University of Santo Tomas Hospital gains Corporate Social Responsibility Award

Taking inspiration from Loren Eiseley’s Starfish Story, the University of Santo Tomas Hospital (USTH) set its course on delivering affordable, reliable and holistic healthcare services to all, especially the underprivileged.

Its hospital outreach and indigency programs provided free diagnostic and ancillary tests, patient health screening and education as well as medical and surgical interventions for indigent patients. This initiative also garnered the hospital the Corporate Social Responsibility of the Year Award for the Philippines during the recently concluded Health Care Asia Awards.

Viewing each indigent patient as a starfish thrown back to the sea in order to live and thrive, each effort in the project has made a difference in each indigent who sought them, although they will not benefit the majority of the public.

USTH has had a long history of charitable work, dating as far as 72 years ago when the hospital first opened its charity unit in 1945. It has continued this mission and legacy through seven decades, administering quality healthcare to the sick and underprivileged. It devotes a considerable amount of resources to its charity unit, the USTH-Clinical Division (CD) to see improvements in community health. The charity unit admits and treats patients at a minimal cost, thanks to revenues from the hospital’s private division that substantially support the CD operations. It operates without professional fees from physicians, serving indigent patients in different medical and surgical specialties and subspecialties.

Additionally, it also offers an Ambulatory Care Services (ACS) unit, a multispecialty outpatient clinic facility within the USTHCD, which serves approximately 500 patients daily, and provides quality healthcare services and minor ambulatory surgical procedures and interventions.

Meanwhile, USTH’s Outreach and Indigency Program, which was launched December 2017, provides free services for indigent patients. Diagnostic tests as well as patient health screenings and education were offered to the indigents.

“It may not be a change in the world as we know it, but it makes a difference in the world of every patient who benefited from the program...These patients are given another chance to live, to hope and to be a fruitful member of the community,” Fr. Manuel F. Roux, O.P., Chief Executive Officer of USTH, declared.

Non-government agencies and private individuals cashed in financial donations to jumpstart the endeavor.

Besides education and training, the academic hospital focuses on giving accessible, well-grounded, and comprehensive healthcare to anyone who needs it, especially the poor. USTH also makes sure that said healthcare will be delivered by competent, ethical and compassionate professionals.

In a span of one and a half year, more than 1,700 patients benefited from the hospital’s free medical and surgical interventions across different multidisciplinary settings, including breast cancer surgeries, thyroidectomies, hernia repair, gynecologic surgeries, hemodialysis access, coronary interventions, and pacemaker and defibrillator implantation. An avalanche of projects also followed suit.

The Healthcare Asia Awards 2019 was held on May 23, 2019 at the Conrad Centennial Singapore.

This year's nominations were judged by a panel consisting of Abhay Bangi, Partner, Life Sciences & Healthcare Lead, Ernst & Young; Dr. Loke Wait Chiong Executive Director, Healthcare Sector Leader, Deloitte; Dr. Zubin Daruwalla, Director, SEAC Health Industries Leader, PwC; Chin Chee Choon, Advisory Leader, Nexia TS; and Willy Leow, Partner, Risk Advisory Services, BDO LLP.

Check out the event photos during the awards night here.

If you would like to join the 2020 awards and be awarded as one of the most outstanding healthcare companies in the region, please email Julie Anne Nuñez at [email protected].