Quezon City. After the train-ing, the five nurses started to assist Dr. Parayno and Dr. Coquia in cadaveric organ retrievals from organ donors. The retrieved organs were transported to Manila for trans-plantation. The hospital was accredited by the Department of Health as an Organ Pro-curement Organization last March 9, 2012 which allows R1MC to do cadaveric retriev-als for organ transplant. Two months after, R1MC was ac-credited as a transplant facility by the DOH through the Bu-reau of Health Facilities and Services on May 24, 2012.

The first kidney transplant in Region 1 Medical Center was performed last September 30, 2012 on Maria Govinda Onru-via, 29 year old nurse from Bo-nuan Gueset, Dagupan City. The kidney donor was Isagani Patungan, the recipient’s 32 year old cousin. The successful operation was spearheaded by Dr. Joseph Roland Mejia, R1MC Medical Center Chief, and was led by the following doctors: Dr. Adolfo Parayno of the transplant vascular team, Dr. Abraham Coquia of the per-fusion team and Dr. Paquito Fuentes of the donor team. Region 1 Medical Center start-ed the first step to becoming an organ transplant facility last year by sending five selected nurses namely Froilan Fabia,

Manuelito Fernandez, Chris-ty Palaganas, Susan Parayno and Alicia Viloria to attend the Specialty Pro-gram on Organ Procure-ment and Transplantation on January 10- March 5, 2011 at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute,

Donors Surgical Team headed by

Dr. Paquito Fuentes and the sur-

gical doctors and nurses of RIMC

R1MC’s FIRST KIDNEY TRANSPLANT SURGERY

D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 2 V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 1

W H A T ’ S I N S I D E

• Newsletter

Reborn

• RN Heals

Qualifying Examinations

• Infrastructure

Development Plans

• Life Coaching.

Quintessential Workshop

• RIMC ISO

Certification

• Annual

Research

Winners

• Basic Infection

Control for Nurses

The PodiumThe Podium THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF THE REGION 1 MEDICAL CENTERTHE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF THE REGION 1 MEDICAL CENTER

By Christy Castillo Palaganas

The Region 1 Medical Center has received from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office ( PCSO) one brand new ambulance unit in June 2012. This donation from the PCSO was personal-ly requested by Rep. Gina De Venecia of the 4th District of Pangasinan from Chairper-son Margarita Juico, and was approved by the PCSO Board by virtue of Resolution No. A-0061. Prior to this all of RIMC's ambulance vehicles were damaged during Ty-phoon Pepeng in 2009 and

are no longer

RIMC acquires PCSO Ambulance

(continued on page 2)

2nd Annual PSMSI Conference

The Phillippine Society of Medical Specialists Incorpo-rated (PSMSI) in Govern-ment Service was success-fully launched at the Herit-age Hotel last November 2011. To pursue its goals

(continued on page 4)

The conferment was conducted by the PSMS President Dr. Jo-seph Roland O. Mejia.

News and Views of truthfulness, accuracy, objectivity, impartiality, non-censorship, fairness and public account-ability

Neuro-Endoscopy Workshop

Twenty-seven doctors and six-

teen nurses a�ended a two-day

workshop on Neuro-endoscopy

for the treatment of Hydro-

cephalus, held from December

17 and 18, 2012at the RIMC

Conference Hall organized by

the Neurosurgery Outreach

Founda,on Inc. headed by Dr.

Philipp Aldana in coopera,on

with the Region I Medical Cen-

ter and the North Luzon Chap-

ter of the Academy of Filipino

Neurosurgeons coordinated by

Dr. F. Florendo. The workshop

u,lized modern didac,c meth-

ods, hands-on demonstra,ons

on brain models and forma-

linized cadaver heads and live

surgery.

