Ust Hospital

Hospital tower with a helipad, 1000 doctors trained in multi-disciplinary healthcare and four new health institutes, the JUST Hospital (JUST) seems not only to have recovered financially, but is eager to reach for the stars. But is its UP billion expansion plan simply too starry-eyed for comfort? Is It too ambitious? Yes, according to Dry. Xenon Alfonse, president and chief executive officer of JUST. He said that the UP billion financing for the expansion came from a fixed-term, syndicated loan by the Development Bank of the Philippines.

The UP billion is a clean loan, it has no lateral. Actually, I asked the banks to take into account the name of JUST and my name as a businessman. They could look at records of the Dominicans for the past 396 years and they would know that Gust’s name is good enough collateral,” Alfonse told the Variation. The 23 billion loan is tax-free. Being fixed-term in nature, the loan is not subject to any change in interest rate, regardless of the vagaries of the Philippine economy.

According to Alfonse, an international financial arranger was appointed by the hospital to syndicate the loan from five to seven financial institutions.

Alfonse said that the budget flats the extensive seven-year strategic plan for the hospital. The first year Is for the “recovery’ phase that alms to allow the hospital to recuperate from the debts It Incurred In 1996 to 2003. The following four years Is for the “development” phase focusing on eight key areas to boost profit.

The Bandies Cancer Institute, built in a record eight months and which went fully operational in 11 months, is under the first stage of the development phase. The last two years is defined by the “transformation” phase that applies indirectly to medicine graduates of the university. Out of the sickbed After JUST separated from the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery in September 2004, which created the JUST, Inc.

, the hospital started to recover from its overwhelming financial losses. From a net loss of POP. 4 million In 2004, the JUST spring-boarded to a net Income of POP. Million In 2005. Increased Income from parking lot rentals, million in 2004.

Moreover, expenses dropped from POP. 05 million to IPPP,OHO, and liabilities collected from unsettled patient bills, medical equipment and supplies debt fell from BUFF. 7 million to IPPP. 2 million in 2005. Profit from the private division f the JUST accounted much for the recovery as it swelled to IIOP.

8 million from Pl . 2 million. Furthermore, the foregone UP million cost of living allowance of the members of the Shaming Managua Eng JUST helped alleviate the fiscal burden.

Now, with the reorganization of systems in the hospital, every office is subject to audit, even the office of the chairman/rector. Before the new management took over, no records were kept on the auditing of office expenses. Building markets The JUST also eyes eight stages of Its development phase.

“We have 80 to 100 waiting patients everyday, and we have to provide a place for this aid that it was only in 2006 when the medical staff increased by more than 50 per cent, from 328 doctors in June 2004 to 700 in 2006.

JUST still expects 1000 doctors for next year. According to Alfonse, the addition of doctors in the hospital builds network and markets because doctors carry with them their patients and as such, the hospital should provide rooms for the additional patients. The hospital is improving its charity ward’s fourth and fifth floors with the construction of 200 more rooms and the officials are looking forward to more rooms with the hospital’s expansion plans. Meanwhile, the third development stage covers the ongoing construction of the 17- story hospital tower.

Of these 17 floors, eight are planned to house doctor’s clinics that would initiate “manpower updating” in the hospital.

Stage four aims to position SUITS in the Medical Tourism (MET) map of Asia. Alfonse said that the West looks at the East as the best site for healthcare system with its cheaper yet quality hospitalizing. In Asia, Thailand is racing ahead with MET, followed by India, China, and Malaysia. The SUITS towers will have four floors that would cater to international patients. It is all about providing quality healthcare to international patients without displacing local patients,” Alfonse said.

Global company The fifth stage of the development phase focuses on world healthcare trends such as multi-disciplinary specialized care.

Along this line, the hospital will establish an eye institute, an endocrine and metabolic institute, a cardiovascular institute, and an organ transplant institute. The sixth stage will create a 1:1 ratio of charity and pay ward admissions so that at least one pay ward patient pays for a charity ward patient. “We could not Just shut down the charity ward because the healthcare being entered by the hospital is for public service.

