Research Locale

The study will be conducted at Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, a public

1,200-bed capacity hospital located in Cebu, Philippines. It is a general tertiary medical

center, as well as a teaching and training medical facility owned by the Philippine

Government. The hospital was formally established in 1913, in aims to provide health

care services that are available, affordable, accessible and acceptable to all regardless

of social status.

Its clientele consists of patients belonging to low-income and middle- income

group. There are three Obstetric (OB) wards for intrapartum and postpartum patients

namely, Low Risk Unit, High Risk Unit and Philhealth Ward – Ward II. The Low Risk Unit

attend to OB cases which are considered normal pregnancy, labor and delivery without

any complications. The High Risk Unit attends to OB cases which are considered

normal deliveries but with complications such as hypertension, asthma, heart diseases

as well as to patients who were post caesarean deliveries. The Ward II unit attends to

patients admitted with Philhealth which cases that may under Low Risk Unit and High

Risk Unit.

As a tertiary care institution, Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center also offers

Specialty and Subspecialties under the different clinical departments. These Specialty

and Subspecialties include the Genereal Surgery, Neuro-Surgery, Uro-Surgery, Internal

Medicine, Gynecology, Orthopedics, Ortorhinolaryngology, Opthalmology,

Anethesiology, Pathology, Psychiatry, Radiology, Plastic and Recostructive Surgery,

Emergency Medicine , Family Medicine and Pediatrics , Rehabilitation Medicine

Department, Dental Services and the National Voluntary Blood Services Program.