RIMCRIMC

P A G E 2

An attempt was made by the previous administration and succeeded to have a hospital newsletter published, unfortunately with only one issue produced by the editorial board. The natural death of the publication was mainly due to logistics and difficulty with the printing process. Way back then, handpicked from a list were eight members of the editorial board, all with either a background in Jour-nalism, a good command of the English language or a staff member of a College Paper. These people were tasked to write for and run the publication. The initial meeting revolved around what the publication will be - a mini-broadsheet which demands a huge amount of journalistic inputs, a sensational tabloid format, a news magazine wherein a majority of articles are features or a simple newsletter for balanced, up-to-date news delivery. Deciding on what to make out of it, the latter was chosen as this will be circulated as an info-sheet for the hospital and was a more realistic to-do publication planned to be produced twice in a year. Seven editors and I worked double time to beat deadlines, re-write articles, proof-read in record time, run to the printers, and master the programs of Pagemaker and Publisher. Now a new batch of editors will take over and over-take what the predecessors had done in the past. The rebirth of the hospital newsletter is under the Committee on Publications of Dr. Ricardo Guanzon and led by the Chief Training Officer Dr. Ferdinand Florendo. I really am grateful that we are given this opportunity to write once more thus the committee is calling for submission of articles for the succeeding issues of the newsletter. Be it news, feature, literary or any piece from the employees will be gladly received by the editorial board. Arti-cles submitted to the board will be objectively analyzed in conformity with the prin-ciples of Journalism - truthfulness, accuracy, objectivity, impartiality, non-censorship, fairness and public accountability — as these apply to the acquisition of newsworthy information and its subsequent dissemination to the public. The new editorial board will be convening regularly and all employees are more than welcome to join-in and submit a write-up for the publication. Dr. Joseph Roland O. Mejia, the hospital's Medical Center Chief, fully supports this undertaking both logistically and technically. He personally approved the Newsletter’s brand new name “The Podium” -making this publication “”our very own”. This is of course another milestone of the present administration. The word Podium is simply de-fined “a platform, a stage, a pedestal” which is indeed a fitting tribute and a showcase of the news-worthy happenings in the hospital. Aside from the MCC and CTO, included as editorial advisers are Drs. Arnel Gerard Gazmen, Otto Raguindin and Delfin Gubatan. Last I heard, the hospital will be forthcoming by purchasing a printing machine for the committee's use to increase the pace and ease the work of the printing process. In the coming years, with your submission of articles and the administration’s full support, expect more issues of “The Podi-um”, a new name for the new Region I Medical Center, a newsletter reborn .

Editorial A Newsletter Reborn By Hilarion Maramba, MD

in reliably safe running condition. The last ambulance donation from the PCSO was more than 20 years ago. This modern unit is a 2012 Foton View Ambulance equipped with complete medical accessories, collapsible type stretcher, spine board, two ambu bags ( one pedia, one adult) and oth-er features.With our new ambulance unit, Our R1MC patients are assured of a safe and dependable transport to the hospital.our new ambulance unit, Our R1MC patients are assured of a safe and dependable transport to the hospital.

New Ambulance (from page 1)

Qualifying Exams for RN HEALS

Three hundred nurses from different parts of the province passed the sec-ond qualifying examination given by the Human Resource Department of the Region I Medical Center. The successful examinees will be trimmed down to 166 after an oral examination, the result of which will be made public by January, 2013.RN HEALS stands for Registered Nurses Health Enhancement and Local Ser-vices, a project of the P-Noy admin-istration which is also a part of the poverty alleviation policy of the gov-ernment by way of a one-year con-tractual offer after passing the quali-fying exams. The test is designed to measure the level of aptitude and competence of the nursing profes-sionals who took the examination.

Chairman on Publica,ons/EIC………………………...

Associate Editor……………………………………… ……...

Assistant Editors……………………………………………..

Lay-out Editors……………………………………………….

Contributors…………………………………………………..

Receiving the ambulance key from

Philippine Charity Sweepstakes

Office Chairperson Madamme Mar-

garita Juico is A"y. Manuel Aoanan,

Supervising Administra%ve Officer.

Dr. Ricardo Guanzon

Dr. Hilarion Maramba

Dr. Mary Gerardine Canto

Dr. Agnes Dimaano

Dr. Thea Abalos –Pamoceno

Dr. Arthur Pitargue

Dr. Monina Posadas

Mr. Andre Los Mamaril

Ms. Vanessa Refugia

Mr. Alvin Kryz Tamayo

Mrs. Cristy Palaganas

Dr. Teresita Sison

Dr. Jocelyn de Guzman

A�y. Manuel Aoanan

Mr. Mamerto Patungan

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By: Mr. Ruel Raymund Malubag

P A G E 3

equipped with the most modern state of the art diagnostic and surgical equipment, wellness center, food court, helipad, etc. while the Medical Arts Building will have the capacity for clinics, laboratory diagnostics, commercial spaces, multi-level parking and dormitory. Several projects will also rise in R1MC Treatment and Rehabilitation Center, Bonuan Binloc. Among them is the Corazon C. Aquino Cancer Complex, completion of the Dormitory Building and Administrative Building, Construction of Motorpool and Maintenance Build-ing/Laundry House/Stock and Supply House, Construction of Exterior Perimeter Fence, Construction of Multi-purpose Covered Court, Construction of Power House and Supply and Installation of 150kVA Generator Set through Health Fa-cilities Enhancement Program. With all of these, R1MC is living up in providing quality ser-vices and accessibility to a far more number of clients not only from Pangasinan but also to nearby provinces.

