NU6 - by Bong Canlas AGSB Clark -Cheaper Priced Rooms for TomoTherapy Patients

Cheaper -Priced Rooms for TomoTherapy Patients

By: Jose Tiburcio S. Canlas

Mother Teresa of Calcutta Medical Center will soon start operating its newly acquired cancer treatment equipment, the TomoTherapy.  TomoTherapy performs image – guided radiation treatment using intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT).  Compared to linear accelerator, cancer patients get better and faster treatment using TomoTherapy.

According to the study conducted in our hospital, we will be attracting patients not only from Pampanga but also patients from other places is our equipment is just the second TomoTherapy in the Philippines and the only one in Central Luzon.  The first to acquire and operate TomoTherapy is Makati Medical Center.  Each cancer patient will need an average of 20 therapy sessions performed in 20 consecutive days on an outpatient basis.  Patients coming from other places far from the location of our hospital will naturally need rooms where they could lodge in while the 20 day therapy sessions are in progress. 

We have thought of constructing another building so we could have additional hospital medical rooms for our TomoTherapy patients.  However, there are certain staffing requirements by the DOH which need to be complied with in order to operate the additional rooms.  That would be too costly on the part of the hospital.  On the part of the patient, that would entail higher cost also since we will be charging higher rates to recover our higher overhead. <ingenious>

Here is the solution. We will construct another building which will contain non – medical rooms.  If needed, we will create a separate entity to operate these non – medical rooms. The operation of these rooms will not need a DOH license.  We will not need nurses and other medical staff to run these rooms. These rooms will be operated just like apartelle rooms. The rooms will even be larger than medical rooms in order to accommodate the relatives accompanying the patients.  That would save us a lot  on overhead costs and TomoTherapy patients would benefit  from lower priced but much better facilities. 4