The Iloilo Mission Hospital (formally Central Philippine University–Iloilo Mission Hospital), also known as CPU–Iloilo Mission Hospital, CPU–IMH, IMH, or Mission, is a private tertiary, academic, teaching hospital in Jaro, Iloilo City, Philippines. It is managed and operated as the university hospital of Central Philippine University.Department of Health Philippines List of Licensed Hospitals in Region 6 (Western Visayas) . Retrieved June 17, 2020. Established on February 21, 1901 as Union Mission Hospital by the American missionary doctor Joseph Andrew Hall, it is "the first Protestant and American-founded hospital in the Philippines".Klein, Amanda (1915). The Union Mission Hospital at Iloilo, Philippine Islands. The American Journal of Nursing, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 227-229Panay News ~ Iloilo Mission Hospital. Retrieved May 17, 2020.Iloilo City History. Retrieved 5-17-2020.
It became the first hospital for soldiers and constabulary during the American regime in the Philippines. The Baptists and Presbyterians operated the hospital jointly. Its administration was later ceded to the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society in 1925, becoming the Iloilo Mission Hospital in 1932.
The hospital pioneered nursing education in the Philippines by establishing the Union Mission Hospital Training School for Nurses in 1906, which later became part of Central Philippine University and is now known as the Central Philippine University College of Nursing. The nursing school achieved significant milestones, including producing the first nursing graduates and top-ranking nursing board exam taker, and the first top-performing school in the history of nursing in the Philippines.History of Nursing in the Philippines. Retrieved 05-30-2018History of Nursing in the Philippines - FUNDAMENTALS OF NURSING. Retrieved 05-30-2018.
While operating as the healthcare institution of Central Philippine University (CPU), the Iloilo Mission Hospital is independent and is administered by a separate board. It is a Level III accredited and licensed tertiary private hospital,Department of Health of the Philippines List of Level 3 and Level 4 Hospitals. Retrieved 06-17-2020. providing healthcare services to the community and serving as a teaching and training facility for the university in various medical fields and healthcare programs. Iloilo Mission Hospital predates the CPU's founding (founded in 1905) by four years.Central Philippine University hospital benefits at CPU - Iloilo Mission Hospital . Retrieved 05-30-2018."Iloilo Mission Hospital supports the academic institution by serving as its base facility for the internship programs and medical care of the colleges and schools of CPU." Retrieved 05-01-12"Iloilo Mission Hospital". Retrieved 05-01-2012
In 2001, the hospital celebrated its centennial and marked its contribution to Philippine and American colonial history, especially in pioneering nursing education. As part of the centennial commemoration, the IMH Centennial Building was constructed, and the hospital acquired the first Philips MX8000 CT Scan machine in Southeast Asia. In May 2019, the hospital acquired the first Siemens Healthineers ACUSON SEQUOIA Ultra-Premium Ultrasound Machine in the Philippines and Southeast Asia.(Philippine Daily Inquirer Archives - February 2, 2004 - From Google News) Iloilo Mission Hospital: Continuing the Legacy of True Service Retrieved 05-14-2015.Iloilo Mission Hospital's acquisition of the Siemens Healthineers ACUSON SEQUOIA Ultra-Premium Ultrasound Machine - the first in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia. Retrieved 06-06-2020.
Iloilo Mission Hospital is accredited for residency training programs in internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, family medicine, and surgery. While originally founded by the Presbyterians, it is currently affiliated with the Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches but maintains its independence.
History
Arrival of Protestantism and founding of the hospital (1900-1909)
When the Philippines was ceded by Spain in 1898 to the United States thought the Treaty of Paris (1898), the country was opened to Protestantism, a new faith brought by the Americans. One of the early Protestant sects that came to the Philippines islands were the Presbyterians. When the Presbyterian Americans came to the Philippines, they were allowed to enter various locations in the islands to do their mission works. Iloilo became the very first place where they set foot because of its prominence, being the second most important city after Manilla in the socio-economic sector as a result of the sugar industry boom when its port was opened to the international trade and commerce.Pedregosa, Elmer (2001). History of Iloilo Mission Hospital
On February 13, 1900, the Philippine islands opened up to the American Protestant missions. Joseph Andrew Hall, an American missionary doctor with his wife Jean Russell Hall, working under auspices of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, saw the need for opening a mission hospital in Iloilo. In 1901, they erected a temporary eight-bed nipa and bamboo structure clinic at Calle Amparo (now Ledesma Street). The clinic-dispensary hospital served as a venue for health care to the very poor in the surrounding community under the help of the Presbyterian Foreign Mission Board in the United States. During the same year, a chapel was also built through the benevolent funds from the Church of Yonkers in the United States; it was named after Dr. George Pentecost, a donating clergyman of said church.
