“A passion for service and excellence everyday...” This is the theme the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI) is celebrating as it approaches its 25th Year Founding Anniversary on February 23, 2008. Armed with the purpose of bringing quality service to all its patients, the NKTI today is perceived to be a highly competitive hospital with world-class standards that remains to be true to its mission: “To work hand-in-hand with government in the achievement of good health for the Filipino people by providing specialized medical services.” Honor goes to its employees for their commitment to excellence, innovation, dedication, and loyalty to the Institute.

Year 2007 was truly a remarkable year for the National Kidney and Transplant Institute. Over its twenty five years of operation, it has proven that despite adverse circumstances, it possesses the dynamism and the ingenuity required to weather internal and external challenges. The NKTI continues to lead the way in defining quality healthcare. With the massive organizational and infrastructural changes in the last twenty five years, everyone marvels at how the Institute has metamorphosed into one of the best hospitals in the Philippines.

Born in 1983 as the National Kidney Foundation of the Philippines (NKFP), it was meant to serve as a modern medical center accessible to the Filipino patient. Starting with just 50 beds for the patients, who would have thought that the foundation would now be a premier center of excellence - the forerunner of the country’s transplant centers.

The NKTI story is a never-ending journey. As it celebrates its 25 years of existence, including an interregnum of a disastrous fire, the NKTI continues to grow.

The year 1998 was a period of marked difficulty for the NKTI. Fire gutted the Lung Center of the Philippines affecting the nearby NKTI Annex building housing the Emergency Room, Wards, Operating Room and Radiology Complex. Newly appointed Executive Director then, Dr. Enrique T. Ona was undeterred by these seemingly insurmountable difficulties. He pursued an aggressive rehabilitation program on the infrastructure and at the same time, uplifted the morale of dispirited medical and hospital staff. He chose to rehabilitate the patients’ rooms and construct more rooms to accommodate the growing number of its patient population. With his energized leadership, the Institute has since then undergone a series of changes. The Center for Special Services composed of the Urology, Endoscopy, and Chemotherapy/Transfusion/ Pain Management Unit, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Prostate Health Clinic, Vascular Laboratory, Ostomy and Wound Care Clinic and Molecular and Cellular Therapeutics Center were among those established to cater to patients with specialized needs. Doctors’ Clinics, Hemodialysis Center, Out-Patient Services at the Annex II building were built to accommodate the ever increasing number of Filipinos suffering from kidney diseases and other ailments.

The Emergency room complex was specially redesigned to suit its purpose with its 7-bed observation and 9-bed treatment rooms. The Pharmacy and Housekeeping sections were also constructed to pave the way for better and faster services. The Laboratory has evolved into the country’s most modern and leading referral clinical laboratory, boasting of a large ultra-modern Laboratory Reception Hall.

A new Chapel for Christians and a Masjid Prayer room for Muslims were made available to become a source of spiritual strength for patients and their relatives. Other facilities such as the Doctors’ Lounge, Residents Quarters, Medical Department Offices (Surgery, Urology, Pediatric and Adult Nephrology, Anesthesiology, Organ Transplantation, and Internal Medicine), Nutrition and Dietetics Division, and Cafeteria were constructed. The Administrative Offices were relocated and renovated. A newly renovated well-lighted atrium lobby exuding a luxurious hotel like atmosphere welcomes the visitor, with escalators connecting the lobby to the second floor. Keeping its medical facilities and equipment up-to-date, Spiral CT-Scan, Mammography, Millenium VG Gamma Camera, Open Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Ablatherm Machine, Extra Corporeal Shockwave Lithotripsy (ESWL), Flow Cytometry, Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (FISH), Energy Filtering Transmission Electron Microscope and other state-of-the-art equipment were also acquired.

The NKTI is a leader in providing continuing education for young doctors. It has extensive training programs which include internship and residency training in medicine, urology, radiology, pathology, anesthesiology and internship and fellowship training in adult and pediatric nephrology, oncology, vascular surgery and organ transplantation. Moreover, to continually develop and upgrade the level of skills of the nurses and other allied health care providers, the Institute developed and established the Institute of Advanced Nursing and Allied Health Professions (IANAHP). It is envisioned to provide and equip its nursing and paramedical staff the necessary training, exposure, and skills based on globally accepted standards. With excellent service combined with excellent facilities, the NKTI moves with eagerness in creating a world-class hospital environment for its patients.

Today, with its three-storey edifice and two Annex Buildings with a full range of state-of-the-art equipment, services, and professional expertise to provide quality tertiary medical services, the NKTI continues to hold its reputation of being the Philippine’s Premier Institution for Kidney Diseases and Organ Transplantation. As the first and only government hospital to be ISO 9001:2000 certified, NKTI has become the model and benchmark of good governance for other government hospitals. Aside from its equipment, manpower, and services which are all of the highest standard, it boasts of the most modern diagnostic techniques for kidney and other related diseases, all modes of dialysis, and surgical procedures, most notably, laparoscopic urologic surgery and organ transplantation. Kidney transplantation is a regular activity of the hospital and to this date, the NKTI holds the record of the most number of kidney transplants performed in the country since 1983.

Marking its 25th anniversary this year, more priority projects are underway – the Women’s Medical Center, the Diagnostic Radiotherapy Center, and the Institute of Urology and Men’s Health.

Truly, behind the physical attributes of the hospital and the services it provides, is an inspiring story of how leadership and commitment to excellence enabled NKTI to overcome hardships and to break barriers to deliver medicine beyond ordinary care. The NKTI is the same hospital that was there for your family in the past 25 years. Today, we commit ourselves as we start our road to a new and higher level of quality care, a JCI accreditation, a virtual “ gold standard” for health care performance, so that we can better serve you in the next 25 years and beyond – with the same passion for service and excellence. Indeed, we have cause for celebration!