Region 1 Medical Center has metamor-phosed with the changes truly aligned with its mission to provide quality health care ser-vices and medical advancement. Now, on its 87th year, R1MC has made significant strides and notable achievements and this will con-tinue as Dr. Joseph Roland O. Mejia, Medical Center Chief I, envisioned the R1MC as the primary medical center, north of Manila. In line with the government’s thrust on decen-tralizing and upgrading existing hospitals, R1MC will begin next year the construction of 11-storey Main Building and a 6-storey Medi-cal Arts Building through Public-Private Part-nership scheme. The Main Building shall house 700 beds for service patients and an-other 300 beds for pay patients which will be

Main Building Perspective

RIMC Infrastructure Projects

Medical Arts Building Perspective

R1MC TOWARDS ISO CERTIFICATION

By Jocelyn de Guzman, MD

The International Organization for Standardization is a worldwide fed-eration of National Standard Bodies from 176 countries. ISO 9001:2008 is the most recent version of the standard for quality management system which refers to a set of standards that should be fulfilled by an organization to be ISO certified. One of the principles of ISO 9001:2008 is “Continual Improve-ment” which synchronizes with Pres. Benigno Aquino III’s Social Contract with the Filipino People where he stated “ We will start to make these changes first in our-selves-by doing the right things, by giving value to excellence and in-tegrity and rejecting mediocrity and dishonesty, and by giving priority to

PEDIA WINS ANNUAL

RESEARCH CONTEST By Agnes Dimaano, MD

The Annual Interdepartmental Re-search Contest of R1MC was held last November 29, 2012 at the Fran-cisco Q. Duque Conference Hall. The contest was participated in by ten resident physicians from the departments of Internal Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pediat-rics and Surgery. The board of judges was comprised of Dr. Cyn-thia Balila, Dr. Raul Castaños, Dr. John Fernandez, Dr. Philip Oliva and finally Dr. Hazel Gazmen who is the chairman of the board. Three prospective design and seven retrospective design researches were presented during the competi-tion. The winning entry was a pro-spective research study entitled “A Comparative Study on the Efficacy (con�nued on page 4)

LIFE COACHING QUINTESSENTIAL

WORKSHOP By Teresita Hidalgo-Sison, MD

Since Life Coaching is becoming more popular nowadays, the Acute Psychiatric Unit had chosen this ac-tivity for the National Mental Health Week, with its theme: “Depression: A Global Crisis -Making the connection” held last October 23-24, 2012 to two spate batches at the R1MC Confer-ence Room, primarily to expose and enlighten the participants on its basic principles and strategies. Different from counseling, advice or psycho-therapy, Life Coaching is defined as a dynamic mutual agreement be-tween two parties whereby one coaches the client using specific skills and the latter agrees to receive coaching. During the workshop, the

(Con�nued on page 4) (Con�nued on page 4)

P A G E 4 Basic Infection Control for Nurses

Infection control is one of the steering pil-lars that favor progress in any hospital. It is a facet of the health care delivery sys-tem that endeavors to safeguard not only its client but also its personnel from biolog-ical hazards. Infection control has been an impactful factor that perpetuates provision of quality health care and ensures the pro-tection and health of its manpower. It pro-vides the necessary principles and guide-lines that formed a safer practice in the hospital setting. Nurses are dubbed as the “first line of defense” and spend the most extensive time with the patients. Handling numerous and diversified clienteles, they are regularly exposed to a vast range of infectious agents ranging from simple bac-terial pathogens to highly communicable diseases such as diphtheria, H1N1 influ-enza, and meningococcemia. Moreover, simple measures were taught to combat these opportunistic infections while nurses were still students. Unfortunately, these measures have been undermined, per-haps due to a sense of invulnerability as the providers of care or possibly because of extreme preoccupation on extending nursing care that they have compromised their health. Furthermore, nurses may not only be prone to nosocomial infections but they can also act as vessels of transmit-ting infectious agents to other clients. Hence through these circumstances, with the leadership of our OIC chief nurse, Mr. Rosauro P. Catabay, coupled with the initiative of the training committee headed by our assistant chief nurse for training Ms. Liza Mamaril and Mrs. Lourdes Ragu-indin, and with the relentless support of our medical center chief, Dr. Joseph Ro-land Mejia, basic infection control training for nurses was conducted.The training was primarily directed towards nurses and focused on the reiteration of the proce-dures and practices that were purposively developed to reduce or even eliminate the risk of transmission and acquisition of nos-ocomial infections. The participants were composed of senior nurses, staff nurses and RN Heals which were divided into 4 groups; each group was given training at a month interval making the program a 4-month long activity. The event was spear-headed by the Infection Control Commit-tee led by Dr. Calixto Alano. The introduc-tion to basic infection control was imparted by Infectious Disease Consultant, Dr. Mar-io Panaligan, who was also a former presi-dent of the Philippine Infection Control Society. The Infection Control Physician and team leader, Dr. Cesar Guico dis-cussed and emphasized the relevance of Isolation Precaution particularly in cases of rabies, meningococcemia and tuberculo-sis. Mrs. Constancia Tumanan and Mrs. Paz Santos shed light on Environmental Precaution and Infection Control in Special Areas, respectively. With hand washing identified in most researches as the single