In 1906, due to the growing demand of hospital space for the expanding healthcare needs of the community, the Halls purchased a lot on Iznart Street in Iloilo City (the present day Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) Iloilo) near the Casa Real de Iloilo (Royal House of Iloilo), the old Iloilo provincial capital. They built a 25-bed hospital made of bamboo and wood with the help of carpenters and an American ex-soldier, Mr. Renfrew.
With the hospital's expansion there came the need for a training program for nurses. The search for young Filipino girls to train as nurses was difficult given that many of them had never heard the word “nurse” before, nor seen one at work. However, through their church connections, Reverend Paulino Solarte, a Presbyterian pastor, helped to recruit two of his sisters to undergo the training for two months. Jean Russell Hall (who was not a nurse) commenced the task of teaching the girls the basics of reading and writing English as well as arithmetic, while Dr. Joseph A. Hall taught them to understand common medical terms, identify surgical instruments, make medical supplies, and take the patient's vital signs such as temperature, pulse, and respiration. Classes were held every afternoon at the house of the Halls. Unfortunately, the Solarte sisters became disheartened by the conduct of the patients who treated them in demeaning ways as if they were housemaids; this led to their decision to leave the training program. Nevertheless, the Halls continued searching for young Filipino women to be trained as nurses, with only "willingness to work" as the entrance requirement.
After quite some time, two young sisters from Iloilo who were laundry staff for the Union Mission Hospital agreed to help Elizabeth Brinton, an American missionary nurse who arrived on June 3, 1906. Brinton was assigned to take charge of the nursing service as well as the training program for nurses. Thereafter, Nicasia Cada from Oton, Iloilo and Felipe de la Pena from Hippodromo, Iloilo City agreed to join the nursing program. Felipa's mother, Petra de la Pena, was a very sick patient of Dr. Joseph Andrew Hall. After her recovery, she persuaded her daughter to join the training, so Felipa stayed on. These four young women, who were just beginning to learn to read and write, comprised the first group of nursing students who started their training in 1906 and finished in 1909. During the training, the girls were required to wear a red calico uniform with full sleeves gathered to a band just above the elbow and a white cap to keep their hair in place.
Establishment of the nurse training school
In June 1906, Dr. Joseph Andrew Hall officially opened the Union Mission Hospital Training School for Nurses, the first school of nursing in the Philippines. Jean R. Hall was a valuable helper to Dr. Hall. She helped in the training of the young trainees in addition to her other duties in the hospital. Shortly after the opening of the training school, however, there were difficulties in the organizational set-up of the newly opened hospital and school because of the scheduled furlough of the Halls. To tackle this problem, Dr. Hall requested the Foreign Mission Society to send a reliever. Another missionary doctor, Dr. Mackel, who was scheduled to go to China, took over temporarily. When he left, Dr. Creel, from the government quarantine office, took over briefly. Shortly, Dr. Raphael C. Thomas of the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society (ABFMS) willingly accepted to fill in for Dr. Joseph A. Hall until his return from furlough. Dr. Hall also arranged to get help in the person of Amelia Klein, an American government nurse stationed in Manila, who came on for salary for six months to help Brinton with the nursing service and training program.
Since the hospital's founding in 1901, the Protestant Presbyterian and the Protestant Baptist missionaries were very supportive of the medical work of the Union Mission Hospital and its training school for nurses (Union Mission Hospital Training School for Nurses). Both mission agencies saw the need for a united effort in order to provide good quality services to the region, which led to the official unity of the Presbyterian Mission and the American Baptist Mission in 1907, with the Union Mission Hospital as the center for their medical work in the Visayas region.
Unexpectedly, Basilia Caldito dropped out of the training program, which left the three remaining students Dorotea Caldito, Nicasia Cada, and Felipe de la Peña to finish the course. During the training of the three remaining young women, enrichment of their learning experiences was supplied by American educators who were assigned as supervising teachers in Iloilo. The first was George Swank, a Harvard University graduate who taught the nursing students English in night classes with two lessons in a week for over two years. When he returned home to the United States, another English teacher, Richard Bough, took over and taught them for another year. Bough was impressed with the three young women's ability to learn quickly and speak fluently. Follow-up classes were also conducted by Brinton. She taught the three remaining students arithmetic to enable them to obtain the correct proportion of the drugs prescribed by physicians. Though a busy one in her work in the hospital and the training school for nurses, Brinton married businessman John Broadman, an American businessman in Iloilo, in the latter part of 1907. She served the training school for nurses as a principal from June 1906 to 1907. After marrying, she returned to the United States with her husband.
In the latter part of 1907, Christine Benedict took over as the second superintendent of nurses at Union Mission Hospital and as principal of Union Mission Hospital Training School for Nurses. The training of the three nurses continued under the able guidance of Benedict with the assistance of Amelia Klein who, after her six months work earlier with Brinton in 1906, decided to return as a Baptist missionary nurse in 1907.