REPUBLIC ACT NO. 4226 - AN ACT
REQUIRING THE LICENSURE OF ALL HOSPITALS IN THE PHILIPPINES AND
AUTHORIZING THE BUREAU OF MEDICAL SERVICES TO SERVE AS THE LICENSING
AGENCY
Section 1. This Act shall also be known as the Hospital
Licensure Act.
Sec. 2. Definitions. — As used in this Act —
(a) '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.
The term 'hospital shall also be construed as any institution, building
or place where there are installed beds, or cribs, or bassinets for
twenty-four-hour use or longer by patients in the treatment of
diseases, diseased-conditions, injuries, deformities, or abnormal
physical and mental states, maternity cases, and all institutions such
as those for convalescence, sanitarial or sanitarial care, infirmities,
nurseries, dispensaries and such other names by which they may
designated.
(b) 'Government hospital' means a hospital operated
and maintained either 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.
(c) 'Private hospital' means one which is privately
owned, established and operated with funds raised or contributed
through donations, or by private capital or other means, by private
individuals, association, corporation, religious organization, firm,
company or joint stock association.
(d) 'Clinic' means a place in which patients avail of
medical consultations or treatments on an out-patient basis. However,
any clinic or dispensary where there is at least six beds or cribs or
bassinets installed for twenty-four-hour use by patients shall be
construed to fall within the definition of a hospital as described in
this Act.
(e) 'Licensee' is the person or persons granted a
license to operate and maintain a hospital according to an approved
minimum standard.
Sec. 3. Construction Permit. — No hospital,
government or private, shall be constructed unless plans have been
approved and construction permit issued by the licensing agency as
defined in this Act.
Sec. 4. Registration and license. — No hospital
shall operate or be opened to the public unless it shall have been
registered and a license for its operation obtained from the licensing
agency provided in this Act.
Sec. 5. Licensing Agency. — For purposes of
setting standards in hospital construction and operation, the Bureau of
Medical Services in addition to its present duties shall act as the
licensing agency. The Secretary of Health shall reorganize this 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 this Act without necessarily increasing the present
personnel strength of this Bureau.
Sec. 6. Powers and duties of the licensing agency.
— The Bureau of Medical Services, or the licensing agency shall have
the following powers and duties:
a. To conduct an ocular survey of all existing
hospitals in the Philippines, government or private, with a view to
determine their fitness to operate considering their facilities and
physical plant.
b. To prescribe standard plans for government
hospital plants in consultation with the Division of Architecture,
Bureau of Public Works.
c. To approve plans for hospital plants, government
or private, and to issue permits or authority to construct hospitals in
accordance with the provisions of this Act.
d. To keep a permanent register of approved hospitals
or those issued licenses to operate indicating the name of the
hospital, address or location, type of hospital, name of the director
or administrator, ownership, number of authorized beds and bassinets
and such other pertinent data as may be necessary.
e. To grant licenses for the operation and
maintenance of hospitals or revoke the same in accordance with the
provisions of this Act.
f. To make periodic inspection of all hospitals so as
to check compliance with rules and regulations legally promulgated or
with the provisions of this Act and to make recommendations to
directors or administrators of hospitals for the correction of defects
found during such inspections.
g. To publish yearly a list of all approved hospitals
indicating the name, location, type, authorized beds, and name of the
director or administrator.
h. To 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, such reports to include a list of approved
hospitals indicating the name of the hospital, location, bed capacity
and name of the director or administrator and make recommendations on
hospital needs or requirements for hospital service in certain
communities that do not enjoy such hospital services.
Sec. 7. Filing of Application for Construction
Permit. — Application for a permit to construct a hospital shall be
submitted to the Office of the Director, Bureau of Medical Services in
a form prescribed by the latter and accompanied by a plan of the
hospital plant proposed to be constructed. The application shall state
the name of the hospital, ownership, number of beds proposed to be
operated, location and type of hospital to be constructed.
