The Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) could provide the oxygen requirement of its patients, including those with coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
VSMMC chief Dr. Gerardo Aquino Jr. said that the hospital has its own oxygen generation plant with a maximum capacity of 700 tanks daily.
“All of that supply is intended for the patients we are attending to. We have oxygen slots in the patient areas,” Aquino said in his post on the VSMMC Facebook account.
He said that the hospital has no issues or concerns regarding the supply of oxygen.
In his post, he said that the hospital can serve the requirements of its patients.
“Pre-pandemic, we consume only 350 to 400 tanks per day. We also have a third-party supplier that can provide us additional oxygen if needed,” Aquino said.
In a recent meeting, he said that if they have spare oxygen, they could help out smaller hospitals, especially those retained by the Department of Health.
“Three years ago, we have already determined what the needs (of the hospital) are, especially in times of emergency. That’s why we had our own oxygen plant,” Dr. Aquino recalled.
The hospital had also acquired High Flow Nasal devices, which can be used instead of the mechanical ventilators, for patients that have difficulty in breathing.
According to the VSMMC chief, they had 32 units of these devices, which during the onset of the pandemic last year had been lent to other hospitals in Cebu.
Currently, 10 of the 32 units are being used by VSMMC-counterpart hospitals in the cities of Bacolod and Davao while one is also borrowed by another hospital, Dr. Aquino said.
The remaining 21 units are all used by VSMMC patients, he said, so they are purchasing another 10 units for emergency use.
The use of the lower-priced high flow nasal devices is preferable to mechanical ventilators because it is better than having Covid-19 patients intubated, he explained.
“The diversity, synergy, and agility of VSMMC were tested more when the Covid-19 pandemic came,” Dr. Aquino wrote on his Facebook post. “We continue to develop, implement, and adopt new ways to operate, and many of these changes have accelerated positive transformation in the delivery of quality healthcare service amidst this deadly virus.” (PR)