Education is charity and charity is education,” Alfonse said, referring to the 460 charity rooms in contrast to the 300 rooms in the pay ward. Stage seven will pave way for value-added benefits for the patients. “The better the service you offer, in the long run, the more patients you’ll have,” Alfonse said.

Finally, the last stage hopes to make JUST a global company, with formal links with Western hospitals like the Harvard Massachusetts General, Alfonse said. Already internationally accredited by the International Organization for

Standardization, JUST also aims to be accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. Ultimately, the global thrust will make JUST a global hospital. “In terms of the doctors we graduate, and the duration of Medicine when it was first instituted in the University, Santos Atoms leads the game,” Alfonse said, “But where are all our doctors? They are out there scattered and what we need to do is put them together and make them practice.

” Alfonse said JUST must establish itself not only in the country but in the Asia Pacific region.

He added hat the hospital should go the way India and China, putting up satellite hospitals and making Thomas healthcare a global brand. This transformation phase would require a bigger budget but the European Union is reportedly willing to loan JUST ?¬1. 5 billion. The ambitious expansion plan and its rather prohibitive costs should reinforce the truism that health is wealth. But the UP billion tag still has to prove hospitable to the nay Sayers and deserving of a clean bill of health.

MARIE JEANNINE But won’t 17-story hospital tower dwarf the JUST Main Bldg?

IF IT took the JUST Hospital (JUST) project management team eight months to instruct the Bandies Cancer Institute (BCC) and three more months to make it fully operational, the same team believes that the UP billion expansion project, which includes the construction off 17-story hospital tower, can go full steam by October 2008. The team, headed by engineer Daniel Prefer, is now focusing on the next phase of the expansion project after the completion of the BCC, which comprises the first phase of the development plan.

The second to fourth phases of the JUST expansion includes the refurbishing of the fourth and fifth floors of the charity building, the high-rise tower and the podium. We are using the slab system that would allow us to finish an estimate of seven floors in two months,” Prefer told the Variation. “So by 2008, the entire expansion project will be fully operational.

” Tower and podium According to the project management team, the JUST tower will house commercial stalls on the first floor, and the Eye, Dermatology and Hearing Institute on the second floor.

The planned Eye Institute seeks to pioneer in intraocular lens implantation and valve implantation for glaucoma in the country, while the JUST Hearing and Dizziness center is predicted to create a center of excellence in the treatment of earning and balance disorders. The third to 10th floors will house the physicians’ offices, while the nursing area and rooms for the medical tourism program will be housed at the 1 lath to 17th floors. “Four floors will be allotted for the medical tourism program. Some 75 hospital beds will be provided for our international patients,” Prefer said.

An added feature of the tower is the helipad, which is expected to be used for PIP or emergency cases. The entire tower is expected to be finished by October next year. On the other hand, the podium building right beside the tower is projected to rise by December 2008. It consists of seven floors and will house different offices and facilities. The chapel, dietary clinic and the ancillary will be the major facilities on the first floor while different specialized institutes will be housed in the second to third floors of the podium building.

The next two floors are for the executive offices while the remaining floors are for the delivery, recovery and operating rooms. Parking spaces will occupy one-fourth of the building. Bad site? But critics said the plan for the JUST tower will violate the architectural design of the University, whose centerpiece is the JUST Main Bldg. Looking at JUST as a heritage site, we should take into consideration the historical significance of the Main Bldg. ,” architect Claries Evenhanded, assistant director of the Museum of Arts and Sciences, said.

However, Prefer denied that the JUST tower plans would have any architectural conflict with the other buildings in the University. “Architect Holland Rexes, the one responsible for the architectural design of the tower, is a former dean of the College of Architecture. She would know very well if there is an architectural conflict with traffic that may build up along Lawson SST. Due to the hospital expansions. L see no problem as long as the hospital provides a new loading and unloading point along Lawson,” Security Office head Clement Dingy said.

What worries me is when the park is preferred by the hospital personnel and patients to park their vehicles. Lawson will easily clog up since more cars will be entering the vicinity. ” As the University moves toward 2011, the JUST also plans to expand and build satellite hospitals outside Manila. “There are still no directives about the satellite hospitals,” Prefer said. “All I know is that they are planning to have four or five more within the entry; we will finish the expansion project first before the said hospitals. “But rest assured that before 2011, the satellite hospitals will be operational by then,” he added.

