St. Luke’s to build third hospital amid major medical tourism push

St. Luke’s Medical Center is preparing to build a third hospital to be located in Parañaque City as part of an aggressive expansion program that will also see one of the Philippines’ best hospitals named by the government as the country’s lead medical tourism facility.

In an interview with InsiderPH, St. Luke’s president and CEO Dr. Dennis Serrano said the imprimatur from the Department of Tourism means that the private non-profit healthcare institution that traces its history to 1903 will become the benchmark for all medical tourism services that will be offered in the country.

He explained that, at present, anywhere between 10-15% of patients in St. Luke’s  Taguig and Quezon City units are already from overseas who fly in to avail of medical services that are on par with those offered in first-world countries.

Dr. Dennis Serrano

The St. Luke's president and CEO said being designated as the country's lead medical tourism facility will allow it to set the standard for other hospitals and help them provide better services to expatriate patients.

“We already have the best facilities and the most skilled medical personnel in the country,” Serrano said, adding that patients who used to fly to the US for open heart surgery or minimally invasive heart procedures, or avail of advanced cancer treatment can now do so in St. Luke’s.

“We in St. Luke's have already been catering to medical tourism of sorts over the past decade,” he said, explaining that the new program expands on the establishment’s current expertise. “We have been the premiere destination of tourists who needed medical care in the country. These are long-staying tourists like our expats as well as casual tourists.”

The hospital’s designation as the lead facility in for medical tourism will mean that government will use St. Luke’s standards for rating other hospitals around the country on their ability to provide services to foreign patients.

These metrics include the ease by which patients can transfer from the airport to the hospital, the level of care and comfort they receive while being treated in the facility, as well as the ability to provide follow-up after-treatment care.

Serrano said St. Luke’s is initially eyeing medical tourists from nearby Pacific Islands like Guam, the Federal States of Micronesia and Papua New Guinea, but it is now also targeting patients from the Asian mainland and even as far afield as the US.

Meanwhile, the St. Luke’s chief revealed that the healthcare facility will break ground for its third hospital this October in Aseana City in Parañaque — located in between Pagcor Entertainment City and the SM Mall of Asia complex — having recently signed a long-term lease agreement with property owner D.M. Wenceslao.

Serrano said they expect the third St. Luke’s hospital to be fully operational in five years.