The Medical City
Centering on Service
By Sheryl Ann A. Samson, RMT

How concerned are we with regard to our health? How conscious are we when it comes to our healthcare? Magnifier is a regular column that will feature different hospitals. Here is a column dedicated to magnify hospitals and to distinguish them according to our needs.

For this pilot issue, it’s The Medical City turn to take the center stage and be magnified.

Setting foot at The Medical City is like having gone to a world class five-star hotel. Saying WOW was an understatement. I was in atypical awe. How many times did I ask myself if I am really inside a hospital? Overwhelming indeed the experience was!

The Medical City (TMC) is a private, tertiary hospital now on its fourth decade of existence. It is located on 1.5 hectare property along Ortigas Avenue in Pasig City. This massive physical structure is composed of two towers joined by a Podium and bridge ways. The 15-storey Nursing tower is currently fitted for 500 beds, and a future second Nursing Tower provides capacity for an additional 300 beds. The 18 floors of the Medical Arts Tower house 280 doctors’ clinics and selected commercial spaces. Within the 6-floor Podium are located diagnostic and intervention facilities, as well as support or administrative offices. The 3-basement level parking facility accommodates over a thousand vehicles for clients and staffs.

TMC offers diagnostic and treatment services that address a broad range of diseases utilizing state-of-the-art technology such as CT, MRI and cardiac catheterization and interventional services among others. This is made possible by the Clinical Departments (including their various subspecialties) of Medicine, Surgery, Anesthesiology, Pediatrics, Obstetrics-Gynecology, Opthalmology, Otolaryngology, Pyschiatry and Rehabilitation Medicine, as well as diagnostic and intervention units such as Clinical Laboratories, Diagnostic Radiology and Radiotherapy, Nuclear Medicine, Acute Stroke Unit and Intensive Care Unit.

The foundation of TMC’s service capabilities is its distinguished regular medical staff of 340 physicians all of whom are experienced, recognized and established experts in their various fields of specialization. They are complemented by 590 visiting consultants. This core of professionals is supported and assisted by 1,400 strong human resource complement composed of administrative, finance and support service staff that have grown and honed their expertise in their long years of loyal service to the institution.

TMC also serves as a hub of a network of satellite clinical facilities delivering a full range of diagnostic and therapeutic services to ambulatory patients. Currently, satellite clinics are operational in Antipolo City, Pasig City, Fairview, Marikina, Congressional Road in Quezon City. More satellite clinics will be added as the hospital pursues its commitment to expand its network and bring its brand of health services into the very communities of its patients for their easy access. Additionally, home care is offered whenever appropriate, particularly to patients after discharge from confinement.

The employees, professional staff and shareholders of TMC draw from their experience of four decades to truly live out the organization’s mission of “putting patients on center and delivering service of greater work,” an in the process exert its leadership in shaping how Filipinos should think, feel and behave about health.

With a renewed commitment towards providing superior healthcare to individual patients, even as it offers itself as a national resource, to be engaged in the pursuit of social reform and equitable development, The Medical City proves why it is the country’s “Capital of Health”, the center of all that is new and true about health.

Being hospitalized is not a good feeling at all but to take into the consideration, the atmosphere at the hospital is very relaxing. The feeling of security is felt at once. What is also best about The Medical City is the warm accommodation from its personnel. Anyone will feel really taken good care of.

For that information, I would like to personally thank Ms. Gay Zapanta of TMC – Marketing Department. Thank you for graciously giving me all those brochures and information.

For details you can contact The Medical City at:

Ortigas Avenue Pasig City, Metro Manila Philippines
Telephone: (632) 635-6789 / (632) 631-86-26
Email: mail@medicalcity.com.ph
WebSite: www.medicalcity.com.ph

Satellite Clinic (telephone)
1.) Marikina - (02) 681-5153 / 681-7345
2.) Antipolo - (02) 697-2920 / 697-2943
3.) Congressional - (02) 925-9946 / 926-7065
4.) Pasig - (02) 656-4969 / 656-8095
5.) Fairview - (02) 930-4808 / 930-4822
6.) Cainta - (02) 240-4354 / 240-4355

