Category: Service Quality

Organization

City Government of General Santos

Best Practice Focus Area/s

Strategy, Human Resource

Year Implemented

23 March 2020

This is a GBPR COVID-19 Response Recipient

Summary

Happy HR aPPP is an integrated, accessible, and innovative web-based application for remote, digitalized, and contactless work management, productivity, and communication tools used in managing, tracking, and organizing tasks and transactions related to human resource management and development. Its primary aim is to sustain the delivery of government services by ensuring the welfare and development of employees in the City Government of General Santos City (LGU-Gensan) during the pandemic. This forms part of the Happy HR initiatives of the Human Resource Management and Development Office (HRMDO) of LGU-Gensan that promotes the total well-being of the employees as demonstrated by programs, projects, and activities geared towards the personal and professional development of the employees in particular, and consequently, the organizational development of the local government as a whole. This is among the HRMDO’s innovations centered on capacitating the human resources of the city government to sustain excellent and quality delivery of government services to the city constituents.

Background and Problem

In the first quarter of 2020, the country was in a state of emergency with a rising number of COVID-19 infections. This has affected all operations of government agencies, especially those who work at the grassroots. The city government employees continued to serve on the frontline of the COVID-19 battle, overcoming all the possible threats to themselves, their families, and all Generals.

There are 4,336 employees of LGU-Gensan, wherein 1,522 are regular, 16 are casual, and 1,902 are Job Orders. The current situation necessitates that office processes and tasks be done remotely to avoid face-to-face contact, which may expose the employees and their clients to the ailment threat. Even before the pandemic, HRMDO had already started initiatives and transitions of integrating technology in the work processes. As early as 2018, the office has already implemented the online leave application system, one of the paperless administrative works, to keep up with the demand in the shortest time possible.

Solution and Impact

Happy HR aPPP was introduced on the whole scale of the city government offices, for which the application features practically apply. The system has allowed employees to stay home, work on the assigned tasks, submit work outputs, and attend to personal and official concerns through the web application. Even if it is already a practice in the whole LGU-Gensan, wherein leave applications can be submitted and approved online, employees were appreciative of the innovation in implementing or introducing an accessible, responsive, and convenient way of administering functions and transactions involving HRM. This is represented by the second P– Positivity. DO.

HRMDO has taken all measures that the Happy HR aPPP complies with the laws, policies, and regulations implemented by the Civil Service Commission and the duly instituted local authorities. It can be accessed online through the web browser of any mobile phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop computer. All features and controls were user-friendly and manageable for easy and convenient employee access. HRMDO also compliments the application with other third-party applications and online platforms, such as Zoom for online meetings/events, Google Forms/Qualtric for online surveys, online storage facilities like Google Drive, and other online communication tools and platforms. As such, the Training and Evaluation Division has already started training on using online communications platforms since the current year’s second quarter.

It was officially launched and introduced on 23 March 2020, to ensure that employees are still on track not to hamper the delivery of services to all General Santos City constituents. From being used as a temporary solution to the apparent problem in managing tasks at work, Happy HR aPPP is now valued as a solution to remote working systems that maintain importance and relevance not only during this time of the pandemic but even in future endeavors of innovating work solutions in managing the human resources of LGU-Gensan.

Milestones/Next Steps

The general IPCR ratings of employees for January to June 2020, the semester where the strict community quarantines were implemented in response to COVID-19, are satisfactory or better. Contrary to the expectation that the employees’ work performance will be affected, the Happy HR aPPP has helped in a way in maintaining the right course of each employee to help them perform their functions based on their IPCR. The challenges of the pandemic have also paved the way for various innovative responses stemming from the data and information received, processed, and analyzed from the Happy HR aPPP. LGU-Gensan has come up with programs, projects, activities, interventions, and initiatives to aid in the problems derived from the data, as inscribed in the three anchors of People First, Positivity, and Productivity.

Sharing this to various platforms and gatherings of HR professionals, former LGU-Gensan HRMDO Department Head, Ms. Leah Y. Tolimao, MBM, submitted an entry on the COVID-19 response to the Accreditation Council of the Philippine Management Association and Philippine Society of Fellows. As such, she was a Fellow in People Management (FPM) during the 57th PMAP Annual Conference via Zoom on 23 October 2020.

