Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso praised Sta. Ana Hospital on Friday, Feb. 27, after the facility secured the 25th spot among 35 Philippine hospitals recognized in the World’s Best Hospitals 2026 list.
The recognition underscores the city government’s revitalization of district hospitals, with Domagoso leading upgrades in facilities, expansion of medical services, and strengthened clinical capabilities for residents of Manila’s sixth district and nearby communities.
According to Manila Public Information Office, Sta. Ana Hospital, previously led by Officer-in-Charge Health Officer Dr. Grace Padilla and now under Dr. Janet Tan as part of the Manila City Health Cluster, has undergone comprehensive modernization.
Among its key developments is a fully equipped vaccine storage facility that maintains strict cold-chain integrity for the city’s COVID-19 vaccination program.
The center houses Haier HYC-390 refrigeration units for AstraZeneca and Sinovac vaccines, biomedical freezers for Janssen and Moderna doses, and -86°C ultra-low temperature freezers for Pfizer vaccines, alongside transport coolers for secure deployment to vaccination sites.
The city government also established the Manila Molecular Testing Laboratory within the hospital grounds during the peak of the pandemic, expanding local testing capacity.
The Real-Time Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) laboratory operates two Sansure machines capable of 1,000 swab tests each per day, while an Xpert Xpress SARS-CoV-2 system provides cartridge-based rapid molecular testing for urgent cases.
Sta. Ana Hospital remains the only local government-run district hospital in the country to operate two distinct types of molecular laboratories.
To enhance specialized care, the hospital created a Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Medicine and Robotics Center equipped with Hybrid Assistive Limb (HAL) units to aid patients with neurological and musculoskeletal conditions, improving mobility training and recovery outcomes.
It also opened a dialysis center with 11 dialysis seats, six Fresenius hemodialysis machines, portable reverse osmosis units, and a High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filtration system, expanding access to free specialized treatment services.
For patient safety, Sta. Ana Hospital maintains a negative-pressure room for infectious cases and emergency equipment such as ECG and defibrillator units.
During the pandemic, it served as the Manila Infectious Disease Control Center and continues to house 33 isolation wards alongside its laboratories.
The city government also opened a new intensive care unit (ICU) to increase critical care capacity for both COVID-19 and non-COVID patients.
National institutions have recognized the hospital’s achievements, awarding it a 97/100 rating from the Metro Manila Center for Health Development.
It has also secured Level III General Hospital accreditation from the Department of Health, earned Provisional I Accreditation for its Internal Medicine Residency Training Program from the Philippine College of Physicians, and retained its Mother-Baby Friendly Hospital status.
The World’s Best Hospitals 2026 list, released by Newsweek in partnership with Statista, evaluated 2,500 hospitals across 32 countries based on medical experts’ recommendations, hospital quality metrics, patient experience data, and Patient-Reported Outcome Measures.
Sta. Ana Hospital’s inclusion in the list affirms its role as a leading institution in healthcare innovation and patient care in the Philippines. (Odralim Villarez)
