Allegiant Regional Care (ARC) Hospitals recently announced a series of partnerships with mobile health platform Zennya Health, eCommerce startup Prosperna, and leading delivery service provider Lalamove to build a modern care delivery network they hope will establish the hospital group as the best medical institution in the Philippines.
Located in Lapu-Lapu City in Cebu, ARC Hospitals was one of the first local institutions to mobilize its resources towards responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, importing, and administering rapid test kits from Singapore. While renowned for their oncological services, the hospital continued allocating rooms towards treating the swell of COVID-19 patients turned away from other institutions.
According to Chief Finance Officer Kerbasi Ugarte, this stemmed from a long-held commitment to patient-centric care—a commitment that continues to drive their strategy for investing in innovation moving forward. To improve patient experience, he says his team is looking beyond traditional care services, and towards transformative partnerships with healthcare startups and early-stage tech companies.
According to data published earlier this year by Ken Research, innovation among Philippine healthtech firms is accelerating market growth by a cumulative annual growth rate of 29.2% leading up to 2025. Consulting with local players including AIDE, SeriousMD, KonsultaMD, and Hybrain, they found that poor traditional infrastructure and rising adoption of online consultation services—roughly 167% growth year-on-year—indicate a shift towards more innovative services.
Instead of looking to these startups as competition, Ugarte and his team opted to welcome them as collaborators towards a more patient-centric care delivery network. This meant adopting remote technologies and taking primary care closer to patients’ homes, effectively decentralizing their services.
“While most would consider the Philippine healthcare industry to be slow to adopt technology, during our first meeting, it was very clear to us how important it was for the [ARC Hospitals] management team to find ways to provide quality and trusted patient care not just in the hospital but directly to their community’s home,” said Dennis Velasco, CEO and founder of Prosperna.
Working alongside groups like Prosperna, Ugarte sees the role of the hospital shrinking in the care delivery network of the future. The next few years will see ARC Hospitals leaning into their expertise in tertiary care and investing in more advanced diagnosis equipment, utilizing their facilities for more affordable specialized care. One such investment, an enhanced communication system for their radiology department, allows radiologists to receive and review imaging results remotely, then deliver results to patients within six hours.
Partnerships with tech enablers will then see primary and secondary care transitioning out of the hospital and into the homes of patients.
Building on their partnership with Zennya, ARC Hospitals will expand on the RT-PCR testing services they currently offer through the digital mobile health platform to make more of their services available to Cebuanos without the need to visit a hospital.
“ARC Hospitals has a lot of exciting plans in their roadmap,” said Gabrielle Floirendo, head of marketing at Zennya Health. “This includes digitizing their systems and prioritizing quality in their services, both of which are aligned with Zennya’s company values. With [our] technological infrastructure and advanced logistics, we are able to bring hospital-grade quality services anywhere across Metro Cebu… We are now looking to expand our selection to serve our Cebuano clients with more of ARC’s medical services from the comfort and safety of their own home.”
ARC Hospitals will also be opening an express medicine delivery service in collaboration with Prosperna. This e-pharmacy market will allow Cebuanos to purchase over-the-counter medicines from the convenience of their own homes, with Lalamove offering same-day delivery.
In expanding their reach as a healthcare network, ARC Hospitals hopes to serve as a hub for tech-driven firms to build out their services, creating the foundation for a more resilient, patient-centric healthcare industry Cebuanos can rely on well into the future.