St Luke’s CEO: More public hospitals seen to adopt robotic surgery

After recently achieving the country’s highest number of robotic-assisted procedures, St. Luke’s Medical Center’s (SLMC) chief expects the technology to see wider adoption in public hospitals, with the center committing to augment the training of government medical professionals.

“Once we have that commitment from the government and public hospitals, I think we will see this phenomenon sooner rather than later,” Dennis P. Serrano, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of SLMC, told BusinessWorld on the sidelines of the celebration of its 2,500 completed robotic surgery milestone on Thursday.

Around ten government hospitals, notably the Philippine General Hospital, have already acquired robotic surgical platforms in recent years, with another two to three hospitals likely to follow in the next few months, Mr. Serrano said. “The government, I think, has enough resources to help our hospitals acquire this technology,” he said.

As one of the country’s spearheads in robotic surgeries, Mr. Serrano also said that SLMC is committed to augmenting the training of medical professionals in public hospitals.

“We don’t want to monopolize patient care or patient technology because we believe that it is something that has to be shared,” he said. “As I speak, I have permitted nurses from Southern Philippines Medical Center to observe our robotic surgical procedures.”

The hefty price of robotic-assisted surgeries has also been seen to decrease in recent years due to wider adoption by various hospitals and is expected to drop further in the coming years, the SLMC CEO said.

He added that health maintenance organizations (HMOs) are now seeing the potential of the technology to be incorporated into their coverage.

“I hope that becomes something they will realize more, because essentially, payer structures are also a very important driver in bringing costs down,” Mr. Serrano said.

SLMC will continue to invest in the technology as more patients recognize its potential, and because it is the future of surgery, he said. — Edg Adrian A. Eva