Moreover, it is also interesting to note that the LGU-Gensan, among the few LGUs in the region with Prime-HRM Level II accreditation (See Certificate of Recognition), is already capable of meeting the requirements and standards of PRIME-HRM Level III accreditation. To date, Level II is still the highest accreditation level conferred by CSC to government agencies/LGUs in the whole region of SOCCSKSARGEN. Nonetheless, HRMDO is already prepared for the next level of accreditation, notwithstanding that its current systems, such as Happy HR aPPP, comply with the Prime HRM advanced level 3 standards of developing and implementing communication plans engaging employees in executing processes and programs.

Organization

Biliran Province State University

Best Practice Focus Area/s

Leadership, Strategy, Operations

Year Implemented

March 2020

This is a GBPR entry

Summary

BiPSU FLMS manifests the university’s commitment to ensuring that no BiPSUnista (BiPSU students and employees) will be left behind. Guided by this, the university has adapted flexible strategies to continue its operation, such as the development of an institutional Learning Management System dubbed as WoW BiPSU Learning Management System, the establishment of municipal kiosks in strategic places in the municipalities, and the provision of facilities for the learning centers to support students needs, and partnership with LGUs and other agencies and among others.

The FL implementation played a vital role in delivering instruction. It paved the way for the continued delivery of its other essential services for the university, such as student information, enrollment, admission, etc. To support this, various orientations and training were initiated to ensure that all our employees, especially those in the teaching workforce, are well-equipped.

Background and Problem

In a survey conducted by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) last May 11 on Flexible Learning among Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), results showed that 81% of the HEIs in the Philippines are currently using flexible learning strategies; however, only 58.5% of them have institutional academic policies for its implementation. It also showed that more than half (59.4%) of the HEIs who responded did not have learning packages/coursewares designed for flexible learning. Still, more than half (57.7%) of the HEIs currently do not have access to e-library and online educational resources (OERs). These results reflect that in implementing the flexible learning system, which is the call of the time, HEIs need to equip themselves and their faculty and administrators to effectively and efficiently implement it.

Because of COVID-19, the promise to deliver quality education in the Philippines is severely hampered. BiPSU’s FLMS is a response to the constitutional right to quality education.

This system seeks to address the needs of its personnel in terms of training and capability building, especially since the institution will implement a new teaching delivery mode. This causes massive orientation and training on flexible/blended learning, course packs/modules and other instructional materials production, orientation and reorientation on the alternative learning management system, and many others.

Solution and Impact

The university adopted a unified policy for preparing, implementing, and monitoring the sustainable, flexible learning management system through careful planning and consultation with its stakeholders. The results of consultations have been instrumental in crafting the university’s Learning Continuity Plan, which also reflects the Flexible Learning System practices of the university.

Designed towards the achievement of quality education amidst the pandemic, the BiPSU FL system implementation included the following activities:

1. Identification of recurring problems in the delivery of instruction in the institution and conduct of needs assessment for training/ capability building activities, as well as consultation among faculty members and students;
2. Development of different programs designed to address the needs of the faculty and non-teaching personnel in terms of content development, IT and infra support, policy development, flexible learning foundations, etc.
3. Implementation of different programs and activities in the university
4. On-boarding of all teaching personnel and students from the member SUCs
5. Development of instructional materials for flexible learning by the well-trained teachers
6. Establishment of LGU-academic linkages
7. Sustained delivery of instruction through flexible learning delivery
8. Monitoring and Assessment of different activities under the FL Management System Implementation of BiPSU

Further, the different training and capability-building activities have helped all the faculty members across schools and departments with flexible learning delivery in education and have become very instrumental in the production and development of learning materials for students. This also enabled them to adapt varied teaching strategies to address students’ needs, such as using the Learning Management System (LMS).

Milestones/Next Steps

The different programs and activities initiated by the university paved the way for implementing a flexible learning system in the institution. Among the notable results and remarkable milestones of the institution relative to the flexible learning management system includes the conduct of over forty (40) webinars for all the faculty members in the region, which cover the topic of Orientation on Flexible and Distance Learning, Learning Management System (LMS), Module Production, Student-On-Boarding Program, etc.; establishment of academic/LGU kiosks in the different municipalities in the province and neighboring towns in Leyte, which served as repositories of learning materials for students.

