Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City, Metro Manila

EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

HOUSE BILL NO. 4292

Introduced by Representative ALYSSA SHEENA TAN
EXPLANATORY NOTE

The Southern Isabela Medical Center (SIMC) is a Tertiary General Hospital created
from the Southern Isabela General Hospital through Republic Act No. 11082 (RA 11082) on
September 2018. It offers various basic medical services like emergency room services; out-
patient services; obstetrics-gynecology; surgery; internal medicine; pediatrics; family &
community medicine; general anesthesia; Intensive Care Unit; and Neonatal Intensive
Care Unit. In addition, the Medical Center also has ancillary services like clinical
pathology, radiology, and dental services.

On February 2019, the SIMC was able to acquire a License to Operate as a Level 3 -
350 Bed Capacity Hospital and it currently operates as such. The SIMC is now deemed as
the end referral institution of all lower level healthcare facilities in the province of Isabela,
as well as the adjacent provinces of Quirino, Nueva Vizcaya, Ifugao and Mountain
Province. Notwithstanding the upgrade caused by RA 11082, the SIMC faces challenges in
managing its patients.

The SIMC often admits patients beyond its authorized bed capacity. On the first
semester of the medical center’s Fiscal Year 2019, its Bed Occupancy Rate (BOR) peaked at
116%. Its occupancy rate from January to June 2019 is at 99.5%. At current, it is reported by
the medical center that it admits 77 in-patients per day more than the authorized bed
capacity, therefore reaching 122% BOR. Assuming that this over-admission keeps on at the
same rate, it would translate to 28,105 patients per year beyond the 350 bed capacity the
medical center is authorized to operate. Once its eight - story Emergency Complex
Building is completed and becomes fully operational by September 2019, the SIMC
predicts that the BOR would reach 150% for 350 beds. This is far from the ideal standard
that DOH seeks to maintain to ensure excellent health service, which is a BOR of 80-85%. It
must further be considered that the patients confined in the medical center need to be fed
three times a day and be provided with free hospitalization services.

In view of the foregoing need to provide quality medical assistance to the numerous
patients that the SIMC attends to, the passage of the instant bill seeking an upgrade of the
SIMC by increasing the bed capacity and the budget for the maintenance and other
operating expense of said medical center is earnestly sought.

Atty. Alysda Sheena Tan, CPA
Representative, 4" District of Isabela


Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City, Metro Manila

EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

HOUSE BILL NO. _4282
Introduced by Representative ALYSSA SHEENA TAN

AN ACT
INCREASING THE BED CAPACITY OF THE SOUTHERN ISABELA
MEDICAL CENTER IN SANTIAGO CITY, PROVINCE OF ISABELA, FROM.
THREE HUNDRED FIFTY (350) TO SEVEN HUNDRED (700) BEDS, AND
INCREASING ITS MAINTENANCE AND OTHER OPERATING EXPENSES

Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Philippines in
Congress assembled:

SECTION 1. The authorized bed capacity of the Southern Isabela Medical Center (SIMC)
in Santiago City, Province of Isabela, is hereby upgraded from three hundred fifty (350) to
seven hundred (700) beds. The increase in bed capacity shall be implemented by the DOH
within six (6) months from the approval of this Act.

SECTION 2. The existing service capability, professional health care services and health
human resource of the SIMC shall be upgraded and increased so that it is commensurate
with the increase of the authorized bed capacity as provided in Section 1 of this Act.

SECTION 3. The Department of Budget and Management, in consultation with the
Department of Health, shall create regular plantilla positions for health personnel required
in relation to the increase of the SIMC bed capacity.

SECTION 4. The Department of Budget and Management and the Department of Health
shall likewise increase the budget for the maintenance and other operating expense
(MOO) and personal services for the upgraded SIMC to ensure quality medical services
in view of the increase in the SIMC bed capacity.

SECTION 5. The Department of Health shall promulgate the necessary rules and
regulations for the effective implementation of this Act.

SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its publication in the Official
Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation.

Approved,