In the middle of a busy workday, a mother gets a call from a teacher in her young daughter’s school. Your 8-year-old has a fever and is vomiting intermittently, says the teacher. Can you come and pick her up?

On the way to the school, the mother quickly assesses her options. She can take her to her pediatrician, but the soonest time the doctor can see her is at 5 p.m. There’s the ER, but she’ll have to wait her turn alongside other patients with conditions that require more immediate attention.

Then she remembers Centre Médicale Internationale (CMI), an outpatient health care facility in Bonifacio Global City that crops up often in chats among an online community of mothers. Right there and then, she makes an appointment by phone, and within the hour she and her daughter are at the clinic, where an urgent care specialist orders lab tests after a thorough consult. In 30 minutes, the results are out and the doctor issues a prescription of antibiotics, which the mother purchases at the in-house pharmacy.

“It was very convenient,” says the mom, who was able to go back to work after dropping off her daughter at home and making sure she was rested and looked after. “Now I know what the other parents were talking about.”

‘Intuitive attentiveness’

Since April 2017, CMI has built a solid reputation as a premier outpatient health care facility among individuals who value efficiency, time and responsiveness to their needs. World-class facilities, a wide range of diagnostics, comprehensive health packages, well-trained staff and more than 130 medical specialists on its roster allow the clinic to stay steps ahead in giving its patients the best that health care has to offer.

“CMI was conceptualized to address pain points in the health care industry, particularly when it comes to outpatient care. We are all about ‘intuitive attentiveness,’” says Joseph Romero, president of CMI.

While CMI has proven to be the clinic of choice of numerous public figures, affluent business executives and VIPs who are able to attend to their health issues in a quiet and well-appointed setting that respects their privacy and busy schedules, it has also become the preferred clinic of their families—from multigeneration clans to solo parents and their children.

Inclusion

“Being sick is stressful both to the patient and the caregiver,” says Dr. Anna Kristina Gutierrez-Rubio, medical director and vice president for medical affairs of CMI. “Kids get restless when they have to wait too long, and being surrounded by other patients exposes the elderly to diseases. CMI is not just about premier service, it’s about inclusion and caring for your loved ones the way you would want them to be cared for.”

Such was the experience of a family of six—a senior couple, two grown grandkids and their parents—who live out of town and requested to have their medical checkups together. Assigned a suite in the clinic that served as their “home base” (where they could leave their things, have their meals and meet doctors for consultations), they each underwent an annual physical exam, various laboratory tests and specific consultations for cardiology, neurology, urology, obstetrics and gynecology, and orthopedics.

“While seeing their doctors, the parents were able to check on their kids and their elderly folks,” says Dr. Rubio. “Everybody was also there to listen when doctors explained the results of the senior members’ tests and what they had to do to look after them.”

Indeed, families who find it a challenge getting their conflicting schedules in sync appreciate the clinic for assembling a particular group of specialists for their needs. Through CMI’s help, a couple and their two kids were able to see a pediatrician at 8 a.m., an ophthalmologist at 10 a.m., and a dentist at 11 a.m. “Anywhere else, it would have been impossible for them to see all three doctors in one morning—in one clinic,” says Dr. Rubio.

Families have also turned to CMI for their vaccinations—from annual flu shots to polio vaccines now required for traveling to certain countries.

“We continuously streamline our processes to accommodate the requests of our patients in the way we want to be cared for,” says Romero. “There is a relentless focus on efficiency and attentive care to consistently ensure premier patient experiences. We want to be top of mind and second to none when people think of the phrase ‘premier patient experience.’”

Premier patient experience

That “premier patient experience” explains why longtime patients have since taken to entrusting their loved ones’ health concerns to the clinic’s care. Parents are comfortable enough to have their teenagers show up for their doctor’s appointments alone, and whenever necessary, an elderly patient can be met by a nurse with a wheelchair.

“CMI’s offerings, right down to its layout, have been carefully thought out, designed to underscore that premier quality of the clinic in catering to the needs of a family, a single parent, or even a teenager,” says Romero. “Our doctors hold themselves to an extremely high level of professionalism and empathy, strengthening CMI’s ability to provide multidisciplinary care, and our staff is constantly trained not just to ease a patient’s anxiety but to keep their comfort and convenience in mind when they are with us.”

Centre Médicale Internationale is at 2/F, Ore Central Bldg., 31st corner 9th Ave., Bonifacio Global City, Taguig. Tel. (02) 88121264, (02) 88161035 to 36; visit www.cmi.care.