This also paved the way for establishing partnerships and linkages among the different Local Government Units in the region and; the design of an institutional Learning Management System, the first in the region, used in the flexible learning delivery. The said LMS is an open-source platform that can be used online and offline. They describe it to be reliable, sustainable, and cost-effective; production of print and online modules for all subjects in all programs for the first (1st) semester of the academic year 2020-2021; and development of the different tools/instruments for evaluation and monitoring of the different flexible learning programs of the consortium.

Organization

City of Government Bacoor, Cavite

Best Practice Focus Area/s

Leadership, Citizens / Customers, Operations

Year Implemented

March 2020 onwards (during the COVID-19 pandemic)

This is a GBPR Entry

Summary

The City of Bacoor responded decisively by addressing the concerns and plights of Returning Overseas Filipinos (OFWs) as early as 18 March 2020. Through the leadership of Bacoor City former Mayor Lani Mercado Revilla, the Bacoor Public Employment Service Office (PESO), which also manages the OFW Help Desk Office, under the supervision of Dr. Abraham Domingo De Castro, implemented the “The PESO-OFW Help Desk Profiling, Monitoring, and Facilitation Program of the City Government of Bacoor in the time of the Global COVID-19 Pandemic” to answer the felt needs of the City of Bacoor. This program is a special add-on to the regular activity being performed and spearheaded by the Bacoor PESO Department and OFW Help Desk Office of the City to all its constituents.

Background and Problem

In a recent survey by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on the number of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) abroad, CALABARZON was mentioned as one of the regions with the highest number of OFWs at 20.7%. The province of Cavite, particularly the City of Bacoor, shares the same finding regarding OFWs, as shown by the fact that the City of Bacoor has gone through great lengths to establish a one-stop shop government service to cater to the needs of OFWs and a satellite office of OWWA. The normal operation of the Bacoor PESO, which supervises and manages the OFW-HD since its conception, has always been in place to proactively cater to the concerns of the local labor force, looking for employment and facilitation of documents and claims of OFWs. The Bacoor OFW Help Desk at the Bacoor City Government Center has paid much attention to the needs of the country’s proclaimed “modern-day heroes” ever since.

Normally, the PESO-OFW HD Office processes documents and inquiries of OFWs who come to the office to avail of services from partner national agencies. However, due to the pandemic, it is imperative that the Bacoor PESO strictly profiles and judiciously monitors returning Bacooreños, not only for their safety and benefit but also in consideration of their receiving barangays. The profiling of the arriving OFWs started immediately after identifying the checkpoints for arriving OFWs in Longos, Talaba, and Molino Daang Hari Road after the first meeting of the Bacoor COVID-19 Task Force last 17 March 2020.

Solution and Impact

“The PESO-OFW Help Desk Profiling, Monitoring, and Facilitation Program of the City Government of Bacoor in the time of the Global COVID-19 Pandemic” highlights the huge impact of ensuring the safety of returning OFWs and the local labor force as well as the needs of their families by rallying all significant departments in the City to act and heal as one, through collaboration and inclusivity to address the concerns brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic on top of the delivery of basic services already in place. The program was able to identify, profile, and monitor returning OFWs in the city, connect them to agencies that can extend help during the pandemic through the designated helpline, and provide needed employment.

The program successfully profiled and clustered 631 returning Bacooreño OFWs in the 73 barangays of Bacoor and has been monitored by different government agencies that answered their needs. Some returning OFWs availed of the free health quarantine facility, OFW helplines, and available job opportunities. Reports of profiled returning Bacooreño OFWs were also endorsed to the BDRRMO and CHO for follow-up and health monitoring in coordination with the BHERT. Close collaboration with the OWWA and DOLE was also highlighted.

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the City Government of Bacoor and PESO entered into a Memorandum of Agreement with FoodPanda Philippines, Inc. and JoyRide/Happy Move Company to help answer the needs of the city on employment and food delivery. The program provided work to almost 300 displaced Bacooreño tricycle drivers, ordinary workers, and interested OFWs and answered the need for food delivery in the city due to the pandemic. DOLE Region 4A commended the program for its “out of the box ideas in delivering enhanced and improved employment service suitable for the current situation,” saying that “these services are needed more than ever, especially now that many members of our labor force are affected due to the stringent community quarantine.”

