Two more hospitals in WV seek approval to run COVID-19 tests

By Emme Rose Santiagudo

Two more hospitals in Western Visayas are seeking accreditation to diagnose coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and expand the testing in the region.

West Visayas State University Medical Center (WVSUMC) in Iloilo City and Corazon Lacson Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital (CLMMRH) in Bacolod City have sought accreditation from the Department of Health (DOH) to augment the laboratory in Western Visayas Medical Center (WVMC) in Iloilo City.

As of April 5, 2020, WVSUMC and CLMMRH are in the primary stages of the accreditation, according to the Department of Health (DOH)

WVSUMC is on the first stage of the accreditation or “self-assessment”. Under Stage 1, the laboratory will conduct self-assessment using the tool provided by Research Institute of Tropical Medicine (RITM).

According to DOH, the components of the self-assessment tools include access to the laboratory, design of the laboratory, use of laboratory equipment, administrative control and management, records and documentation, and personal practices and training.

Meanwhile, CLMMRH is a step ahead of WVSUMC as it is already on Stage 2 of the accreditation.

Stage 2 or “validation” means that a team from DOH, RITM, and World Health Organization (WHO) will conduct onsite visit to check compliance with the self-assessment stage.

After passing the first two stages, the hospitals will go to Stage 3 or training of personnel and Stage 4 or proficiency testing with the help of RITM.

The final stage or Stage 5 signifies that a laboratory is now on scale implementation.

“Once all five positive samples, have been confirmed by RITM as correct, the laboratory will be certified and allowed to process and test samples at full scale,” DOH said.

In the entire region, only the WVMC medical center has been accredited by the health department to run COVID-19 tests.

Based on the test kits inventory of DOH, WVMC has conducted 173 tests as of March 30 with 4,843 remaining tests.

Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas has also pushed for the accreditation of WVSUMC for the conduct of mass testing.

In his Facebook page, Treñas called on the health department to also accredit the laboratory of University of San Agustin (USA) to run COVID-19 tests.

 

“I am calling on DOH to accredit the WVSU-MC lab and the University of San Agustin laboratory. Both are already Level 3, and need to be accredited to allow additional test to be conducted for the region. We need to have additional laboratories to accommodate more tests as we prepare for mass testing,” he said.