Sec. 8. Minimum Standards of Construction. — In
order that a permit to construct a hospital can be issued the hospital
plan shall provide sufficient bed space for the hospital bed capacity
proposed, a laboratory room, an operating room, including work rooms
for sterilization, anesthesia preparation, etc., an X-ray or radiology
room, pharmacy, dispensary or out-patient department, delivery room,
isolation rooms, autopsy room or morgue, sufficient quarters for
residents, nurses, attendants and helpers and sufficient number of
toilet facilities.
Wards shall be constructed such that segregation of the sexes is
observed and as far as practicable classified as to the type of cases
to be confined.
Sec. 9. Application for Registration and Issuance
of License. — Application for registration of a hospital and for the
issuance of a license for its operation and maintenance shall be filed
with the Bureau of Medical Services on a form prescribed by it.
Registration may be made and license issued upon compliance with the
provisions of Section eight hereof and the rules and regulations
prescribed by the licensing agency pursuant to the provisions of this
Act.
SECTION 10. Inspection. — Permit to construct a
hospital or a major portion thereof and license to operate and maintain
the same shall be issued by the licensing agency only after a
representative of the licensing agency has conducted an ocular
inspection and certified that the applicant has satisfactorily complied
with requisites prescribed in this Act. The license to operate and
maintain a hospital shall be renewed every year upon payment of the
prescribed fees.
SECTION 11. Revocation of License. — The licensing
agency may suspend or revoke a license already issued for any of the
following grounds: (a) repeated violation by the licensee of any
provision of this Act or of any other existing law; (b) repeated
violation of rules and regulations prescribed in the implementation of
this Act; or (c) repeated failure to make necessary corrections or
adjustments required by the licensing agency in the improvement of
facilities and services.
SECTION 12. Hearing. — Any person, association,
corporation, or any other private entity who has been refused a license
to operate and maintain a hospital or whose license for such hospital
has been suspended or revoked shall be entitled to an administrative
hearing to be conducted by the Secretary of Health and his two
undersecretaries to determine the justifiability of such denial,
suspension or revocation of the license: provided, that the licensee
may resort to the courts, as in other cases provided by law.
SECTION 13. Separate Licenses Required. — Separate
licenses shall be required for hospitals or branches thereof maintained
in separate premises, even though they are operated under the same
management: provided, however, that separate licenses shall not be
required for separate buildings in the same compound: provided,
further, that permits for construction or alteration of buildings
within the same compound shall also be secured from the licensing
agency to determine compliance with standards and requirements herein
authorized.
SECTION 14. License not transferable. — License for
the operation of hospitals shall not be transferable. The licensing
agency shall be notified of any change in ownership, change of name of
the hospital, and transfer of location and in the latter case, an
application for a new license should be submitted.
SECTION 15. Rules and Regulations. — The Bureau of
Medical Services acting as a licensing agency and subject to the
approval of the Secretary of Health, shall promulgate rules and
regulations to implement the provisions of this Act.
SECTION 16. Classification of Hospitals. — The
licensing agency shall study and adopt a system of classifying
hospitals in the Philippines as to: (1) general or special; (2)
hospital services capabilities; (3) size or bed capacity and (4) class
of hospital whether training or not.
SECTION 17. Fees. — Each applicant for a permit to
construct a hospital shall pay the amount of five pesos as permit fee.
A registration fee of five pesos and an annual license fee of ten pesos
shall likewise be collected for each hospital and for each approved
license: provided, that a government hospital shall be exempt from the
payment of such fees. The amount herein collected shall be officially
receipted by the licensing agency and shall constitute as a revolving
fund for the use of the licensing agency.
SECTION 18. Penalties. — Any person, partnership,
association, or corporation who establishes, operates, conducts,
manages or maintains a hospital or hospital clinic within the meaning
of this Act without first obtaining a license as provided for in this
Act or violates any provision hereof shall be guilty of a misdemeanor,
and upon conviction thereof shall be liable to a fine of not more than
five hundred pesos for the first offense and not more than one thousand
pesos for each subsequent offense, and each day that the hospital shall
operate after the first conviction shall be considered a subsequent
offense.
SECTION 19. Repeal. — Any law or laws or parts
thereof inconsistent with the provisions of this Act are hereby
repealed.
Sec. 20. Effectivity. — This Act shall take effect
upon its approval.
Approved: June 19, 1965
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