Milestones/Next Steps

Very recently, in June 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, DOLE CALABARZON Regional Director Henry John S. Jalbuena expressed his utmost commendations to the Bacoor PESO Manager and Local Chief Executive for their out-of-the-box ideas in delivering enhanced and improved employment service suitable for the current situation. “We are in awe of the brilliant men and women of PESOs in the Calabarzon Region for their creativity and innovations for the continuous delivery of employment services amid the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic. These services are needed more than ever, especially now that many members of our labor force are affected due to the stringent community quarantine.”

Some of the innovations that emerged in the Region are the partnership of Bacoor with the food delivery service app FoodPanda, JoyRide, and HappyMove, which benefitted displaced tricycle drivers, ordinary laborers, and some OFWs.

To date, the program was also able to profile and assist 631 returning OFWs during the COVID-19 pandemic, answer their concerns, and provide employment assistance to those in need.

Organization

City Government of San Fernando, La Union

Best Practice Focus Area/s

Strategy; Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge Management; Operations:

Year Implemented

2009 to present

This is a GBPR entry

Summary

The Document Tracking System (DTS) aims to track and capture the responsiveness of the city government in its communications and financial process dealings using barcode solutions. Moreover, the application has features such as providing clients temporary access accounts to monitor the status of their requests and a dashboard containing performance indicators like “completed,” “ongoing,” and “delinquent.” This dashboard also connects to a system of rewards and incentives for employees.

The results of the project suggest that personnel productivity has improved from satisfactory to very satisfactory. Moreover, there has also been a significant decrease in the processing time per transaction and instilled discipline and standards in the institution.

Background and Problem

Documents, whether electronic or paper, are an essential component of any institution. However, the manual and paper-based processing, filing, and tracking of documents can be complicated, especially when there are multiple receiving channels. The manual filing of documents is also time-consuming, wherein each office organizes, stores, and maintains its files. It can also be hard to track down the location of documents if no document trail or recording is available to validate their whereabouts. Overall, the productivity of employees and departments is slowed down by having to spend a great deal of time dealing with a paper filing system.

And especially for the City Government of San Fernando, La Union, turnaround time is long against the standard processing time under Republic Act 9485. A case in point is the city government’s processing time of purchase requests; it is classified under simple transactions and yet it takes almost two (2) weeks to run the whole course.

Another limitation of the manual filing of documents is that the management of offices will also have no basis to validate submitted performance reports due to the absence of an accurate performance recording system. Moreover, given the manual nature of the process, external clients are not usually updated about the status of their transactions with the city government; clients would still need to call or visit the relevant departments to follow up on their concerns.

Solution and Impact

In compliance with Republic Act 9485, known as The Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007, the City Government of San Fernando established the Document Tracking System (DTS) in 2009 to institute transparency in administrative affairs and resource management, as well as improve business transactions within the City Government.

The DTS is an in-house, end-to-end application for processing and tracking documents with central electronic archives. The application captures the real-time status updates of transactions. It can capture a document’s historical processing timeline, including time and date of receipt or release, persons in charge, and time spent processing documents in a particular office. It also has an email notification feature that provides a temporary access account for clients to check the real-time progress report of their requests online or transactions with the city government, enabling them to save time and money.

As a supplement to the DTS, the city also established a central receiving station under the Office of the City Administrator to manage all incoming and outgoing documents. It is responsible for capturing document profiles, managing electronic archives, and forwarding emails to external clients.

The results evidenced by the customer feedback indicators of the city suggest that personnel productivity has improved from satisfactory to very satisfactory. There is also a significant decrease in the processing time per transaction and instilled discipline and standards in the institution.

Milestones/Next Steps

The implementation of the DTS Project was covered by an Executive Order and registered under the Integrated Management System (ISO 9001:2008) in 2010. Moreover, the project is a recipient of the 2013 eGov Awards for LGUs for the “Best in eGovernance Customer Empowerment” Category by the National ICT Confederation of the Philippines (NICP) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG). And in 2014, the World eGovernment Organization awarded the same project as the Most Promising eGov Prize for Efficiency during the 2nd WeGO Awards in Chengdu, China.

The city government was also invited to present the project in several national ICT forums and this led to numerous benchmarking activities by other LGUs and NGAs in the City of San Fernando to improve their document management. Notably, four institutions replicated the program, including the Municipality of Bacnotan in 2018, Zamboanga City through the Zamboanga ICT Council in 2019, the Provincial Government of Benguet in 2019, and the Department of Trade and Industry Regional Office I in 2020. Moreover, the Municipality of Naguilian, the City of Borongan in Samar, and the Ilocos Training and Medical Center have recently submitted their letter of intent to enter into a memorandum of agreement with the city to replicate the same.

