By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

The Bacolod Queen Of Mercy Hospital Inc. has been granted accreditation from the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (Philhealth). Hospital chief operating officer, Dr. Wilson Tulmo, confirmed Philhealth coverage was effective as of last month.

“Since we opened, patients [with] Philhealth benefits were covered, even if we [received] the certificate on February 26,” he explained.

Philhealth officials visited the hospital yesterday and confirmed the accreditation.

Meanwhile, the hospital official said they will soon provide more beds to accommodate for dialysis patients.

“From five, we [will have] 12 beds,” Tulmo said. “Soon, we are going to have 16 beds.”

He added, the hospital will also be investing in a CT scanner and a VItek Machine, which the hospital COO described as “a machine that would be able to identify the microorganism and look at their sensitivity pattern so that we will know what organisms are attacking the patients and what antibiotics are [necessary].”

“We will also be opening soon the Gastro-Endoscopy Unit,” Tulmo added.

Presently, the hospital is at 70 percent occupancy and has a total workforce of 300, which is lower than when the facility was known as the Bacolod Our Lady Of Mercy Specialty Hospital.

Our Lady Of Mercy Hospital was shut down last July due to the non-issuance of hospital accreditation from PhilHealth following lapses by the previous hospital administration./DGB, WDJ