Recognized in local and international reports as one of the safest cities in the world, Davao City is said to be home to some of the best hospitals in the entire Philippines. Because of the municipality’s advanced medical services and state-of-the-art facilities, Davao-based hospitals are patronized not just by city locals, but by patients from the Mindanao and Visayas regions.
One of the most renowned healthcare establishments in Davao City is Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC). What started out as a 25-bed hospital back in 1917 underwent a series of re-developments, re-locations, re-naming, and several historical events over the last 99 years to currently make SPMC one of the most preferred hospitals south of the Philippines.
SPMC’s management realized the need to further upgrade the SPMC experience when RA 9792 was enacted a few years ago. The government-mandated order authorized the hospital to increase its bed capacity from 600 to 1,200, thereby upgrading its service facilities and increasing medical personnel.
“That was when we realized that we also needed the right technology to rollout the different improvements throughout SPMC,” said Leopoldo J. Vega MD, Medical Center Chief II, Southern Philippines Medical Center.
SPMC engaged Microsoft to acquire licenses of Microsoft Office 365, which combines the Microsoft Office desktop suite that their hospital executives, doctors, nurses and employees have long been used to with cloud-based versions of today’s latest collaboration and communication tools.
“We decided that it was time to move to the cloud with Microsoft Office 365 since we had a large number of data that we wanted to integrate across several platforms and locations within our network,” Vega explained.
The collaboration was able to improve overall hospital information system, which Vega said is one of the pillars of SPMC. “We are now able to link, coordinate, and integrate with different applications in the hospital – from the laboratory information system, inventory system, picture archiving system, and main patients’ database.”
“We capitalized on this since it is the only way we can have fast and effective service in real time,” he added.
“Hospitals like SPMC carry very sensitive data, and real time access to information can sometimes make the difference in saving a life and improving patient wellbeing,” says Karrie Ilagan, Microsoft Philippines General Manager. “As the needs of health professionals and hospital administrators to communicate and collaborate become more complex, Microsoft helps people achieve more by giving them the tools to overcome the limits of time, place, and complexity with solutions like Microsoft Office 365.”
SPMC’s Computer Maintenance Technologist Johann L. Manalang explained that the advent of cloud-based technology made Microsoft Solutions their partner of choice.
“Microsoft Office 365 contributes a lot to our organization,” he said. “We are always using Outlook email, One Drive and Skype for Business for online meetings.
“Through Outlook, all office memorandums and administrative orders are sent through Office 365. Doctors can also participate in meetings amid their hectic schedules through Skype for business.”
“We use One Drive as storage for our files so that we can access necessary and important files anytime and anywhere. When we are able to work more flexibly, we can deliver better services to our patients,” Manalang added.
“We are trying to put technology as the basis for our improvements in our goal of becoming a world class institution,” Manalang concluded
