By Jessica Asprer
With close to 98 percent of Makati Medical Center’s personnel already vaccinated against COVID-19, medical director Dr. Saturnino Javier reported an improvement in confidence among the public to seek medical care onsite.
In a media briefing last week, Dr. Javier said the hospital’s vaccinated personnel were given Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines. The remaining staff members yet to be vaccinated, he added, were either waiting for their preferred brands or in quarantine following exposure to COVID-19 patients.
The medical director emphasized that despite their persistent vaccination rollout across all hospital demographics, Makati Med does not force its staff to be inoculated.
As of early this week, over 1.6 million healthcare workers in the country have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, while 1.1 million in the A1 priority group have been fully vaccinated.
“Makati Med has always given equal attention to non-COVID cases or non-COVID patients,” Dr. Javier said, adding that despite the bustling “warzone”, the hospital doors remained open to non-COVID patients.
As of May 31, the total number of admitted positive cases reached 14,241. On average, Makati Med receives 6,226 cases in a month or 207 cases per day, with a COVID fatality rate of 1.9 percent
During the surge from March to April this year, Makati Med met major challenges in manpower and bed capacity allocation, coupled with the influx of patients in emergency rooms and the growing number of severe and critical cases.
Makati Med reached maximum capacity for COVID-19 patients during the spike late in March.
Working through the surge, contingency measures were implemented—these included efforts to hire more healthcare personnel, a modified skeleton workforce, the addition of critical care units, enhanced teleconsultation platforms, COVID-19 home care programs, and an outpatient drive-thru program.
“We need to move forward […] have a vision of the future,” president and chief executive Pilar Nenuca Almira said, noting plans of the Joint Commission International (JCI) accredited hospital to strengthen international partnerships with health insurance companies.
“We are very confident that Makati Medical Center will model the way, will be a trailblazer in the hospital industry,” she said.