QualiMed hospital rises at Nuvali

On your way from SLEX to Tagaytay, you see the latest edifice on the left side of Nuvali in Sta. Rosa, Laguna. It happens to be the latest QualiMed hospital – and the 11th health facility that is a realization of the vision of a medical doctor from Tanauan, Batangas.

When he was growing up, Edwin Magsino Mercado asked his dad, Dr. Daniel O. Mercado, why he wanted to go back to the Philippines when he was already living a comfortable life in the U.S.  Because, the father said, “To care for Filipinos is different, the care of Filipinos is different.” The answer was a puzzle to the son, Edwin, until he took up medicine and joined the staff of the Mercado General Hospital which his father built upon his return to his hometown. He realized that Filipinos “are warm, appreciative, and caring people. But I also realized that our countrymen have so many needs as patients.”

Dr. Edwin Mercado’s family decided to expand the hospital to give way to the Qualimed Health Network. “I took it to my heart that we needed to continue my father’s legacy of genuine Filipino care. To further strengthen and institutionalize this concept, we developed the QualiMed Way of Care.” The network’s president and CEO is Dr. Edwin.

QualiMed’s vision is to lead in making the Philippines healthy, he said. “Our mission is to deliver appropriate, accessible, and affordable healthcare to all the communities we serve.” This vision is being realized in hospitals and specialty clinics in the Visayas and Luzon.

Beginning with the Mercado General Hospital (which is considered a Center of Excellence by PhilHealth), QualiMed Health Network facilities include hospitals in Mandurriao, Iloilo city and San Jose del Monte, Bulacan; a surgery center in Manila (based in the UP-PGH compound on Taft Ave.,) and multi-specialty clinics at the TriNorma mall (North Edsa), Fairview (Novaliches), Makati City, UP Town Center in Diliman, Quezon city, Taguig city and Cebu city. It also founded the DMCC Institute of Health Sciences, a tertiary healthcare education institution in Tanauan, which also houses the Newborn Screening Reference Center for Southern Luzon. In the pipeline is a hospital which will open in 2020 in Cloverleaf, Balintawak.

QualiMed Hospital in Nuvali is a 102-bed general hospital offering comprehensive inpatient and outpatient healthcare services aimed at providing holistic wellness and healing to patients. It is owned and operated by Mercado General Hospital, Inc., in partnership with Ayala Land, Inc. (ALI). With Alagang Abot-Kaya as brand promise, its healthcare facilities are intended to cater to the needs of the general public and make its services more accessible to the broad C socio-economic class.

While QualiMed makes quality medical services available to lesser endowed patients, the Sta. Rosa hospital, with its modern facilities, is a boon to Ayala Land’s estates planning. It makes Nuvali a more attractive place for people to build their homes, businesses or spend time to enjoy the various recreational activities in Nuvali, said ALI president and CEO Bernard Vincent Dy.

According to Dr. Edwin Mercado, the Sta. Rosa hospital will “actively promote a healthy lifestyle and focus on preventive care through its facilities. It’s a tall order for us to change the traditional way Filipinos view health care, that we consult with doctors only when we are sick. QualiMed advocates a more holistic appropriate healthcare. We promote primary, preventive and promotive care, wherein the communities should be more proactive in staying strong and well. One should not take care of his or her health only when one is already too weak to even see a doctor.”

In a meeting with media, it was emphasized that the hospital has an expansive pool of specialized local doctors and paramedical professionals, and houses a state-of-the-art training and research center for the continuing studies of doctors and medical personnel through comprehensive and industry-approved medical and technical training activities. More importantly, the cost of medical services is 30 percent lower than that charged by other well-known hospitals.

Services available cover radiology, laboratory, cardiovascular, pulmonary, industrial and occupational health, intravenous chemotherapy, outpatient clinical series, specialty clinics, inpatient services and surgical services for minor and major surgery and minimal invasive surgery. It offers critical care services for neonatal, pediatric and adult care, and has a physical medicine and rehabilitation gym, a laser center, and pharmacy. Major surgeries for example, like organ transplants and heart operations, will be made available in time, and for the time being, will be referred to already established medal facilities in Metro Manila.

If you’re in the Nuvali area, you’re welcome to drop by this new healthcare facility.

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My latest trip to Dumaguete was made possible by an invitation to attend a memorial lecture to honor the late Judge Alfredo Tadiar, father of Alternative Dispute Resolution. An added bonus to the visit was meeting Marietta “Yet” Utzurrum-Montebon, who, I was told, is the passionate owner of the Plantasia urban eco-farm estate.  I went to her farm in Sibulan, just 10 minutes away from the domestic airport, and met Yet, an entertaining young woman in her 40s, I believe, and her husband, lawyer Rodil Montebon, who once served as acting dean of Silliman University’s College of Law.

Yet took me around the four-hectare farm, we walked on muddy trails made by a recent rain, under tall trees of many sorts (including coconut, durian, avocado and lanzones which, sorry, were not in season),  past ornamental plants, herbs, crawling vines, mulberry berries, passion fruit, all sorts of palm, calachuchi and hoyas, and everything nice. There was a wildness about the place, about the grass needing to be cut. There was a pool with floating leaves. And the best part was partaking of the jams and juice she made from the fruits of her garden. She had prepared boxes of jams and jellies to be sold at a trade fair the following day. She makes a little money from them, and the rent on wooden cottages and a simple pavilion for small weddings and get-togethers.

But better than best was hearing her beautiful life’s story. (Her story, by the way, is an entry in banker/gardener Flor Tarriela’s Against All Odds book.) She trained as an anthropologist at Silliman University and the University of the Philippines and did some research for the National Museum.

By mid-1993, she and husband became involved in a Christian ministry called Care Corner, a Singapore-based program. This journey took them through missions training, youth ministry, child care service and even health and medical outreaches. As Yet explained it, the program in the child care centers (that grew from 12 to 42), trained toddlers from poor communities in kindergarten basics, their teachers (trained by the Montebons and other Care Corner staffers) mothers in their neighborhood. In 2004, Care Corner was among the first awardees of the World Bank’s Panibagong Paraan: Making Services Work for the Poor.

There were some great personal emergencies along the way, like a massive heart attack Dil suffered on Christmas eve of 1996. As part of his exercise and therapy, Yet created garden paths, along which she grew fruit trees and ornamentals. The surroundings had become a farm-garden-nature park, and generated income to augment the needs of the Care Corner ministry and Yet’s growing family. “God gifted us with the miracle of provisions!”

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