JAMAICA S. CAHILL and JENNY LYNN G. JUGULAR The UP-billion syndicated loan to JUST Hospital Inc. Is said to be released next week. Under the terms of the 13- to 1 5-year loan, everything in the still-to-be constructed 19-story medical arts building and seven-story hospital services podium (read: from stapler bullets to its most expensive medical equipment) as well as future hospital earnings are in hock to the banks which will put up the money.

Development Bank of the Philippines is lending Pl . Billion; Land Bank of the Philippines, Pl billion; Philter’s Bank, IPPP million; and DB Trust Services, IPPP million. There were two clinchers for the lending banks. One was a comfort letter issued by University of Stop. Atoms, Inc. That the university fully supports the hospital.

The other was a verbal assurance from FRR. Mark Deny, the head of one of two investigative commissions sent by Rome-based master general of the Dominican Order FRR. Carols Alfonse Shapiro Costa, POP, that there is no anomaly in the university spinning off the hospital.

At the heart of the investigation is the incorporation of the hospital as a separate entity in 2005. There were 12 incorporation, nine of whom are Dominicans led by then JUST Rector FRR.

Temperament Lana in their individual capacities and three of whom are lay people led by current hospital president and former Dominican seminarian Dry. Xenon Alfonse. Incorporating the hospital with the Securities and Exchange Commission has given rise to other issues: Neither JUST and/or the Dominican Order are incorporation of the hospital, which describes itself in its incorporation papers as a nonstick, nonprofit organization. As a medical school, JUST now pays the hospital a laboratory fee for each of its medical students. Said another way, the school now shares the tuition paid by medical students with the hospital instead of keeping the entire tuition when the hospital was part of the school. JUST had the country’s second- largest charity ward next to Philippine General Hospital).

The hospital claims a much reduced charity ward is still open. Oh yes, in a letter dated March 12, 2007, Dominican secretary-general FRR. Christopher Holler POP says “the Master of the Order is seriously studying the issues surrounding he JUST Hospital in Manila. JUST Hospital controversy Lilt U. Gain http://www. Businessperson.

Com. PH/04262007/opinion. HTML A controversy is swirling over at the University of Stop. Atoms (JUST) that started on charges of a tax-dodging mechanism and that has now morphed into accusations of Machiavellian machinations designed to benefit Just a few individuals at the expense of JUST. The controversy has apparently reached Pope Benedict WI, the Papal Nuncio and all the Dominicans in the Philippines, and from the looks of it, there is a snowballing move for JUST to “cut and cut cleanly.

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The subject of the controversy is a seemingly innocuous filing and eventual registration of the corporate papers of JUST Hospital Inc. With the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in December 2005. At first glance, JUST Hospital, which has a tax-exempt status, would appear to be a subsidiary of JUST Hospital Inc. However, some JUST doctors have found out that JUST Hospital Inc. Was never capitalized by funds from the Dominican Order and was in fact a Juridical entity separate and distinct from JUST Hospital itself. And that is Just for starters.

A paper trail of the incorporation of JUST Hospital Inc. D several business transactions it entered into with JUST Hospital, as well as the discovery of donations of two auditoriums by a business personality and philanthropist with a kingly name, are now threatening to engulf the Dominican Order?and not in inflammatory rhetoric. We understand a papal communication has been sent to the Dominicans on the complaints about the questionable relationship between JUST Hospital and JUST Hospital Inc. There were several business transactions involving JUST Hospital and JUST Hospital Inc. That have been unearthed, threatening to swamp the religious order with report filth.

These range from the use of the tax identification number (TIN) of the former by the latter to the donation of some assets of the Gust’s Faculty of Medicine and Surgery to JUST Hospital Inc. The unfolding paper trail that conscientious doctors of JUST have discovered does not speak well of the development and underscores Machiavellian machinations involving conflict-of-interest situations. University grounds is this: Why is JUST Hospital Inc. Using the TIN of JUST Hospital, a tax-exempt entity, when the former was incorporated outside of the Dominican Order?

