitals into economic enterprises without passing on the burden to the poor,” said Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia.
She challenged municipalities and cities to enrol as many families as they can to the program because the Capitol will enroll the same number.
But mayors of areas controlled by her political rivals until now refuse to join the program.
Evaluation
Because of this, she is asking people to go directly to the district hospitals and ask for application forms, adding that the Capitol will take care of them.
Last Tuesday, Garcia also informed the hospital chiefs that the Capitol for the first time will make an evaluation of the performance of each facility.
The assessment will consider income as major factor, she said, because the earnings will rely on the personnel’s innovation, drive and creativity.
She noted the hemorrhaging of Capitol funds by the hospitals, some having a budget of P22 million but earning less than P5 million.
Garcia is imposing for this year a target of 25 percent recovery of funds for the medical facilities.
The hospital chiefs initially complained, but she told them in the meeting that she did not pluck the figures out from the sky.
“That is not really a fantastic figure, because that is based on actual figures from the highest performer, which is Badian. That area is not a city and does not have more economic activity than the rest. So if Badian can do it, why can’t the rest?” she said.
“The projection is based on the trend,” she added.
The evaluation system will also take into consideration complaints lodged against a facility.
Like CEOs
To improve the services in the hospitals, the governor is considering them as chief executive officers in their respective facilities.
The medicine purchase has since been decentralized, they are given an amount for emergency purchases, and the Capitol has embarked on renovation of facilities.
The vacancies in personnel were also addressed with the outsourcing scheme, which all hospital chiefs agreed has worked.
As for the hospitals’ income, Ipho records show that all seven 10-bed hospitals earned for the Capitol a total of P3.7 million for last year.
But Balamban, Oslob, Barili, Daanbantayan, Pinamungajan, Carcar and Sta. Rosa already earned P1.1 million only for the first three months.
As for the eight 25-bed hospitals, they earned a total of P10 million last year, but have a total income of over P3.3 million for the first three months alone.
The highest projected income is 127 percent for Danao City, which earned a total of P2.5 million last year. It earned more than P1.4 million for the first quarter this year.
Carcar comes next at 106 percent. It earned P306,231 last year and already earned P157,730 for the first quarter. (JPM)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (April 16, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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