St. Ignatius Medical Clinic: Making Health Care Affordable for the Poor
Mike Banos
December 05, 2008
While serving the rural barangays for the City Health Department as medical officers in the early nineties, Dr. Meneleo "Loloi" R. Navarro and his colleagues was struck by the extreme poverty of most people in the area who couldn't even afford basic medical care.
"When we gave them a prescription for their ailments they would just look at us and ask 'What shall we do with this?' recalls Navarro."We realized that people who didn't even earn enough to eat couldn't possibly have any money to buy medicines when they got sick."
Determined to change this deplorable situation, Navarro and his schoolmates from the Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan High School: Drs. Erickson San Juan, Raoul dela Serna, Aaron Oliveros and Victor Orencia, established the St. Ignatius Medical Clinic for the poor at a makeshift clinic below a private residence at 8th St., Nazareth in 1991.
When they started, the group only charged a medical consultation fee of P20 with medicines provided free of charge through the Committee of German Doctors for Developing Countries under Peter Metzger, medical director. This volunteer organizations is a non-stock, non-profit relief organization based in Frankfurt/Main, Germany dedicated to providing medical services for the poor in third world countries.
"We want to make it affordable so the price does not become a barrier to consultation," dela Serna said. "However, although we could have provided our services for free, we made it a point to charge a minimum consultation fee because we wanted people to value their own health by giving it the dignity it deserves. Of course in extreme cases, we even waived fees for patients who couldn't even afford that minimal amount."
Initially, even Metzger himself was skeptical of the project, but when he saw for himself the doctors dedication and the number of patients flocking to the clinic, he not only provided free medicines but even gave the group free use of his 4X4 vehicle when they went up to the rural areas to serve patients who were too poor to pay the fare to go downtown.
With but a few patients at the start, the group only had de la Serna as full time resident doctor with the rest reporting part-time depending on the need for their services. In no time at all, the little clinic was serving 150-200 patients a day.
However, even at that early stage, the founders already realized they had to break free of their dependence on the German Doctors if they wanted their clinic to sustain itself in the long run. In 1993, the group registered the St. Ignatius Health Foundation, Inc. (SIHFI) with the Securities and Exchange Commission as a non-stock, non-profit foundation.
From the start, the group only sourced its funds from its patients, and dug into personal pockets when funds ran short, which was often. Furniture and appliances for the clinic were personal items made available for its use by the founders.
Their efforts did not go unnoticed. During its March 2002 commencement exercises, Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan (XU-AdC) cited SIHFI with the Fr. William Masterson Award for Community Service. Barely a year later, the Committee of German Doctors stopped providing the clinic with free medicines. What looked at first to be the end of the project in fact turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
By accident (or Divine Intervention, depending how you see it), Navarro found the present site of the clinic at the Pelaez Sports Center. The 120 sq.m. space provided space for a receiving area, and consultation rooms for pediatrics and surgery.
Again, Divine Intervention came along and made a nearby space available for the St. Ignatius Medical Clinic Pharmacy which was established in March 8, 2006 to sell essential medicines to indigent patients at affordable prices.. Evie Taylor, its cashier, retired from her job in Australia to head the new enterprise.
"We surveyed the local costs of medicines and were able to lower the prices of most medicines by making just enough margins to cover operations and overhead," Navarro said. "We were assisted in our endeavor by the BIR which gave us a Certificate of Tax Exemption. Whatever income the pharmacy generated was plowed back to finance the medical clinic and the Maternal and Child Care (Birthing Home) which began operations in March 18, 2007."
"We want to give the best service we can at least cost to the patient," dela Serna said.
But the situation then was far from ideal.
"We thought the health woes of our patients were properly addressed with the cheap medicines offered by our pharmacy and the token P80 consultation fee," Navarro said. "However, we realized that diagnostic exams needed to confirm our physical diagnosis were still beyond the reach of our patients."
This posed a big problem for the trustees because of the big amount of money needed to run a clinical laboratory. Armed only with hope and trust that anything good done would bring graces from above, the trustees persuaded their creditors to grant them liberal payment schemes for expensive laboratory equipment.
On May 18, 2007, the St. Ignatius Diagnostic Center became operational, still situated in the Pelaez Sport Center. A spot sampling of their prices reveals the clinic remains true to its word to make health care affordable for the poor. Urinalysis and fecalysis only cost P40, even cheaper than some government hospitals. Package rates for CBC and Urinalysis or CBC/fecalysis are also available at very affordable rates.