Organization

Department of Budget Management Regional Office V

Best Practice Focus Area/s

Strategy; Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge Management; Operations

Year Implemented

14 October 2020

This is GBPR Entry

Summary

iPAMS, known as Internet-based Project Accomplishment Monitoring System, is an innovative application package composed of integrated systems such as iPAMS Site, iPAMS SUC (State Universities and Colleges), iPAMS DBM, and iPAMS Protocol. iPAMS Protocol is the highlighted feature of this entry for the Government Best Practice Recognition (GBPR) COVID-19. The project was initiated and funded by the Department of Budget Management Regional Office V and developed by Camarines Norte State College’s Institutional Planning and Development Office through a collaboration agreement forged on January 31, 2020, during the initial onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background and Problem

COVID-19 hinders the DBM Regional Office from conducting a face-to-face evaluation and actual site visit because of the protocols set by the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) protocols, not to mention travel requirements and potential quarantine. The spread of the virus is deemed high in areas where people constantly interact, particularly the construction sites. With iPAMS, project engineers are now required to observe health protocols as part of their inspection activities. On this premise, they should implement stringent monitoring as construction workers enter the campus premises.

While State Universities and Colleges have their own rules on the COVID-19 Protocols, such policies may not have been cascaded to the construction workers working inside the campuses. Or even if cascading is done, SUCs may not have a way to monitor their compliance.

Solution and Impact

The iPAMS Site is an android application using a cell phone in the inspection activities by the field project engineers or authorized inspectors; it has two attached features–the iPAMS Budgeting, which provides access to the budget and accounting in the preparation of the needed financial and accounting reports and the iPAMS Protocol which provides a checklist of items to monitor compliance with Environment Health and Safety (EHS) and COVID-19 Protocols

• iPAMS SUC, which is the desktop partner of the android system that consolidates the inspection conducted by a certain SUC
• iPAMS DBM, a platform that monitors the performance of all nine (9) SUCs in the Bicol Region, consolidates the SUC’s respective accomplishments in an almost real-time mode.

As part of the project monitoring and evaluation, the Department of Budget and Management conducts onsite visitations to projects quarterly, semi-annually, and annually. Having nine (9) SUCs (with two island provinces) which are geographically apart from each other, actual field inspection is not only time-consuming but also disruptive on the parts of the DRM regional staff, considering that all of them in Division A will have to take at least 3-day office work break per SUC (weeklong is the inspection in Catanduanes and Masbate). This means that they will spend at least 108 days for quarterly monitoring for the 9 SUCs, 54 days semi-annually, and 27 days for annual SUC visitation, for 189 days to perform complete monitoring of projects funded under the GAA (79% of the total working days for a year).

The initial result of the Technology Acceptance Survey showed that: iPAMS makes the conduct of inspection more convenient: 27.3% strongly agree, 36.4% agree, and 36.4% somewhat agree; iPAMS helps in preparing inspection reports much easier than without it like before: 27.3% strongly agree, 54.5% agree, and 18.2% somewhat agree; they are comfortable using the iPAMS: 54.5% agree, and 45.5 % somewhat agree; think iPAMS is a good innovation in project accomplishment monitoring: 27.3% strongly agree, 63.6% agree, and 9.1% somewhat agree; using iPAMS promoted timely and more accurate reports: 27.3% strongly agree, 45.5% agree, and 27.3 % somewhat agree; Believe that the use of iPAMS has improved productivity in terms of time spent in field works and report preparation: 9.1% strongly agree, 54.5% agree, and 36.4% somewhat agree.

iPAMS has surpassed its intended use. While COVID-19 prevents SUCs and DBM from implementing actual project visitation, with this application, the SUCs could implement blended inspection and DBM remote monitoring. Project accomplishment reports have been generated and submitted within the prescribed submission date. Although process issues were still observed, these would no longer require a system code overhaul but only an improvement. Recently, all nine (9) SUCs have been using iPAMS. At least 111 participants joined in the On-Line Regional Orientation, including the nine (9) SUC presidents, their respective vice presidents, planning directors, and budget officers, to name a few.

