Three days 'til liftoff

Today was a day of vocational visits for our team. Nicole and I made our first observation of the day at Perpetual Succour Hospital. This is a private hospital that was opened in 1936, just recently celebrating their 75th anniversary. The first impression I got was that it was a very well-kept hospital and in the end I was proved to be right. We toured the radiology area to start with technologists, Alex Justimbaste and Quincmer Canoy. A lot of the processes here matched those of Geisinger, but there were some differences. The most obvious and not so surprising for a developing country was not as advanced technology. One thing that they do have is an MRI machine, which is one of only three in Cebu City. They are not as common to hospitals because of the costs of the machines including the electricity needed to power them and to keep them cool. They are quite sufficient in other modalities though with two cat scan machines, one fluoroscopy, one mammography, two portables, one c-arm, two ultrasound and three x-ray machines. Since they just started using digital CR imaging they are still limited with computers to allow viewing the images throughout the hospital, but improving quickly. They use a common identification technique by identifying the patients name and birthday before imaging, but do not require any written confirmation unless the patient is pregnant then a signature is required to confirm the patient is aware of the risks. Two shocking differences I found were the use of restraints with pediatric patients if needed and the lack of use of shielding of pediatric patients. At a look overall though, it was a very nice visit and the imaging facility had a very friendly staff and was also very well equipped for great treatments. Unfortunately, due to a busy physician schedule, our tour guide was unable to give us a tour of the rest of the hospital, but from the looks of the areas we did see, I have no doubt the rest of the hospital care followed suit with the imaging area.

Since we had some extra time from our change in schedule, we went to visit the Philippine Taoist Temple. Though we didn’t take a structured tour we did walk around the temples to see the sites. There was a very strict no picture policy in or facing the temple area, but we were able to get some pictures so you get an idea of what we saw.

Then we took a run by a golf course in the city where a few Rotarians were celebrating a birthday and playing some golf with lechon and beef awaiting them after completing the course, which didn't take long. The course was small, but it had added obstacles not present at most courses back home--goats. I'm sure it makes for a unique game to say the least.

After lunch we all split up with our respective RC host club members from Banilad Metro who took us to our related vocational locations. I went with RC President Dr. Desiree Jo C Gahi to Vincente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC), which is a public hospital, where she resides as an aspiring anesthesiologist. Public hospitals are more commonly for those patients who need treatment and don’t have a lot of resources and most even lack insurance. My main focus was on the radiology department and to my surprise this hospital just switched to a digital imaging system also. The procedures and technology was only maybe slightly under that of Perpetual Succour Hospital I visited earlier. My biggest issue in this hospital was dealing with the lack of privacy. Patients don't seem concerned with this, but for how many times the HIPPA privacy regulations at home have been reiterated to me, I found this tour difficult to deal with. There were cases of patients standing in hallways waiting, but that only intensified when I continued my tour around the hospital where patients were lying in beds that lined the hallways. As I mentioned from previous hospital visits here in the Philippines, wards are very common, more so in public hospitals, for those who can't afford to pay more for a public room or see no reason to pay more. In this case, the wards were overflowing with people. For example, Dr. Gahi informed me about the labor ward, where it is not uncommon to see three women in one bed that are in labor. As I was walking around the hospital I was just in shock. There were so many people that needed help and it seems the hospital does everything it can to help everyone, but the limited space and resources limits them to an extreme. This is only one of two public hospitals in Cebu City and both are full beyond capacity. The images of the conditions are burned in my head, but just can't be explained to truly understand the challenges these hospitals face with trying to care for all their patients. I was able to experience one thing while I was touring the hospital that was soothing yet surprising to me--twice a day a prayer is said over the loudspeaker for all to hear in hopes of cures and peace for all. I could not help but join in with hopes that somehow someone will make the situation here all better.

Meanwhile, team leader John had a busy day visiting a number of small businesses in Cebu City. Rotarian Pablito (Lito) Aquino is board secretary and manager of Filipinas Organic Coconut Products Corp. The main export of the company is virgin coconut oil for food, cosmetic, and industrial uses. Lito is an expert on the many applications of coconut oil for health benefits. Among the challenges he sees is the rampant conversion of arable land suitable for coconut cultivation into non-agricultural uses such as residential.

Pablito Aquino displays the kosher certification for the coconut oil he exports.

John also interviewed Melanie C. Ng, Executive VP of Ng Khai Development Corporation, an information technology company that partners with such firms as Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard to provide support to Filipino customers. The biggest challenge, according to Melanie Ng, is talent acquisition. It's hard to find and retain superstar developers when they are being poached by companies from China and elsewhere.


He was then briefed on the Filipino fair trade movement by Father Aladdin Luzon, OSA, of the Southern Partners & Fair Trade Center. The goal of the fair trade movement is to eliminate the middle man to give local craftspeople more of the value they create. The tools of the movement are greater transparency, more fairness, and increased equity for those who create the crafts. The firm has a website at http://www.fairtradecebu.com/

The Southern Partners & Fair Trade Center has a showroom of locally-produced crafts on Osmena Boulevard in Cebu. Left to right: Father Aladdin Luzon, John, Allan Limas, past president of the Rotary Club of Banilad Metro

Nicole’s afternoon vocational visit was to a school, which she will be posting about separately (stay tuned!).




We all joined back together for an authentic Chinese dinner with RC Banilad Metro for their meeting. We had lots of laughs and of course some singing and guitar playing. More fellowship followed with some music and drinks before we called it a night and prepared for our last few days in the Philippines.