Other new projects include a new and expanded pharmacy, diabetes clinic, new radiology department and expanded clinic and birthing facilities.
The pharmacy expanded from a 15 sq.m. space at the Pelaez Sports Center to a 108 sq.m. building formerly occupied by a short order restaurant directly across the Cagayan de Oro Polymedic General Hospital.
"We had both the accounting section and pharmacy in that little space," said Alfonso Martinez, SIMC administrator. "So the new pharmacy is really a great improvement to service our growing number of indigent clients." Martinez guarantees their pharmacy offers the lowest prices for medicines in the city. The space formerly occupied by the old pharmacy has now been converted into a diabetes clinic run by San Juan.
Other improvements include a 2D Echo ultrasound machine, a unique noninvasive method for imaging the living heart based on detection of echoes produced by a beam of ultrasound (very high frequency sound) pulses transmitted into the heart.
Martinez said they bill indigent patients only P1,800 for the service compared to the P3,200-2,800 now charged by tertiary hospitals in the city. X-rays will also not cost patients more than what public hospitals are now charging their patients.
The new radiation facilities will be staffed by radiologists Roel Dilao, Amelia Casiņo, Victoria Miranda and Jeffrey Ponce. Cardiologist Renato Alagadan will be the point man for the 2D Echo machine.
With seven resident, 24 visiting physicians, one dentist and 29 medical and other workers, the clinic now serves around 75-130 indigent patients daily, with the capacity to treat more. For the long term, the group has inked a long-term lease for the adjacent Girl Scouts of the Philippines building which they eventually plan to develop into a five-story mother and child care hospital with no less than 50 beds, according to Martinez.
"We will be opening an Animal Bite and Immunization Center by mid-Dec. 2008," Navarro said. "We are also planning a Day Surgery Center and Womens' Cancer Center early next year. We are in the process of negotiating with a private group to put up a 13 unit Dialysis Center by mid 2009. We are also planning to get our second ultrasound machine next year if the finances of the foundation permit us."
What does the future hold for the intrepid band of doctors who dared buck the trend of their fellow medical practitioners seeking greener pastures abroad or charging expensive rates for their services?
"We named our clinic after St. Ignatius, the patron saint of the Ateneo, where we all come from," Navarro said. "We are men and women for others who subscribe to the Jesuit creed "Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam" (For the Greater Glory of God). This is our past, our present and hopefully with God's grace, it would also be our future."
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"When we gave them a prescription for their ailments they would just look at us and ask 'What shall we do with this?' recalls Navarro."We realized that people who didn't even earn enough to eat couldn't possibly have any money to buy medicines when they got sick."
Determined to change this deplorable situation, Navarro and his schoolmates from the Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan High School: Drs. Erickson San Juan, Raoul dela Serna, Aaron Oliveros and Victor Orencia, established the St. Ignatius Medical Clinic for the poor at a makeshift clinic below a private residence at 8th St., Nazareth in 1991.
When they started, the group only charged a medical consultation fee of P20 with medicines provided free of charge through the Committee of German Doctors for Developing Countries under Peter Metzger, medical director. This volunteer organizations is a non-stock, non-profit relief organization based in Frankfurt/Main, Germany dedicated to providing medical services for the poor in third world countries.
"We want to make it affordable so the price does not become a barrier to consultation," dela Serna said. "However, although we could have provided our services for free, we made it a point to charge a minimum consultation fee because we wanted people to value their own health by giving it the dignity it deserves. Of course in extreme cases, we even waived fees for patients who couldn't even afford that minimal amount."
Initially, even Metzger himself was skeptical of the project, but when he saw for himself the doctors dedication and the number of patients flocking to the clinic, he not only provided free medicines but even gave the group free use of his 4X4 vehicle when they went up to the rural areas to serve patients who were too poor to pay the fare to go downtown.
With but a few patients at the start, the group only had de la Serna as full time resident doctor with the rest reporting part-time depending on the need for their services. In no time at all, the little clinic was serving 150-200 patients a day.
However, even at that early stage, the founders already realized they had to break free of their dependence on the German Doctors if they wanted their clinic to sustain itself in the long run. In 1993, the group registered the St. Ignatius Health Foundation, Inc. (SIHFI) with the Securities and Exchange Commission as a non-stock, non-profit foundation.
From the start, the group only sourced its funds from its patients, and dug into personal pockets when funds ran short, which was often. Furniture and appliances for the clinic were personal items made available for its use by the founders.
