Makati Medical Center, with the support of eight other health institutions in the Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC) hospital group, hosted the first MPIC Nursing Summit titled “Exceeding Hospital Excellence through MPIC Alliance”, with MPIC and MakatiMed Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan as keynote speaker.
The one-day event, serving as a venue for MPIC nursing leaders to collaborate with the aim of standardizing the nursing practices across the hospital group, was held at the 8th Floor Tower 2 Auditorium and organized by the MakatiMed Nursing and Patient Care Services Division.
Participants came from the nursing divisions of the following MPIC hospitals: Asian Hospital and Medical Center (Muntinlupa City, Metro Manila), Cardinal Santos Medical Center (San Juan City, Metro Manila), Central Luzon Doctors’ Hospital (Tarlac City, Tarlac), Davao Doctors Hospital (Davao City, Davao del Sur), De Los Santos Medical Center (Quezon City, Metro Manila), Dr. Pablo O. Torre Memorial Hospital (Bacolod City, Negros Occidental), MegaClinic (Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila), and Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital (Manila, Metro Manila).
According to Rosalie R. Montenegro, MakatiMed President & CEO, the event was the brainchild of Christine Donnelly, RN, MSN, MA, MakatiMed’s VP for Nursing and Patient Care Services.
“Since we’re a part of the largest group of hospital systems, the MPIC group of hospitals, why not gather all nursing leaders and together create more nursing initiatives?” Ms. Donnelly said, in explaining how the MPIC Summit came into being.
“It is the first time the different MPIC nursing groups are collaborating at a clinical level,” said Ms. Montenegro. “We have collaborated on the corporate side, but not yet on the clinical side, and I think nursing is a good place to start, as our nurses are the face of our hospitals.”
She shared that in MakatiMed, nursing leaders push the Triple C’s – competence, communication, and compassion.
“If we have competent, communicative and compassionate healthcare, our nursing industry will be significantly enhanced,” Ms. Montenegro said. “This Summit is just the beginning. I am happy that finally, nurses are taking their rightful role as collaborators in healthcare.”
In his introduction of Mr. Pangilinan, Augusto P. Palisoc, Jr., President and CEO of the MPIC Hospital Group, talked about how MPIC started investing in hospitals in 2006, “when MakatiMed was in dire financial difficulty and on the brink of bankruptcy and foreclosure.”
“Mr. Pangilinan was invited to serve on MakatiMed’s Board of Directors. When our keynote speaker asked my views, I replied in the negative, telling him that the hospital business is going down fast,” Mr. Palisoc said. “I have worked with Mr. Pangilinan for close to 30 years now, and it’s silly of me to forget that the best way to motivate him to do something is to tell him that it can’t be done. The rest, as they say, is history,” he said.