| PCSO for the needy? Is this a case of misusing PCSO funds |
[Sep. 19th, 2008|06:59 pm] |
A 30-something patient, coming home from her work in Brunei because of a medical condition requiring surgery, is a lucky girl. Extremely lucky, in fact.
I have seen so many patients who can hardly pay for their hospitalization expenses, especially when they undergo surgery procedures. They tell us beforehand they might have problems later, when their bill comes, but I advise them their treatment cannot be postponed until they accumulate the amount quoted for the procedure and the hospital expense that comes with confinement. I tell them they can always go to PCSO to augment whatever Philhealth partly pays for the bill. When they are discharged, most of them do get some amount from PCSO, to lessen their out-of-pocket expense.
This 30-something lady's story is very different, something extraordinary, or should I say highly irregular. That is, if the past patient's PCSO-begging stories are our gauge. She came as an elective case for cholecystectomy. She opted for the more modern, much more expensive option, laparoscopic cholecystectomy over the classical but less expensive procedure. She was told of the advantages of the newer procedure, and likewise told that it was a much more expensive option. She didn't say she wasn't prepared to shell out that amount, and emphatically said she wanted it, and she underwent such option. Then when she was about to be discharged she comes and tells me she wanted me to issue a guarantee to the hospital that she was going to pay in two weeks. I was surprised to hear that request. I didn't know she wasn't prepared to pay the amount. Then finally she comes with a guarantee from PCSO, assuring payment for the hospital bill and professional fees of the doctors who took care of her. I thought it was very irregular because not once did this happen to my many indigent patients. Why irregular? Firstly, my previous patients were given only as much as P 6,000.00 even if the hospital bill was P 20,000.00 or even higher. Never before was the hospital bill fully paid for by PCSO. Secondly, PCSO would not assist, or grant monetary assistance to patients in the private rooms. This is understandable since it is assumed that those who prefer the private rooms are those who can or should afford the higher fees. Ms. Brunei was in a room with airconditioner, a refrigerator, and TV set. Certainly, she had class. Thirdly, PCSO never paid the professional fees, no matter how much it was. There were some occasions when attending doctors have to sacrifice their fees just so the patients can leave the hospital on promissory notes, no matter when these will be settled. Our patient had so much clout I suppose, that all of the professional fees were guaranteed by PCSO.
There is something wrong with the way money for charity is being dispensed. Just because someone knows some people in the right places, she gets extraordinary, out-of-this world financial assistance. I now believe money in this agency can, and probably is truly used to gain pogi points. What a shame on those supposedly ensuring its right usage. What do you think? |
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| Post-Peter Paul |
[Dec. 25th, 2006|08:16 am] |
Today is the 25th of December. This is my 10th day out of my job as medical director of Peter Paul Hospital. Even if today is work day (though it isn't), I would not need to hurry up anymore because I don't need to go to the office early. I will have more time passing through the farm.
I didn't see it coming but it happened. Maybe, the answer to my wonderings lies in what happened to the workers of the mother corporation. Maybe, the company was really not in a position to build an ambitious project as I proposed. If they only told me long before, maybe I could have set forth into a different direction or strategy. I believe time has passed for the hospital to take advantage of those opportunities.
I was lucky enough, thanks to my bosses, to be included in the beneficiaries of the retrenchment compensation package. By resigning my position way ahead (June), but to be effective only this December, I thought I would get nothing for my short stay with the hospital. Of course I was ready for that, because I volunteered to leave. Fortunately, the compensation package was offered to the workers via DOLE last October so I was still considered part of the regular workforce. That's luck.
As to the future of the hospital, I hope the owners will realize that it cannot be expected to generate everything from nothing. Good service has a price, maybe a high price. But good service means a lot to the people in this area, and good service also pays ... a lot. Just for those co-workers with whom I shared my mission and vision for the hospital, and who continue to hope for better things, I hope the hospital will not go the way of its mother company, but instead rise above all challenges, and stand alone and continue its legacy as the only facility providing health services in the community. |
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| moving on |
[Jun. 29th, 2006|11:30 am] |
My immediate supervisor, the HRD Manager came to see me today. I know he was here because of my resignation letter. It is really deplorable that surface mails take that long to reach their destinations even though they were registered mails. Anyway, now that the cat is out of the bag, or the ball is now in their own hands as being said too often, all I can do now is wait and see. Point of no return for me, so no more negotiations coming. Time to move on.
My six years with this organization was all about learning the ropes the hard way. Running a healthcare facility owned by businessmen involved in an entirely different core business was the biggest challenge and source of frustrations. On the first five years of my stay, I put emphasis on the challenge part. I didn't give much thought on how systems I inherited were too frustratingly inefficient and ineffective to handle. At first it was okay but somehow, as time went by, the build-up was too much for me. I soon began to realize that I was already at the endpoint of my career in this organization. While I set sights on bigger things for the hospital when I came in 2000, what I achieved so far is probably all that I could achieve given the systems and the support shown by those who hold the purse and who set the direction of the bigger organization where we are part of. This is not sour-graping. It is sad acceptance of the real siuation and a fair assessment of what is in store for this hospital. To me, it is about a lot of missed opportunities, of not putting to good use our built-in advantages, of complacency, and maybe, straying away from what the corporation professes towards its lowly stakeholders, the workers.
I would like to think that we in the hospital were able to create a huge turn-around despite the challenges and roadblocks that lay ahead when we took over. I do not know how the owners can be convinced of this hospital's potential compared to the output of the mother factory. I hope that this change forthcoming will also create some changes in the mindset of the owners of this hospital. The present clients and stakeholders deserve better that what they are getting now.
As for me, I can always go on fulltime in my private practice. If there are opportunities for another try to advance in my other career path, they will be considered. The road ahead is still wide and long. I hope I will eventually see myself at the end of what I have envisioned myself to be early on in my professional life. |
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