For some of the JUST doctors following the controversy, there are legal ramifications that could take out the prevailing tax-exempt status of JUST Hospital. And these are not comforting thoughts that put them in limbo.

“The corporate name [of JUST Hospital Inc. ] is deceiving as it would at first glance appear to be part of JUST. Closer examination, however, reveals otherwise; there is no connection except as lesser and lessee as will be explained later,” says the third paragraph of a briefing paper that was sent to the Holy See.

The explanation hints of incestuous relationship arising from many of the business ramifications entered by and between JUST Hospital and JUST Hospital Inc. Although the two are supposed to be separate Juridical entities.

One case pointedly referred to in the briefing paper is that a deed of donation was made donating some assets of the Gust’s Faculty of Medicine and Surgery to JUST Hospital Inc. That immediately increased several times the assets of the latter. And yet, the said company was incorporated with each member of the board of trustees contributing IIOP,OHO each of their own personal money. There is no record that the money came from Dominican funds,” the paper emphasized. Another point that reached the Holy See is that the contract of lease between the university and the JUST Hospital Inc. Showed that everything is stacked in favor of the corporation, an awkward case of the tenant demanding and getting the best options in its contract with the landlord.

For instance, the corporation complained of pays at a very low lease. On top of that, the JUST Hospital Inc. Can terminate the contract at will clearly giving it undue advantage over the school. As they say, this happens only in the Philippines http://www. Commissioner.

Com. PH/0511 ;122007/headlines. HTML JUST Hospital Mission Explained By Honey Madrigal’s-Rexes Businessperson Reporter BY 2010, an improved and more modern University of Santos Atoms Hospital (JUST) will become fully operational, further solidifying its position as one of the country’s premier medical centers. Trustees chairman Ernest Arsenic said the hospital would start the expansion this year?with the work completed in three years. The improvement will be funded by the UP-billion syndicated loan facility the hospital secured last month.

Father Arsenic explained the 10-year term loan will particularly finance the instruction and acquisition of equipment for a single, integrated medical care complex, including a new 19-story medical arts building and a seven-story hospital- services podium located in the JUST campus. It will also involve the renovation and expansion of existing facilities. “With this project, we are very much optimistic that the patient load capabilities of the JUST Hospital, particularly related to its charity ward, would be augmented,” he said.

And, with the expected boost in earnings, Father Arsenic sees the hospital being able to help more people, especially those who lack the financial muscle. “That’s our postulate work. Our primary objective really is to help our less-fortunate fellowmen,” he said.

At present, 70 percent to 80 percent of the income of the hospital’s pay division subsidizes patients at the clinical division; and 20 percent to 30 percent goes directly to the operations of the hospital. “Since JUST is a nonprofit, nonstick organization, not a single centavo goes to the hospital’s board of trustees or to the university,” Father Arsenic said.

It was the university that spent Pl . 2 million for the incorporation of JUST in 2005. “The money used for incorporation purposes came from the university because it was n the context that the university was the one creating the corporation of the hospital.

Although duly separated from the university, JUST is still owned and operated by the university,” he explained. Contrary to the claims of some sectors, FRR. Arsenic said there were no attempts to put JUST in the hands of the private sector. There are some sectors who were not satisfied with what we are doing and were spreading the black propaganda. They thought that since the hospital is Juridical separated from the university and the Dominicans no longer own the hospital, the university has totally lost control in the hospital. There is no truth to that,” he stressed.

South’s 12-member board of trustees is composed of nine priests, two doctors and a former president of San Miguel Corp.. Meanwhile, it seems all’s well that ends well between JUST and the California-based JUST medical alumni associations.

Late last year, there were reports the alumni associations in Southern and Central California threatened to withdraw their assistance from the JUST and the university faculty of medicine due to the controversy surrounding the incorporation of JUST. “They did that on the assumption that the information they got was correct.

But they have been enlightened. In fact, when some of the representatives [came] here for a visit last December, they were appreciative of the developments that we’ve done with the hospital,” he explained.

The alumni associations started giving assistance to the hospital and the faculty of medicine in 1990. Http://www. Variation.

