Message From The CEO

Rev. Fr. Rolando V. dela Rosa, OP Rector, University of Santo Tomas

Rev. Fr. Rolando V. dela Rosa, OP
Restates USTH Objectives

The University of Santo Tomas Hospital was established primarily as a teaching hospital, witn an intimate connection with the UST Faculty of Medicine and Surgery. For more than a century, the Faculty has maintained its high standard of medical education.

It has produced pioneers in various health disciplines and specializations, as well as excellent medical practitioners. Because of this close link with the Faculty, people perceive UST Hospital physicians to be eminently qualified and competent.

Any attempt at modernizing the Hospital must take into consideration its close link with the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery. After all, patients flock to the Hospital not mainly because of the availabilty of modern facilities and equipment, but because of the corps of topnotch physicians who are mostly products of the UST Faculty of Medicine and Surgery.

Today, health is increasingly perceived as a commodity; hospitals as business enterprises; patients as "liquid assets" and doctors as "human capital". Standards and quality of health care are gradually becoming identified with state-of-the-art equipment, medical expertise and competence, borderless and easily available patient services, hotel-like accommodations, and commitment to innovate. All these summarize what contemporary health practitioners perceive as the new directions for hospital development. Too much focus on these, however, might have some negative consequences on the hospital's identity and mission.

I hope that all of us working in the UST Hospital will bear in mind that our work is primarily an apostolate. The Hospital exists as an arm of the Church to extend its healing ministry, especially to the poor and marginalized. It also exists to continue the quality education and training of students in the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery. Modernization must be fueled by our commitment to achieve both goals, and not by our desire to compete against mega hospitals with large foreign endowments and business support.