When my friends and I first thought of starting a business more than two decades ago, whereby the care-giving burden of families could be alleviated, home health care came to our minds.
We did some brainstorming, a bit of research and even used the findings of a study done by a group of students from the SU College of Nursing titled: The Feasibility of Putting Up a Health Care Company in Dumaguete, which indicated a high demand of home health care services in our City.
After many meetings and consultations with our colleagues, we finally chose Nov. 28, 1998 as D-Day, and inaugurated our Surecare Home Health Care Company with a big bang! City Mayor then and now, Atty. Felipe Antonio Remollo gave the message. It was held at the Tayko residence, our first office. In 2016, we moved to our current office in Daro, behind the Silliman ballfield.
Our first patient was the late Jesusa Guatelara who was admitted at SUMC. When she was discharged, the family hired two of our caregivers to continue taking care of her at their home in Manjuyod, Negros Oriental.
It was purely coincidental that as I was writing this column, the children of Mrs. Guatelara dropped by our office, and we reminisced their mother’s experience two decades ago.
Through the years, our caregivers have taken care of almost a thousand clients. I would like to believe that we have eased the care giving burdens of many families.
Majority of our clients are in their homes. Some are admitted in the hospital. Most of them have diseases that are chronic, others are in critical condition.
Occasionally, we take care of clients who are well but who need a companion at daytime when the rest of the family are at work.
At times we also lend assistance to new mothers until they acquire the skills and confidence in carrying out their role.
Aside from care giving, we also rent out health and medical equipment like wheelchair, walker, cane, commode, hospital bed, suction apparatus, nebulizer, oxygen gauge and crutches. The top three which are rented are hospital bed, suction machine, and oxygen gauge.
We can reached at (035) 225-8515; 422-0181 from Mondays to Fridays. We can also reached through our mobile phones 24/7: 0977-455-0514; 0908-588-2169.
Being the first home health care in our City, the Board of Directors join me in thanking those who have entrusted to us their loved ones during difficult times in their lives and for the support extended to us by our friends and others in the community and beyond.
We have had our ups and downs through the years, but we persisted and through the able leadership of former presidents like Florence Martin, Dr. Dalisay Dumalag, and Josephine Cipres, the current Board of Directors, we have been able to surmount the difficulties.
For having lasted this long and gone this far in the health care industry, we give back all the honor and glory to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
We have been sustained by these verses all these years:
Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. — Philippians 2: 4
Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. — Hebrews 13:16
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