Milestones/Next Steps

The development of iPAMS started on 3 February 2020, although preliminaries have already been made before the said date. The development phase was done in 6 months, and it took another three (3) months for testing and deployment until the third week of November 2020. They conducted a simultaneous regional inspection on 21-30 October 2020, where all the nine (9) SUCs in the Bicol Region took part. The DBM Regional Office V issued Regional Advisory No. 1 on September 15, 2020, for the orientation and testing of iPAMS, followed by another advisory on October 6, 2020.

Through this, all the work programs under the GAA Funded projects for 2019 and 2020 were encoded in the system and the corresponding inspections were likewise performed and reported. This activity updated the data/profile of existing projects and was made coherent and consistent with the on-hand records of the Department of Budget Management.

When the iPAMS was introduced, it started with Camarines Norte State College as an in-house project monitoring desktop application. It quickly grew and expanded as a remote monitoring tool, including the Geographical Positioning System, schedule/calendars, and the imaging capabilities of android phones. The evolution or milestones of iPAMS included the following periods and development stages: conceptualization, analysis, design development, programming, coding, user orientation, beta tests, improvement, and deployment within its timeline of 9-10 months.

Organization

Institute for Labor Studies

Best Practice Focus Area/s

Human Resource, Operations

Year Implemented

March 2020 to present

This is a GBPR Entry

Summary

The procurement of goods and services implemented the Online Submission of Bids (OSB) portal of the Institute, which allows the electronic submission and receipt of bids for procurement modalities where a two-envelope procedure or sealed price quotation is required in accepting bids from prospective suppliers/bidders. The OSB uses Google Forms, where prospective bidders can submit their bids, and Microsoft One Drive to store data. The documents that will be submitted should be compressed in ZIP, RAR, or 7Z format with password protection. The password for accessing the file shall be disclosed by the bidders who successfully submitted their bids only during the actual bid opening, which will be done through video conferencing, webcasting, or similar technology.

The IT Helpdesk was established in response to the need to provide swift and efficient IT technical support to ILS employees during Work-From-Home Arrangement resulting from the COVID-19 restrictions and protocols, especially during the Enhanced Community Quarantine period.

Background and Problem

The COVID-19 pandemic and the implementation of community quarantine throughout the country have posed many difficulties in the public and private sectors. Traditional recruitment selection and placement, procurement, and IT helpdesk activities in the government required manual or face-to-face interaction to complete such transactions.

These included manual receipt of applications for job posting, face-to-face administration of exam, and conduct of interviews, including oath-taking, collection of quotations/bids from prospective bidders and face-to-face pre-bid and bid opening meetings, manual and hands-on assistance provided to ILS employees, and receipt of service requests for technical assistance to the IT team from various sources including Facebook messenger.

The overall objective of the transition is to ensure that health protocols are observed while at the same time, addressing the needs of the clients, both internal and external, with efficiency and ease of transaction for all three processes.

Solution and Impact

For Online Recruitment, Selection, and Placement:

To address the risk of acquiring the COVID-19 virus during acceptance of application, exams, and interviews, as well as routing of documents, the office identified a contactless or less face-to-face interaction as the best method to continue safe RSP processing. The online application was pilot tested in March 2020. The HR Unit crafted the Job Application Online (JAO) and the IT Unit used the Google form for applicants to encode and submit online the most important application details (education, training, experience, and eligibility) and qualification documents for a more effective assessment by the screening Secretariat and Board members.

The first online exam was administered in May 2020. The qualified applicants were notified that they will take the exam on a specific date and time and were requested to secure a strong internet connection to be able to attend the virtual briefing on the pledge of confidentiality of the exam and instructions and submission of the completed examination after two and a half hours.

The first online interview was done in April 2020. Shortlisted candidates who passed the examination were notified via email to attend the virtual panel interview and were provided the Zoom link on their particular time slot. The Board members met online for tasking of competencies for behavioral interview. Reference documents such as the application documents, competency tables, guide questions, and interview rating sheets were also available in the shared folder specific to the vacancy. This process is best for collation of numerical ratings and recording minutes as well as review and exchange of discussion-consultation on matters.

Submissions of documents, as well as the affixing of electronic signatures, were reviewed and approved online. Minutes of the meeting and resolution were saved in the shared folder, which all members and secretariat could simultaneously review. Affixing of signature was done electronically; hence, there was no face-to-face contact.

