Scope, coverage, and defined facilities
- “Hospital” means a place devoted primarily to the maintenance and operation of facilities for the diagnosis, treatment and care of individuals suffering from illness, disease, injury or deformity, or in need of obstetrical or other medical and nursing care.
- “Hospital” includes any institution, building, or place where there are installed beds, cribs, or bassinets for twenty-four-hour use or longer by patients, including cases involving maternity, and institutions for convalescence, sanatorial or sanitarial care, infirmities, nurseries, dispensaries, and other names under which similar facilities are designated.
- “Government hospital” means a hospital operated and maintained partially or wholly by the national, provincial, municipal or city government or other political subdivision, or by any department, division, board, or other agency thereof.
- “Private hospital” means one privately owned and established and operated with funds raised or contributed through donations or private capital or other means by private individuals, association, corporation, religious organization, firm, company, or joint stock association.
- “Clinic” means a place where patients avail of medical consultations or treatments on an out-patient basis; however, any clinic or dispensary with at least six beds or cribs or bassinets installed for twenty-four-hour use falls within the definition of “hospital.”
- “Licensee” means the person or persons granted a license to operate and maintain a hospital according to an approved minimum standard.
Construction permit requirement
- Section 3 requires that no hospital—government or private—shall be constructed unless plans have been approved and a construction permit has been issued by the licensing agency.
- The law’s permitting system applies to construction of hospitals generally, and later provisions also require permits for construction or alteration within a compound.
Licensing to operate and registration
- Section 4 requires that no hospital shall operate or be opened to the public unless it is registered and has obtained a license for operation from the licensing agency.
- Section 9 requires that applications for registration and for the issuance of a license be filed with the Bureau of Medical Services on a form prescribed by it.
- Section 9 provides that registration may be made and license issued upon compliance with Section 8 and the rules and regulations prescribed by the licensing agency under the Act.
Licensing agency powers and reorganizational duty
- Section 5 designates the Bureau of Medical Services—with reorganization—as the licensing agency for hospital construction and operation standards.
- Section 5 requires that the Secretary of Health reorganize the Bureau to include a staff of hospital architects, hospital administrators, sanitary engineers, and such personnel as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of the Act without necessarily increasing the present personnel strength of the Bureau.
- Section 6 requires the licensing agency to:
- Conduct an ocular survey of all existing hospitals in the Philippines (government or private) to determine fitness to operate based on facilities and physical plant.
- Prescribe standard plans for government hospital plants in consultation with the Division of Architecture, Bureau of Public Works.
- Approve plans for hospital plants (government or private) and issue permits or authority to construct hospitals in accordance with the Act.
- Keep a permanent register of approved hospitals and/or licensed hospitals, indicating the hospital name, address or location, type, director or administrator, ownership, number of authorized beds and bassinets, and other pertinent data needed.
- Grant licenses for operation and maintenance or revoke them in accordance with the Act.
- Make periodic inspections to check compliance with rules and regulations legally promulgated or with the Act, and recommend corrections to hospital directors or administrators for defects found.
- Publish a yearly list of all approved hospitals showing name, location, type, authorized beds, and director/administrator.
- Submit yearly reports to the Secretary of Health, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the President of the Senate, and the chairmen and members of the Committees on Health of both Houses of Congress, including lists of approved hospitals with name, location, bed capacity, and director/administrator, plus recommendations on hospital needs or requirements for communities without hospital services.
Application, minimum standards, and inspection certification
- Section 7 requires applications for a permit to construct to be submitted to the Office of the Director, Bureau of Medical Services, in a form prescribed by it, accompanied by a plan of the hospital plant proposed to be constructed.
- Section 7 requires the construction application to state: the name of the hospital, ownership, number of beds proposed to be operated, location, and type of hospital to be constructed.
- Section 8 requires that, for a construction permit to be issued, the hospital plan provide sufficient bed space for the proposed bed capacity and include: a laboratory room, an operating room with work rooms for sterilization and anesthesia preparation, an X-ray or radiology room, and a pharmacy.
- Section 8 requires additional facilities including a dispensary or out-patient department, a delivery room, isolation rooms, and an autopsy room or morgue, plus sufficient quarters for residents, nurses, attendants, and helpers, and sufficient toilet facilities.
- Section 8 requires wards to observe segregation of the sexes and, as far as practicable, to be classified as to the type of cases to be confined.
- Section 10 requires that permits to construct a hospital (or a major portion) and licenses to operate and maintain shall be issued only after a representative of the licensing agency conducts an ocular inspection and certifies satisfactory compliance with the Act’s requisites.
- Section 10 requires that the license to operate and maintain be renewed every year upon payment of the prescribed fees.
Separate licensing, transfer limits, and required notifications
- Section 13 requires separate licenses for hospitals or branches maintained in separate premises, even if operated under the same management.
- Section 13 provides an exception: separate licenses are not required for separate buildings in the same compound.
- Section 13 requires that permits for construction or alteration of buildings within the same compound be secured from the licensing agency to determine compliance with standards and requirements authorized by the Act.
- Section 14 prohibits transferability of hospital operation licenses; licenses are not transferable.
- Section 14 requires notification of the licensing agency for any change in ownership, change of name of the hospital, and transfer of location.
- Section 14 requires that when location is transferred, an application for a new license be submitted.
Administrative hearing, suspension/revocation grounds
- Section 11 authorizes the licensing agency to suspend or revoke a license for:
- Repeated violation by the licensee of any provision of the Act or any other existing law.
- Repeated violation of rules and regulations prescribed for implementation of the Act.
- Repeated failure to make necessary corrections or adjustments required by the licensing agency for improving facilities and services.
- Section 12 entitles a person, association, corporation, or other private entity to an administrative hearing if a license to operate is refused or if the license is suspended or revoked.
- Section 12 requires that the hearing be conducted by the Secretary of Health and his two undersecretaries to determine the justifiability of the denial, suspension, or revocation.
- Section 12 allows the licensee to resort to the courts, as in other cases provided by law.
Classification system and implementing rules
- Section 16 requires the licensing agency to study and adopt a hospital classification system in these categories:
- General or special
- Hospital service capabilities
- Size or bed capacity
- Class of hospital whether training or not
- Section 15 requires the Bureau of Medical Services, as licensing agency and subject to approval of the Secretary of Health, to promulgate rules and regulations to implement the Act.
Fees, revolving fund, and payment regime
- Section 17 requires each applicant for a permit to construct a hospital to pay a permit fee of five pesos.
- Section 17 requires a registration fee of five pesos and an annual license fee of ten pesos for each hospital and for each approved license.
- Section 17 provides that a government hospital is exempt from paying the above fees.
- Section 17 requires that amounts collected be officially receipted by the licensing agency.
- Section 17 provides that collections constitute a revolving fund for the use of the licensing agency.
Criminal penalties for unlicensed or violating conduct
- Section 18 provides that any person, partnership, association, or corporation that establishes, operates, conducts, manages, or maintains a hospital or hospital clinic without first obtaining a license under the Act, or that violates any provision of the Act, commits a misdemeanor.
- Section 18 provides that conviction exposes the offender to a fine of not more than five hundred pesos for the first offense.
- Section 18 provides that conviction exposes the offender to a fine of not more than one thousand pesos for each subsequent offense.
- Section 18 treats each day the hospital operates after the first conviction as a subsequent offense.
Repeal clause
- Section 19 repeals any law or laws, or parts thereof, that are inconsistent with the provisions of Republic Act No. 4226.