An Act Requiring the Licensure of All Hospitals in the Philippines and Authorizing the Bureau of Medical Services to Serve as the Licensing Agency

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

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippine Congress Assembled:

Section 1. This Act shall also be known as the Hospital Licensure Act.

Section 2. Definitions.— As used in this Act—

Section 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.

Section 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.

Section 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.

Section 6. Powers and duties of the licensing agency.— The Bureau of Medical Services, or the licensing agency shall have the following powers and duties:

Section 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.

Section 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.

Section 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.

Section 20. Effectivity.— This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

Approved: June 19, 1965.