For Procurement:

As an initiative, the ILS created its own portal that will be used for the submission of bids from prospective suppliers. Online submission of bids provided new opportunities for adoption to the new normal, where most of the transactions are expected to be done online and with limited face-to-face transactions.

For IT Helpdesk:

With the availability of the IT Helpdesk platform, each request lodged in the platform has been made visible to everyone in the team, including its status and the actions taken, which provided easy access to information in case of related incidents. Further, the requesting party receives automated email notifications when their ticket is updated, making it unnecessary to keep asking someone from the IT team about the status of their concern/s. During the ECQ, the ILS started implementing the Work-From-Home modality, which changed IT support provisions for its employees. In order to adapt, the IT Unit started the development of a platform that could provide solutions to the needs of remote requests.

Milestones/Next Steps

For Online Recruitment, Selection, and Placement:

The remarkable results were:

• The Secretariat need not encode the pre-screening matrix of qualifications because the applicants themselves encode their qualifications in the JAO for verification of the Secretariat.
• Minutes and resolutions were reviewed simultaneously by the HRMPSB members and the secretariat in the shared files in Microsoft Teams, and the use of voluminous paper was avoided.
• Less or no physical contact was experienced during transactions, applications, and processing since most of them were done online.
• Five employees were warmly welcomed during their virtual oath-taking, which was witnessed by officials and employees, even those working from home.

Awards received:

The HR and the IT Units were among the awardees for introducing the online recruitment process through the Job Application Online (JAO), continuing their operations despite the pandemic. Specific award for the HR Unit was from the 2019 ILS Program to Reward and Incentivize Service Excellence (PRAISE) for the continued provision of support services and organizational transactions, especially during the enhanced community quarantine in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, where there was a transition to online transactions for human resource services.

For Procurement:

Bidders are gradually adopting this new way of submission of bids, which also ensures the health and safety of all stakeholders in the procurement process while at the same time increasing the opportunity for more bidders to participate even during the pandemic.

For IT Helpdesk:

Given the efficiency rate of the tool, the IT Unit intends to adopt such a platform even after the pandemic. A new version is being set up and will be launched soon.

Organization

Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital and Sanitarium

Best Practice Focus Area/s

Leadership, Human Resources, Operations

Year Implemented

March 2020

This is GBPR Entry

Summary

Pursuant to Proclamation No. 922 s. 2020, former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte declared a state of Public Health Emergency throughout the Philippines and designated Dr. Jose N. Rodriguez Memorial Hospital and Sanitarium (DJNRMHS) as a COVID-19 Treatment Facility. Following this, DJNRMHS took drastic yet necessary steps to prepare its facilities and logistics through its Hospital Order No. 0226 s. 2020, initiating a Hospital Emergency Incident Command Structure (HEICS)—a management system that hospitals can adapt during emergencies. In adopting this system, the hospital could implement effective changes toward addressing the pandemic in only two months.

Background and Problem

On 21 January 2020, the Department of Health (DOH) released Department Memorandum No. 2020-0034, “Interim Guidelines on the Preparedness and Response to Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCOV).” It provided the implementing guidelines on Surveillance, Laboratory Testing, Clinical Management, Communication, and Infection Prevention and Control. Likewise, DJNRMHS did its due diligence and implemented the necessary precautions for additional facilities and logistics. However, during this time, typical hospital operation was already at its peak. In terms of the number of admitted patients, around 500 were admitted, and approximately 700 patients were visiting the Outpatient Department and Emergency Room (ER) daily.

And adding to their already constrained situation, In March 2020, the hospital set-up shifted as former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte proclaimed three COVID-19 referral hospitals in the National Capital Region—and their hospital was one of the selected. And yet, among the three identified institutions, their hospital was the first to accept the exceptional challenge of converting the hospital into a COVID-19 referral facility. Pursuant to Proclamation No. 992 s. 2020, the leadership of DJNRMHS committed that all staff would provide service to all Filipinos amidst the pandemic and despite f minimal resources and high risk to all health workers. With all this, on 17 March 2020, DJNRMHS started its difficult transition from a Level 3 teaching training health facility to a COVID-19 referral hospital.

However, as the pandemic started affecting more of the general population, medical staff and other personnel experienced a fast-paced paradigm shift in their professional practice and psychological well-being. Especially during the beginning of hospital preparation, all of their staff experienced anxiety, difficulties, and fear. Nonetheless, DJNRMHS staff participated in all the activities to be more knowledgeable and skillful to become confident and an expert in providing quality care.

