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Twenty-three years ago, Mel Ongsue watched her then 43-year-old mother start a small medical laboratory that aimed to make it easy and affordable to get standard medical services in areas where access to diagnostic clinics or hospitals were a challenge. The first branches were in Retiro and Kalaw. Today, Hi-Precision Diagnostics Philippines has 55 branches nationwide, making healthcare more convenient for millions of Filipinos.
“When I started 11 years ago, there were only four branches,” shares Mel. A graduate of Interior Design from Parsons School of Design in New York City, Mel would spend her university summers designing the Hi-Precision branches. She would help with the floor plans and overall look then submit her renders for the company to use. Upon returning to the Philippines she immediately started working for the company. “I graduated on a Friday, flew home, and then started working that next Monday,” she laughs. “I didn’t get a vacation!”
What originally began as an inclination to help her mother, who had always served as an inspiration, became a passion and an advocacy. Recognising that the healthcare industry in the country needed to be made more accessible to people, Mel threw herself into the mission of making healthcare convenient. Apart from its clinics, Hi-Precision began offering home service tests to make issues like fasting or travelling with elderly relatives easier.
Following home service arrangements, the company began bringing in medical tests that were not available in hospitals or doctor’s clinics. These were the kind of tests patients would have to fly to Singapore or Hong Kong to take. What was offered as a standard in other countries became—in the Philippines—a standard only offered by Hi-Precision, and soon they became the pioneer in medical tests and laboratory work in the country. For example, Hi-Precision was the first clinic and laboratory in the country that brought in a genetic and DNA test for babies that can be taken as early as nine weeks in utero, giving expectant mothers an idea of gender and any possibilities of abnormalities in the fetus.
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“I enjoy seeing doctors and patients find value in our tests. What we do is meaningful because I see the impact we have in the industry.”
Mel, who handles Sales & Marketing and Branch Expansion, is proud of all the accomplishments Hi-Precision has made in the last decade. They began providing online results, allowing both doctors and patients access to results faster as well as serving as a jump-off point to facilitate discussion between doctors and patients. They also became accredited by the College of American Pathologies (CAP), assuring doctors and patients that their laboratories have the highest international standards, and on top of that they are ISO certified.
More than innovations and accolades, however, Mel is proudest of what Hi-Precision is at its core.
“It’s not just a business or that we have a lab. It’s really about helping people. Everyone should be able to afford quality healthcare. That’s why we are opening in provinces and cities with no access to these tests.”
With 55 branches, it is a challenge to keep the company’s standards, but Mel is fully committed to making sure the overall patient experience is only what she herself would be happy with. She makes sure branding across branches are aligned, messaging is consistent, and they create an atmosphere that will make everyone comfortable to be with Hi-Precision. She also welcomes the challenge of competition of similar clinics and laboratories. “Competition is good,” she says. “it’s good for the country because we lack facilities so the more competitors the better for the people. It also makes us conscious of our prices, which means prices stay low and affordable for people while making sure we continue to provide great service.”
A mother of two, Mel balances being a mother and a career woman by being available to her children, going home for lunch (her office is five minutes away), and being active in their school life. She glows when she talks about her children, but also when she talks about Hi-Precision.
“I never thought I would be talking to doctors or partnering with hospitals, but now I love what I do. Even if I took up interior design, which has nothing to do with this, I realized that if you love your work and if you love what you do you will learn it.”
Photos taken by Stanley Ong
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ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Rachel Kelly Davis has been a published writer since the age of 14, often writing features, essays, and cover pieces. In 2016 she started writing poetry, leaving index cards of her poems all over the world and posting the photos she is sent by the people who find them.
When she isn’t writing, she is the Chief Communications Officer & the Investor Relations Officer of Buskowitz Energy, a sustainable solutions company based in the Philippines.
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