PLDT to launch digital platforms for hospitals by Q2

PLDT, Inc. is set to launch digital platforms for hospitals in the country by the second quarter of the year, a company official said.

“From a health perspective, we’ve been working with a lot of our partners actually, and we are looking at enabling some of our hospital groups for that capability by the second quarter of the year,” Juan Victor I. Hernandez, PLDT senior vice-president, head of PLDT & Smart Enterprise Business Groups and ePLDT president and chief executive officer, said at a recent online briefing.

He added: “We have proof of concepts already that are being undertaken, and we are just in the process of finalizing them.”

He said PLDT is not sticking to one platform. “We’ve made a decision to make sure we have multiple platforms to be able to serve a lot of our customers in that regard.”

For his part, PLDT Chief Revenue Officer Alfredo S. Panlilio said: “We are internally also building a solution for ourselves in terms of the vaccination, because we know that we will have to monitor that as we take delivery of the orders that we’ve had for our employees.”

“We are also working on an app,” he added.

To recall, PLDT Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Manuel V. Pangilinan, who also serves as chairman of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC), said last year that MPIC’s hospitals under Metro Pacific Hospital Holdings, Inc. (MPHHI) would be offering services through digital platforms.

MPHHI operates 16 hospitals with a combined capacity of 3,400 beds across the country, including Makati Medical Center, Cardinal Santos Medical Center and Asian Hospital & Medical Center.

MPIC is one of three Philippine units of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., the others being PLDT and Philex Mining Corp.

Hastings Holdings, Inc. — a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc. — maintains interest in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Arjay L. Balinbin