Left to right: UCCP Chairman Keith Quebral, AMG SVP Barbara Cabo, VCMC Infection Control Chairman Dr. Brian Lim, and VCMC CEO Jun Amistoso. | Delta Letigio
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Visayas Community Medical Center (VCMC) has been serving the health and wellness needs of Cebuanos for the last 69 years, but their plans are only getting bigger.
In the 69th founding anniversary of one of Cebu’s top community hospitals, the VCMC, which grows stronger under the AppleOne Medical Group (AMG), the hospital executives said that it will soon be expanding its capacity and services in two years.
VCMC Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Jun Amistoso, said that around P1 billion is poured into the face-lifting of the VCMC to provide more rooms that will be in compliance with the current health standards established during the pandemic.
The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation bears heavy in the mind of the hospital executives and they are determined to be pandemic ready in the future.
Currently, the VCMC has a licensed capacity of 200 with only 90 functional beds due to the social distancing protocol, but the expansion is expected to increase the license capacity to 300 beds, which will be pandemic ready.
“Having learned the lessons of the pandemic, we anchor improvements on a new era, a new normal with capability enhancement,” said Amistoso.
Apart from full renovations and expansion of patient rooms and doctors’ clinics, other upcoming key developments are the hemodialysis unit, heart and vascular institute, cardiac catheterization lab, sleep lab, hearing unit, and birthing unit.
A modern rehabilitation center, outpatient diagnostic and laboratories, and outpatient pharmacies will also be built, all with new state-of-the-art facilities.
The VCMC will be moving forward with Apple One Medical Group along with other hospitals in the country such as Brokenshire Hospital in Davao City to provide better medical care for communities.
Humble Beginnings
Yet VCMC executives said the hospital will remember its past and evangelical beginnings back on April 6, 1952, as a hospital built by American missionaries, a joint project of the Presbyterian Mission of the United States of America and the emerging United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP).
It was then named the Cebu Evangelical Hospital and was the tallest building at three-story high along Jones Avenue, now Osmeña Boulevard.
The hospital was then renamed Cebu Community Hospital in the 1960s to be more inclusive to the local community regardless of religious affiliations. The naming was once again changed to Metro Cebu Community Hospital in 1982, and its current name, Visayas Community Medical Center, was inked in 1999.
What was once a 25-bed capacity facility, is now a 200-bed center and a tertiary Level IV hospital catering to patients from all over the region.
“VCMC continues to be a part of our healing ministry. We welcome this opportunity to work together to give quality health care service to the community,” said Keith Quebral, UCCP Chairman.
Photo from Visayas Community Medical Center (VCMC)
Growing in AMG
AMG Senior Vice President Barbara Cabo said that this expansion is only the beginning of growing VCMC to become a top-tier community hospital.
A medical arts building is expected to be built within the VCMC compound during the expansion as well.
Aside from VSMC, the AMG has also acquired the United Shalom Medical Center (USMC) in Tacloban Leyte and the Brokenshire Hospital in Davao City.
Cabo said that AMG has big plans for the three hospitals and although they are not closing the possibility of acquiring more hospitals in the future, she said that AppleOne is set to focus on the expansion and improvement of the three hospitals. /rcg