TUAO town located in the Southwest part of Cagayan province, is a first class municipality with a total population of 61,535 based on the 2015 census. Residents of Tuao use Itawes as their main language among other local dialects being used by the residents of the neighboring towns.

It is also in this town where you can find the first and only hospital of Tuao, the Tuao District Hospital (TDH). Hospital Chief Dr. Nicasio M. Galano Jr., said that the TDH was built in 1976 and was devolved to the province in 1982. It is a Level 1 hospital with 25-bed capacity licensed by the Department of Health and accredited by PhilHealth. According to Galano, they sometimes exceeded the bed capacity, at times reaching 38, depending on the number of patients coming from its catchment areas such as the municipalities of Rizal, Tuao 1 and 2, portions of Piat, and lower municipalities of Kalinga and Apayao to include Conner, Kabugao and Pinukpuk. Some of these areas are included in Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged Areas (GIDAs).

The TDH is now under construction, but it does not stop the hospital team from accepting and providing medical services for their constituents. Galano said that “Tuao District Hospital is a hospital with a big heart. We really give our full service as much as we can especially to the less fortunate who really needs medical attention and proper care. That is why even the indigenous people won’t hesitate to come over to seek medical attention because they know that they are all welcome and will be given fair treatment,” he added.

It offers services such as Inpatient and Outpatient medical care, medicines, pediatrics, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, dental, radiology, pharmacy, reproductive health and family planning, newborn screening and laboratory services.

Based on their report, the top ten (10) causes of confinements in TDH are: acute gastro-enteritis (AGE), normal spontaneous delivery (NSD), pneumonia, hypertension, dengue fever, peptic ulcer disease, bronchopneumonia, urinary tract infection (UTI), bronchial asthma in acute exacerbation (BAIAE) and systemic viral infection (SVI).

Most of the patients admitted for AGE confinements are children. Hence, Galano suggested that PhilHealth shorten the length of stay from 72 to 24 hours, especially for pediatric patients since they can easily be hydrated and may be discharged immediately.

Galano recalled that in 2013, out of the 2,200 total admissions, only 1, 022 were PhilHealth beneficiaries, while 1,178 were non-PhilHealth beneficiaries. But in 2015, the total admissions went up to 2,696, of which 2,390 were PhilHealth beneficiaries, or an increase of about 133 percent from the total number of PhilHealth beneficiaries admitted at TDH in 2013.

Galano narrated that PhilHealth admissions in 2015 noticeably went up when they started implementing the Point-of-Care enrolment system in May of 2014, wherein prospective non-member patients were evaluated and screened with the help of the hospital’s medical social workers. Once found that the patient has no capacity to pay for their hospital bills, they will be automatically enrolled with PhilHealth under the POC enrolment program. At the same time, members enrolled under the program will be entitled to the No Balance Billing (NBB) policy, meaning, no out-of-pocket expenses will be charged beyond what PhilHealth pays for, including payment for professional fees, drugs and medicines, laboratory fees, room and board fees, during confinement.

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Due to the remoteness of the area, the hospital makes sure that the NBB policy is also enjoyed by PhilHealth members in other categories. “Here in TDH, all member categories are entitled to avail themselves of the NBB policy,” Galano said.

As of June 2016, the hospital’s total admission is 1,900, of which 1,605 or 84 percent are PhilHealth admissions, and the rest are non-PhilHealth admissions.

To date, TDH is a one-stop-shop where one can immediately find the emergency out-patient department, pharmacy, cashier and billing section, records section and x-ray rooms, all in one building.

According to Galano, once the transformer is safely and properly installed, all the assigned rooms will be functional and operational while the rest will follow and will be in full operation very soon. (END) (Faudia H. Subillaga)