Com/details. Asp? Id=3066 THE UP billion JUST Hospital (JUST) expansion building will begin in May, JUST Hospital CEO Dry. Xenon Alfonse said. “There is no significant stoppage or slippage in the project as scheduled,” Alfonse said in a letter to the Variation. Phase 2 of the development project is on going. ” The annex became the subject of a column in the Business Mirror last March that alleged the Vatican had issued an order to halt its construction.

According to the article, “The Vatican Steps In,” of Business Mirror’s March 23-24 issue, “the construction of the UP. 5 billion JUST Hospital annex has been stopped by the Vatican-based Holy See. ” The rest of the article read: “Here’s the problem. The annex is being constructed on property owned by the University of Santos Atoms, which is in turn, owned by the Dominican religious order. However, the hospital is no longer an arm of the University but a separate corporate entity, some of whose incorporation Just happen to be Dominican friars in their individual capacities. Alfonse denied the report and challenged the BMW to show proof.

“Since it was the Business Mirror that published the article, let it be their burden to show proof of their allegations,” Alfonse said in his letter. JUST Rector FRR. Ernest M. Racer, O. P.

, also said there was no order from the Vatican to stop the construction. The Variation, through e-mail, asked the Business Mirror for their resources. However, they failed to disclose names. Former JUST Rector Rev. FRR.

Temperament Lana, O. P. , agreed with FRR. Racer. “What I know is that the construction (of the hospital annex) will begin very soon,” Lana said.

Lana also emphasized that the JUST is still a part of the University.

“Since the hospital is on JUST grounds, it is still an arm of the University. When it became a separate institution, there was only a change in management and not ownership,” he said. On the other hand, Dry. Salve Loyola, JUST Student Health Services directress and wife of JUST Chief Operating Officer Dry. William Loyola, said the reports were clearly baseless. “l really don’t know where they “There was no order to stop the construction of the annex.

” Jordan Mari . De Leon with reports from Verity Array B.

Gabion ‘Ailing’ JUST Hospital on the road to recovery In a previous column, we wrote about the issues surrounding the incorporation of the JUST hospital (“What’s ailing JUST hospital? ” , May 1, 2007 issue) for which we received a long letter from FRR. Ernest Racer, Rector Magnifiers of the University of Stop. Atoms and chairman of the board of JUST Hospital Inc. FRR.

Racer answered the issues raised n the column point-by-point, which unfortunately we could not run in its entirety due to space constraints. However, an old friend and classmate, Tatty. Pablo “Boy” De Board, paid me a visit a couple of days ago.

It turns out he is related to one of the incorporation, and Boy explained to me the background concerning the incorporation of the JUST Hospital. He gave me the assurance that everything is above board and all was done in good faith. Boy said the hospital facilities have been vastly improved and that the number of charity patients has gone up, and they continue to receive the same excellent retirement from the hospital staff.

Likewise, the Development Bank of the Philippines has given the go signal for the release of the funds, and the same goes for the Land Bank of the Philippines.

Both banks were part of the syndicate of banks that granted a UP billion loan to JUST hospital for its expansion and modernization program. Whatever issues may be raised by concerned faculty and alumni of JUST hospital, it would be best for the management to invite its critics and ask them to participate in the enhancement and development of the hospital’s services and facilities. After all, he University of Santos Atoms is the country’s oldest university and a highly esteemed institution of learning.

Many of this country’s well-respected individuals are connected to it in one way or another, so the issues surrounding the incorporation must be resolved for the benefit of everyone concerned. Http://www.

Abs-subnets. Com/stoppage. Asps? Story=78243 Dominicans in trouble over new JUST hospital POSTSCRIPT BY Federation D. Paschal Jar. Sunday, June 3, 2007 STORM BLOWING: A legal typhoon continues to batter the pontifical University of Santos Atoms, the howler’s tailwinds threatening to shake the rafters of the Dominican Order in Rome, if not the Vatican itself.

The collateral damage could affect three big banks that had contributed to a syndicated UP-billion loan to build a new 19-storey medical care complex on the Span campus.

The loan was granted the JUST Hospital Inc. Despite its having no substantial assets. Center, but work stopped when the release of the loan was suspended as a result of the controversy.