UST HOSPITAL returned to financial health in 2023 after raising revenues significantly and keeping a tight lid on costs.
The new management, under hospital CEO Fr. Julius Paul Factora, O.P., achieved a positive financial performance three years after facing personnel and financial difficulties exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
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The hospital reported an excess of P62.2 million in revenues over expenses in the year ending July 31, 2023, according to the latest publicly available data from the government.
This was a swing from a P61.9-million loss reported the year previous, based on financial statements audited by SGV & Co.
Revenues jumped 14 percent to P1.63 billion in the period ended July 31, 2023, from P1.43 billion, or an increase of more than P200 million.
Costs and expenses rose by just 5 percent to P1.65 billion from P1.57 billion, leading to an operating loss of P26.76 million. But this was narrowed significantly from the operating loss of P147.13 million recorded the previous year.
Other income of P92.63 million – from interest earnings, rental income, and others – more than offset the operating loss.
Factora, a registered nurse and canon lawyer tapped to lead the teaching hospital in July 2020, spoke about the turnaround under his watch in a recent presentation video.
“The last three years felt like a prolonged labor and a very difficult delivery. Now we have given birth and we’ve already set things in motion,” he said in the video shown to US-based medical alumni. “We just need to be patient as we wait for our child to grow up to see our hard labor for the last three years come into fruition and into maturity.”
Factora said the hospital “beat and outrun” the Covid-19 pandemic, which had led to a shortage of doctors and nurses and even a lack of patients, by retrofitting its facility and providing vaccination and lodging to staff and trainees.
UST partially opened the John Paul II building, UST Hospital’s 11-story extension, to the public on April 30, 2022 after a 10-year construction.
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The modern structure now houses executive and business offices, the Our Lady of Manaoag Chapel, the Center for Respiratory Medicine, Dermatology Center, laboratory, ultrasound, Rheumatology Center, OB-Gyne Ultrasound Unit, Center for Kidney Diseases, and the Ear, Nose, Throat, Head and Neck Surgery Center.
The “long-awaited” Computerized Tomography and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Center and the Operating Room Complex were opened in 2023.
The University hospital had operated for some time without its own MRI and linear accelerator or Linac machine used for radiation treatments versus cancer, Factora noted.
“Three years in the making ito. Maraming paghihirap and I can finally say marami rin naman kaming nagawa. Maraming kulang, pero alam ko, mas marami kaming nagawa,” he said. A.D.M. Teston