Notably, the medical staff was experiencing discrimination in their communities. Some of them were being avoided during rides on public transportation, and others were even forced to evacuate their residences because their family members were being abused by their neighbors. All these affected the general welfare of the medical staff. Particularly for DJNRMHS, these incidents translated into low morale and high levels of distress for their staff. The community around the institution expressed their fear and anxiety through a mass rally, and a few even caused civil disturbances.

Solution and Impact

On 17 March 2020, under Hospital Order No. 0226 s.2020, the Hospital Emergency Incident Command Structure (HEICS) was initiated to employ more structure in its command, control, and coordination. It consisted of changes such as creating a more logical management structure, redirecting roles and responsibilities, creating more comprehensive reporting channels, and revising nomenclature. Through these changes, the institution could comply with all social and environmental standards as a COVID-19 referral hospital. In only two months, the entire hospital was able to adapt.

Notable structural changes included:

• Regular wards from Pediatric, Surgery, Diagnostic buildings, and Internal Medicine buildings, including offices, were redesigned into a COVID-19 ward with a 300-bed capacity which complied with isolation requirements;
• The COVID-19 ward was designed with a traffic flow system that separated “clean” from “dirty” areas;
• Nurse stations, donning and doffing areas, and storage areas for medical stocks were strategically placed throughout the hospital;
• The Emergency building was repurposed to house the Hospital Infirmary, the Hospital Epidemiology, and Surveillance Unit (HESU) office, Communication Center office, Medical Social Service Unit satellite, and the COVID training office;
• The receiving area for COVID-19 referrals was also strategically placed near the patient admission and discharge entry/exit point.

Also, notable procedural changes included:

• A Communication and Operation Center was immediately activated to ensure that all concerns on contingency plans and protocols are cautiously implemented and evaluated.
• Protocols were adapted from DOH’s interim guidelines on the handling of COVID-19 patients.
• Infectious Disease Specialists and Infectious Disease Nurses were assigned to manage COVID-19 cases and Person Under Investigation.
• And through the joint efforts of its Human Resource Section, COVID-19 training unit, Public Health Unit, Psychology Department, and HESU, all hospital staff and related communities were also trained to be prepared against current and future pandemics.

Overall, the health facility was able to redesign its physical structures while executing, monitoring, and evaluating new policies and procedures. Despite COVID-19 cases being at its peak, the hospital staff could adapt to the new normal while still managing to resume normal business functions.

As a result of robust leadership and good governance, along with active engagement and strong commitment of staff, many positive outcomes were achieved. These included low rates of affected hospital staff with no record of death, high number of recovered cases, stable status of budget allocation and funding, high staff retention, and high rates of augmentation (i.e., the integration of healthcare workers from other agencies and hiring of Contract of Service employees dedicated to the management of COVID cases). Besides short-term results, a long-term impact of the institutional transformation was the hospital becoming renowned for managing emerging infectious diseases while still sustaining its institutional mandate to provide general and leprosy care to the public.

Milestones/Next Steps

Beyond the requirements of being a COVID-19 referral hospital, a swabbing area and molecular laboratory for RT-PCR testing was established and approved for operation. Furthermore, DJNRMHS was able to affirm partnership with government and non-government agencies to support this endeavor.For now, the challenge with this new endeavor is maintaining a pool of competent healthcare professionals to meet the increasing public healthcare demand.

Along with facility preparation, they also implemented workforce conditioning. Training programs were accredited with Continuing Professional Development units by the Philippine Regulatory Commission (PRC). Also, all hospital staff were tasked to undergo a series of training sessions and orientations to be more equipped and engaged in their roles and responsibilities.The COVID-19 ward team also underwent a pre-deployment activity consisting of cycles of training and orientation, physical/medical examination, psychological assessment, and briefing before and after clinical duties.

Existing policies and procedures were also modified in accordance with COVID-19 operations. New policies and procedures were also created, related to operations such as RT-PCR testing, staff welfare, procurement and distribution of resources.

And with the timely response of the institution towards the government mandate, DJNRMHS received commendations from DOH Secretary Francisco T. Duque III, DOH Undersecretary Leopoldo Vega, and the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases Chief Implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez, Jr.