Ayala Healthcare Holdings, Inc. (AC Health) has been given the Covid Management Initiative of the Year (Philippines) award by Healthcare Asia Awards for its integrated ecosystem approach in responding to the pandemic.
In a feature published on the leading healthcare magazine, AC Health was hailed for helping strengthen the Philippines' COVID-19 response by leveraging its unique ecosystem to address the gaps and fulfill its mandate of providing quality, affordable, and accessible healthcare to Filipinos.
"To effectively manage the spread of the virus, AC Health launched a multipronged approach, establishing a strong presence across all patient touch points and providing end-to-end services to Filipinos," the article reads.
Healthcare Asia Awards aims to honor hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare providers that have "risen above the challenges and made a remarkable impact to their patients most especially amidst the massive disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic."
"Thank you to Healthcare Asia for this amazing recognition. This is a testament to the dedication and commitment of all our frontliners at AC Health, and it fuels our commitment to improve healthcare for all Filipinos," said AC Health President and CEO Paolo Borromeo.
He added that, “This recognition would not have been possible without the trust and support of our partners from the national government, the DOH, IATF and various local government units.”
“While the pandemic did expose gaps in our healthcare system, it also uncovered opportunities for stronger collaborations between private and public sectors to build and scale up solutions faster and more effectively. We look forward to this continued partnership with the government,” noted Borromeo.
In the early months of the pandemic, AC Health led a consortium to invest in and scale up national RT-PCR testing capacities, which included 7 BSL-2 laboratories across the country, equivalent to an additional capacity for 5,500 RT-PCR tests per day.
As the pandemic continued, demand for inpatient COVID care rose and hospitals were overwhelmed. AC Health's Healthway clinics continued operations to triage and service non- COVID related concerns and thus decongest hospitals.
AC Health also converted its four QualiMed hospitals into COVID-19 referral facilities. More than half of QualiMed’s beds were dedicated to COVID cases, including ICUs.
The firm also augmented the existing team of medical professionals with more staffing to help manage the increased demand.
In addition, its pharma businesses, Generika and IE Medica/MedEthix, also continued to ensure adequate supply of medicines.
MedEthix was also the first to bring in Molnupiravir, an oral antiviral treatment for mild cases of COVID-19, into the country under a Compassionate Special Permit.
This was then made available to patients across the network via Healthway, QualiMed, and the HealthNow super app.
With the arrival of COVID vaccines in 2021, AC Health launched COVIDShield, enabling it to administer over 770,000 doses of COVID vaccines (as of May 2022) for its partners within and outside of the Ayala group across 30+ sites nationwide.