Their efforts did not go unnoticed. During its March 2002 commencement exercises, Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan (XU-AdC) cited SIHFI with the Fr. William Masterson Award for Community Service. Barely a year later, the Committee of German Doctors stopped providing the clinic with free medicines. What looked at first to be the end of the project in fact turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
By accident (or Divine Intervention, depending how you see it), Navarro found the present site of the clinic at the Pelaez Sports Center. The 120 sq.m. space provided space for a receiving area, and consultation rooms for pediatrics and surgery.
Again, Divine Intervention came along and made a nearby space available for the St. Ignatius Medical Clinic Pharmacy which was established in March 8, 2006 to sell essential medicines to indigent patients at affordable prices.. Evie Taylor, its cashier, retired from her job in Australia to head the new enterprise.
"We surveyed the local costs of medicines and were able to lower the prices of most medicines by making just enough margins to cover operations and overhead," Navarro said. "We were assisted in our endeavor by the BIR which gave us a Certificate of Tax Exemption. Whatever income the pharmacy generated was plowed back to finance the medical clinic and the Maternal and Child Care (Birthing Home) which began operations in March 18, 2007."
"We want to give the best service we can at least cost to the patient," dela Serna said.
But the situation then was far from ideal.
"We thought the health woes of our patients were properly addressed with the cheap medicines offered by our pharmacy and the token P80 consultation fee," Navarro said. "However, we realized that diagnostic exams needed to confirm our physical diagnosis were still beyond the reach of our patients."
This posed a big problem for the trustees because of the big amount of money needed to run a clinical laboratory. Armed only with hope and trust that anything good done would bring graces from above, the trustees persuaded their creditors to grant them liberal payment schemes for expensive laboratory equipment.
On May 18, 2007, the St. Ignatius Diagnostic Center became operational, still situated in the Pelaez Sport Center. A spot sampling of their prices reveals the clinic remains true to its word to make health care affordable for the poor. Urinalysis and fecalysis only cost P40, even cheaper than some government hospitals. Package rates for CBC and Urinalysis or CBC/fecalysis are also available at very affordable rates.
Other new projects include a new and expanded pharmacy, diabetes clinic, new radiology department and expanded clinic and birthing facilities.
The pharmacy expanded from a 15 sq.m. space at the Pelaez Sports Center to a 108 sq.m. building formerly occupied by a short order restaurant directly across the Cagayan de Oro Polymedic General Hospital.
"We had both the accounting section and pharmacy in that little space," said Alfonso Martinez, SIMC administrator. "So the new pharmacy is really a great improvement to service our growing number of indigent clients." Martinez guarantees their pharmacy offers the lowest prices for medicines in the city. The space formerly occupied by the old pharmacy has now been converted into a diabetes clinic run by San Juan.
Other improvements include a 2D Echo ultrasound machine, a unique noninvasive method for imaging the living heart based on detection of echoes produced by a beam of ultrasound (very high frequency sound) pulses transmitted into the heart.
Martinez said they bill indigent patients only P1,800 for the service compared to the P3,200-2,800 now charged by tertiary hospitals in the city. X-rays will also not cost patients more than what public hospitals are now charging their patients.
The new radiation facilities will be staffed by radiologists Roel Dilao, Amelia Casiņo, Victoria Miranda and Jeffrey Ponce. Cardiologist Renato Alagadan will be the point man for the 2D Echo machine.
With seven resident, 24 visiting physicians, one dentist and 29 medical and other workers, the clinic now serves around 75-130 indigent patients daily, with the capacity to treat more. For the long term, the group has inked a long-term lease for the adjacent Girl Scouts of the Philippines building which they eventually plan to develop into a five-story mother and child care hospital with no less than 50 beds, according to Martinez.
"We will be opening an Animal Bite and Immunization Center by mid-Dec. 2008," Navarro said. "We are also planning a Day Surgery Center and Womens' Cancer Center early next year. We are in the process of negotiating with a private group to put up a 13 unit Dialysis Center by mid 2009. We are also planning to get our second ultrasound machine next year if the finances of the foundation permit us."
What does the future hold for the intrepid band of doctors who dared buck the trend of their fellow medical practitioners seeking greener pastures abroad or charging expensive rates for their services?
"We named our clinic after St. Ignatius, the patron saint of the Ateneo, where we all come from," Navarro said. "We are men and women for others who subscribe to the Jesuit creed "Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam" (For the Greater Glory of God). This is our past, our present and hopefully with God's grace, it would also be our future."
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