most important procedure for preventing the spread of infectious disease in health care settings, a discussion on hand hy-giene was thoroughly discussed by Mrs. Marilou Tadeo with return demonstration. The incidences of needlestick injuries, which have been known mode of contract-ing blood-borne infections, I elaborated this topic for health care waste manage-ment;The nursing service and its adminis-trators strive to avoid the consequences of hospital-acquired infections among our staff. The leaders of the nursing service have the moral obligation to ascertain that their constituents are safe and equipped with the appropriate training and gear to prevent these mishaps.

Life Coaching (from page3 ) participants-coaches were taught about the skills of listening, staying pre-sent and focused, knowing the right questions to ask and having the proper techniques to empower the persons be-ing coached (PBC) to find the answers within themselves, Life coaching may even serve as a preventive tool from any psychiatric problem like depression be-cause it helps one learn how to choose a course of action to create a plausible and fulfilling life.In general, participants were very grateful for they had much learning and fun. They became cognizant about the silent skills of life coaching, atop the various group activities done to some-how guide them with its appropriate methods. Finally, participants suggested that Life Coaching be conducted to other hospital personnel as it would assist cli-entele, families and friends bring out their personal best thought Empowering, the process of helping another recognize

goals and objectives as a medical organ-ization for trainees and/or medical alum-ni in government hospitals, the Board of Trustees continuously pursued for activi-ties that will enhance and update its members. For their second year cele-bration, it has come up with its 2nd Annu-al Convention with the theme " PSMSI Moving Towards Government Service as Standard for Healthcare Delivery". This was held at the Crown Plaza Galleria Manila last November 5,6,and 7, 2012. In his message during the convention, PSMSI President, Dr. Mejia, enjoined its members to be active parts of all activi-ties of the PSMSI as a way of showing support to the organization and keeping the organization ONE and UNITED. With the 2nd Annual Convention well-attended, exceeding the targeted num-ber of participants.

ISO Certification (from page 3) others over ourselves. We will make these across many aspects of our national life.” An-other principle of ISO 9001:2008 is “ Customer Focus” which is embodied by the Department of Health as a service-oriented agency that focus-es on the provision of quality health care to all Filipinos.The DOH strives to achieve its Millen-nium Development Goals(MDG) through its strategic thrust of Kalusugan Pangkalahatan(KP) as it institutionalizes Quality Management System(QMS), which is certifiable to ISO 9001:2008, for an enhanced health care service delivery. rRIMC is one with the DOH campaign of KP which ensures universal health care for all Filipinos. The implementation of KP in R1MC ensures that all the people of Pan-gasinan and nearby provinces especially the disadvantaged group have good access to qual-ity health care. With this noble objective, the R1MC management and staff are in full support of the establishment of QMS.R1MC’s journey towards QMS started with the orientation semi-nar for Quality Management Representatives held last October 1,2012 at the Stotsenberg Hotel, Clark, Pampanga. This was followed by a Trainers’ Training on ISO QMS last October 2-5, 2012. An orientation seminar on ISO QMS was conducted last October 15, 2012 with the R1MC Management and Staff as partici-pants.To date, R1MC is now on its initial gap assessment towards capability building of the QMS Core team.

By: Mamerto Patungan, RN

RIMC employees may submit articles for the newsletter to:

IT-HOMIS Office, 2nd floor, Administrative Building (Fronting the ManCom Room)

Previously submitted articles will be used in the succeeding issues of the newsletter.

The newsletter can be viewed at RIMC’s website http://r1mc.doh.gov.ph/

Annual Research (from page 3) of Multistrain and Monostrain Bacterial and Yeast Probiotics vs. Placebo on the Duration of Hospital Stay Among Chil-dren Admitted for Acute Diarrhea” by Dr. Xyla Tuguinayo of the Department of Pediatrics. Dr. Joie Recel and Dr. Ma. Camilla Rosario garnered 2nd place and 3rd place, respectively. Both resi-dents are from the Department of Sur-gery.. The annual contest is organized by the Research Committee headed by Dr. Jocelyn De Guzman under the Training and Research Service chaired by Dr. Ferdinand Florendo.

PSMSI (from page1)