LAOAG CITY, August 30 (PIA) – The Laoag City General Hospital (LCGH) has tripled its income in five years performing at par with the other medical institutions in Ilocos Norte.
According to Dr. Francis “Dax” Dacuycuy, hospital chief, there has been a significant increase in number of patient’s admission since its launching on August 2011 which brings financial growth and sustainability in the city-run hospital.
Dacuycuy has reported an annual income of P151 million on its fifth year compared to P51 million income during its first year of operation.
“If we based the performance of the hospital through the parameters of patients and fiscal sustainability, I must say that we have been having a spikes of growth in the past 5 years,” said Dacuycuy.
In 2015 alone, the hospital has gained more than 8,000 in-and-out-patient admissions which translates to 126 percent occupancy growth rate, which Dacuycuy said, is near the 10,000 target of the hospital annually.
“With the trust and confidence that our patients has been giving us, we are confident that we can tap the 10,000 level of admission in the next years to come,” Dacuycuy added.
The upgraded LCGH has once become a center of controversy when it was tagged as “too ambitious” on the part of the city to upgrade a modern city hospital in the amount of P350 million.
The amount was obtained through a loan by the city government. However, through the City Ordinance No. 2010-026, the city council of Laoag has established the expansion of the hospital creating various plantilla positions at the modern city hospital.
To date, the LCGH is one of the most-sought hospitals with its modern and state-of-the- art facilities and equipment such as the presence of Laparoscopic surgery, the computed tomography (CT) scan, and the newly-installed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) which is the first in the province.
According to Dacuycuy, the hospital is set to expand with one more building to accommodate the upsurge of the patients coming into the hospital.
“From our initial 50-bed capacity, we are now into 166-bed capacity but we still need to expand since we are also using now the alley and the conference rooms to accommodate patients which I believe is not very conducive for them,” he said.
Dacuycuy also emphasized that the growth and development of the hospital is determinative with the expanse of patients and gross earnings of the institution.
Aside from its ordinary services, LCGH is also providing added value to go beyond the mediocre services of the local hospitals in the province.
There is also a plan to expand the intensive care unit (ICU) to provide better services to the critically-illed patients.
To sustain its development, Dacuycuy said that they have medium and long-term goal such as to upgrade the level of the hospital to bring in bigger capitation fund form the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (Philhealth).
The LCGH has recently celebrated its fifth year anniversary on August 26. (Cherry Joy D. Garma/PIA-1, Ilocos Norte)
