Calamba, Laguna”•Calamba Medical Center is awesome and growing. Throughout its history, it has always been proudly called by the city as just “CMC”, becoming a household name since its pioneering year in 1989.
Now on its 30th year of operation, it has truly spearheaded the development of healthcare services in the Southern Tagalog region. Its monumental growth as a small 25-bed hospital to its now six-hectare compound in the very heart of Calamba is an inspirational story in itself, centering on the efforts of its youthful servant-leader and president Dr. Jose O. Juliano.
At its anniversary party last July 19, CMC management with Chairman Efren Recto and Juliano launched its newest and most ambitious project, CMC as the Healthcare City of the South.
CMC will now be known as Calamba Medical City, as its gift to the city, as it becomes the very first concept healthcare city in the Philippines, the officials said.
“CMC plans to build an entire city within the city of Calamba, geared for the needs of the aging people who want to live near the hospital,” they added in a statement.
The cornerstone to any healthcare city would be its hospital. In CMC, the hospital has had a great reputation of service to the community, including its needy constituents.
CMC has embarked on recreating its image as a world-class hospital by building five new medical towers since 2011. The first three towers have been finished, which includes the 12-storey Medical Arts Building, the Dialysis Center and the new Hospital.
The Medical Arts Building (Tower 1) is the tallest building in the city and boasts of 70 medical and surgical specialist clinics, having various diplomate consultants in all fields of medicine. It also has the first and most complete eye center in the area, the Calamba Eye Center, now on its 23rd year.
Major health maintenance organizations like Medicard, Maxicare, and Intellicare have offices or clinics in the tower.
The Dialysis Center (Tower 3) is the largest in the region, currently at 40 dialysis stations but capable of 100 stations once fully furnished with the newest machines by its partner company, Fresenius, Philippines.
It has two advanced double-pass RO systems, allowing the center to run all dialysis machines while one system is being routinely disinfected. It is spacious and clean and boasts of having daytime dialysis for its patients.
The new 200-bed 9-storey Hospital (Tower 2), which opened just last year, has a healing atmosphere no less designed by Dan Lichauco, the top architect of The Medical City.
It has 12 top operating suites for eye/cataract surgery, minimally invasive/laparoscopic surgery and orthopedic/hip replacement surgeries. It is the first true smart hospital, allowing machines and staff to communicate through seamless medical wifi.
This allows mobile nurses and doctors to receive information on the go, whether inside the hospital through electronic medical records or through the internet for teleradiology and telemedicine.
The newest additions to the hospital are the Sleep Apnea Center and the Women’s Center.
Currently, in construction, the Cancer Center will be the first in Calamba, housing the most advanced linear accelerator and brachytherapy units in the South. Slated for opening in 2020, it will cater to various types of cancer, from breast, brain and gynecologic areas.
It will be a complete center, from radiotherapy to chemotherapy to nuclear medicine. CMC has tied up with MetroRadlink in this endeavor.
The last tower will be the Eye Center building, which will house the new Eye Center services along with additional clinics for future doctors. Linked to the first tower, this will allow the entry of other specialists needed in the South as travel time to Manila gets longer with the worsening traffic along the South Luzon Expressway.
