This year, the Southern PhilippinesMedical Center (SPMC) is celebrating itscentennial as a hospital. What is nowSPMC used to be called Davao Hospitalin 1917.1 It started as the provincialhospital of Davao Province—or today’sRegion XI (Davao Region)—under thesupervision of Dr JD Long, the Bureauof Health (BOH) director at that time.2

At 100 years old, SPMC is the oldestgovernment-owned hospital in DavaoRegion.

In 1917, before the actual con-struction of the first structures ofDavao Hospital, Dr Long wrote in theForeword of the BOH Bulletin on‘Provincial hospitals - Their constructionand management:’

“While the first and principalduty of a health service is toprevent the appearance andspread of disease, rather thanattempt its cure after havingappeared, it is recognized that,until the public is educated to thepoint that disease can beprevented or eradicated in itsincipiency, all reasonable meansmust be used to cure those whoare suffering, for two reasons: (1)To save the life of the individual,if possible, and (2) to instruct theindividual and his(/her) family sofar as may be possible, duringillness or convalescence, inpreventive measures for his(/her)own and his(/her) family's futureprotection.”3

A century ago, Dr Long articulatedthe health care principles that we stillfollow today: that hospital services donot only involve diagnostics and thera-peutics to save lives or restore health;communicating health informationthrough patient and public education isalso an essential component of healthcare services that helps prevent illnessesand curb health problems.

SPMC’s latest iteration of its visionstatement reads: “A world-class, service-oriented medical center” (AWSOMCenter). A hundred years after theestablishment of this former provincialhospital, SPMC is facing challenges thatare way more complex than the standarddiagnostics-therapeutics-education com-bination of health care service delivery.Today, it is the mission of SPMC to“provide accessible, equitable, holisticand responsive health care services;

produce outstanding, compassionate andcompetent health professionals throughtraining and development; and engage inethical and relevant researches tocontinuously improve the quality ofhealth care.”4 SPMC added new layers ofrelevant attributes of health care toenhance its diagnostic, therapeutic andhealth education commitments to thepublic.

An emerging area of concern inhealth care delivery involves the qualityof the hospital’s engagement with itsclients. This relatively new serviceframework recognizes that patients, asclients of health care services, expect“better information, better processes anda better understanding of what they'regetting for their money”5 6 The frame-work puts the ‘patient experience revo-lution’ at the centerpiece of its policy-making and operations design consider-ations.6 7 This emphasis on having abetter health care experience is happen-ing because there is now a wide range ofhealth care choices (think lying-in clinics,dialysis centers, diagnostic centers, am-bulatory surgery clinics, etc.), and manypatients are willing to pay a premium tomake their health care experience a littlemore convenient, more comfortable, oreven pleasantly memorable. The avail-ability of social media also helps feedthis demand, by allowing easy compar-ison of choices of health care servicesand even easier viewing of crowdsourcedfeedback on such services. Several insti-tutions elsewhere have invested aconsiderable amount of resources inimproving the health care experience ofpatients.8 9 SPMC has also starteddeploying public assistance officers,health care navigators, and patient wardassistants to ensure better client engage-ment and to, indeed, provide betterpatient experience of health care.

With the way things are changing, itwon’t take another century until newparadigms of hospital services start todevelop and demand appropriate res-ponses. The steadfast service philosophyof SPMC will make this hospital live onfor better than a hundred years more.

In this issueIn this SPMC Centennial Issue of the

1Hospital Research and PublicationOffice, Southern Philippines MedicalCenter, JP Laurel Ave, Davao City,Philippines

Alvin S Conchaalvinconcha@gmail.com

Jesse Jay Baula

18 August 2016

31 August 2016

19 July 2017

Concha AS. A hundred years ofhospital­based health care services.SPMC J Health Care Serv.2017;3(1):9.http://n2t.net/ark:/76951/jhcs23b7xd

© 2017 AS Concha

Concha AS. SPMC J Health Care Serv. 2017;3(1):9.

SPMC Journal of Health Care Services, wegive focus to an exploration of healthcare in the past in this part of the world.One article describes and illustrates thehealth care system of Davao Province in1917, immediately prior to theestablishment of Davao Hospital (Roño,19-21). Another article retraces DavaoHospital’s relevant legislations andofficial documents, the hospital’s namesthrough the years, and development ofhealth care services beginning a hundredyears ago (Ampog, et al., 26-32). A thirdarticle presents and discusses trends inthe top causes of mortality andmorbidity in the Philippines from 1960to 2013 (Ladrero, et al., 22-25). Also inthis issue, we republish a 90-year-oldcase report written by a former residentphysician at Davao Public Hospital,another old name of SPMC (Belisario,33-37). Along with this republication, wealso publish some notes on its legalcompliance (Timajo, 38), as well as acommentary on the health care servicesmentioned in the report, and the formand tone of writing of the article(Barinaga, 39-40). All these provide thecontexts that at least partly explain how

1. Philippine Islands. An act appropriating funds for thenecessary expenses of the Government of thePhilippine Islands during the fiscal year endingDecember thirty­first, nineteen hundred and eighteen,and for other purposes, Act No. 2727 (20 December1917).2. Long JD. 1917. In: De Jesus VS. Provincial

hospitals ­ their construction and management. BulletinNo. 15. Philippine Health Service. 1917.3. De Jesus VS. Provincial hospitals ­ theirconstruction and management. Bulletin No. 15.Philippine Health Service. 1917.4. Southern Philippines Medical Center. Vision,mission and core values. Davao: Southern PhilippinesMedical Center; 2015 [cited 2017 Jul 07]. Availablefrom: http://spmc.doh.gov.ph/transparency/about­us/mission­vision­core­values.5. Fifer JJ. Keep calm and carry on. 2015 January 28[cited 2017 May 22]. In: InsuranceNewsNet [Internet].Available from:https://insurancenewsnet.com/oarticle/keep­calm­and­carry­on­a­588051.6. Lauer C. The patient experience revolution hasarrived. 2015 October 5 [cited 2017 May 22]. In:Becker’s Hospital Review [Internet]. Available from:http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital­management­administration/chuck­lauer­the­patient­experience­revolution­has­arrived.html.7. Poulton T. Response: The patient experiencerevolution has arrived. 2015 October 14 [cited 2017May 22]. In: The Institute for Healthcare Excellence[Internet]. Available from:http://www.healthcareexcellence.org/2015/10/response­the­patient­experience­revolution­has­arrived.8. Creating a patient experience revolution.HealthLeaders Magazine. 2014 December.9. Patient experience revolution [Internet]. NHSBlackpool Teaching Hospitals [cited 2017 May 22].NHS Foundation Trust. Available from:https://www.bfwh.nhs.uk/patients­and­visitors/patient­experience/patient­experience­revolution.

Article sourceSubmitted

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Competing interestsNone declared

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we arrived at this particular moment ofhealth care services in SPMC.

Concha AS. SPMC J Health Care Serv. 2017;3(1):9.

Editor in chief: Alvin S Concha • Issue Editor: Genevieve D Tupas • Associate Editors: Seurinane Sean B Española, Aura Rhea D Lanaban, Eugene Lee L BarinagaLayout Editors: Jaryll Gerard LAmpog, Rodel C Roño, Clarence Xlasi D Ladrero • Managing Editor: Clarence Xlasi D Ladrero

SPMC JHCS OFFICE Hospital Research Office, Level 1 Outpatient Building, Southern Philippines Medical Center, JP Laurel Avenue, Davao City, PhilippinesLandline (+6382) 2272731 loc 4615 • Website http://spmcpapers.com • Email info@spmcpapers.com