Dr. Nora Flandes in Focus
Service Beyond Profession
By Sheryl Ann A. Samson, RMT

I arrived at The Medical City around 10:15 in the morning; a little late than the agreed 10 AM call-time. I admit the mistake. But can I blame the traffic at Ortigas? To my recall, finding the Medical Arts Building was not so tricky. I think, after a total of 11 floor stops at the elevator and some corner-stopping, having seen Room 1205 made my heart thumped for a while. (“So, this is it?” I told myself. “Can I really do this” asked my subconscious.) I opened the door and there was Ms. Susan, the doctor’s secretary. I was greeted very warmly. She gladly informed me that they were expecting me since then. (Which I think made my heart thumped some more. “Maybe I had been making the doctor wait for so long. Very bad for first impressions”, I said.)

As the clinic door opened, a very cheery lady invited me in. The word groovy can best describe the person in front of me. We shook hands and the interview begun. Who would have thought that on the date of June 15, 1958 a young girl from Pilar, Bataan would be a doctor of dedication and compassion? The name Nora Mistal-Flandes has been part of the Medical profession for more than a decade and a half now. Having dreamed as a child to become a doctor, she went to Manila to study medicine at the University of the Philippines. She took up her residency at the Internal Medicine of The Medical City. It was followed up by a Fellowship grant at the Kidney Foundation.

To describe her medical school days, Dr. Flandes recalled that it was a serious thing. To study medicine means having sleepless nights to review for exams. It would also meant depriving yourself of too much social life which comprises of night outs with friends. This was all because of being really devoted on your studies. After all, the end-result of all those labors is really fruitful.

What’s the best part of being a doctor? Dr. Flandes emphasized that it’s the satisfaction she gets from her patients;that it’s a nice feeling knowing that she have given them all the help that she could give. The fulfillment of the job can not be achieved on the monetary measure. But of course, along comes with all those advantages are also the not-so-good side of being a doctor. She disclosed that being in that profession gave her less time for her self and her family. The routine of waking up early in the morning and being at the hospital as early as 7 o’clock AM and going home not later than 6 o’clock PM has been part of Dr. Flandes’ timetable since then. This also includes a 4-hour hospital round on weekends. And this is also the schedule that her family needs to live with. Having a doctor for a husband gives her more security and confidence that her job will be understood. Despite the tight schedule, she makes it a must to allot time for her kids, Kat-Kat and Raf-Raf. I f she has ample time

To live up with all the demands of the everyday work, she always makes sure that she has the right priorities and with that she pointed out that, “...placing God in the center of everything in your life” is the only key. Being the transparent and what-you-see-is-what-you-get type of person that she is, Dr. Flandes already established a reputation that can not be questioned by anyone. Asking her on how she sees herself in the future, she thinks of semi-retiring. Not totally leaving the medical field but giving her family more time than they deserved to have. She hopes to do something further for her kids.

How do you to be remembered, I asked her. Dr. Flandes paused for a while and thoughtfully said that she wanted to be remembered by her patients and acquaintances as not just their doctor but as their best friend. That she was able to reach out to them no matter how far the extent. Treating her patients as her own family is going beyond the boundary of a doctor-patient relationship. But that’s what Dr. Flandes does best. She can project herself not in totalitarian status, but as someone whom you can confide anything. She’s a very hands-on type of doctor. Being a client of her will mean that you have to divulge to her what you do for a living, your personal side, any significant details about yourself and it’s because she takes all of this into consideration when making a health program or health plan for patients. She won’t just order you to buy expensive medications without even asking if you have enough money to buy it.

Someday, Dr. Flandes hopes to put up a dialysis foundation wherein people from all walks of life will be able to benefit from such procedure.
For those who aspire on becoming a doctor, Dr. Flandes advised that “…they should be determined and dedicated from the start. For those who want to earn, this is not the right profession.”

As we ended the interview and she gave me again a warm shake hand, I thought to myself that if the saying “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” would have been true, then I should stop eating them. Who wants to keep away from such a great doctor as Dr. Nora Mistal-Flandes? Her goodness will be passed on. It will be a ripple effect. As I see the smiles from patients leaving her clinic door, absolutely it was already passed on.