Safety Milestone Inspires PNOC EC to Launch New Medical-Diagnostic Center
Fort Bonifacio Global City – Inspired by their recent safety milestone of two million man-hours without accidents at their Zamboanga Sibugay coal operations, the PNOC Exploration Corporation will be starting up a new Medical-Diagnostic Center at their main office here.
During the company’s 36th Anniversary celebrations held at the newly constructed PNOC EC Auditorium last Friday, the Department of Energy presented a plaque of recognition for the historic safety milestone to PNOC EC Chairman and CEO Mel Lopez. Lopez received the Safety Achievement Award from DOE Undersecretary Jose Layug.
PNOC EC tallied 2, 488, 512 man-hours worked without Lost Time Accidents from August 19 2011 to March 31 2012. This covers the Malangas Project Operation or MPO of Coal Operating Contract 41 (COC 41) in Zamboanga Sibugay. The Integrated Little Baguio Mines by themselves tallied 2, 123, 680 man-hours worked without lost time accidents, while the Small Scale Mining Operations tallied 364, 832 man-hours worked without lost time accidents.
“Considering the hazardous nature of coal operations, especially underground mining, we are very proud to have achieved this milestone,” Lopez beamed. “This is a testament to our mine workers and all of our men and women in Zamboanga Sibugay, and we thank the DOE for recognizing this with the Safety Achievement Award.”
Hoping to extend the culture of safety exemplified in Zamboanga Sibugay in all PNOC EC operations throughout the country, Lopez came up with the idea to start up a Medical-Diagnostic Center to serve all PNOC EC employees almost immediately thereafter. Since the company was able to save on the cost of building the new auditorium, Lopez indicated part of those savings might be used to jumpstart the Medical-Diagnostic Center.
Although the center will initially serve the main office, it will eventually extend its coverage to all PNOC EC areas and facilities all over the country. “We want all of our employees to have full access to their medical records, wherever they may be. We also want them to have access to as many medical services as possible to maintain good health for everyone in the company, and for that I think we need to have this center,” Lopez explained.
“Since we want to extend our safety record, it is imperative that we have a full range of medical-diagnostic services. Healthy employees make for safe employees,” he added. Lopez said he hopes the medical-diagnostic center will be up and running by the end of this year.
Dr. Ana Santos MD, the new company doctor of PNOC EC, has been tasked with making the medical-diagnostic center fully operational. As a starting point, all medical records of current employees are being collated and consolidated into a modern and functional database. Santos, a magna cum laude out of the prestigious Santo Tomas University Medical School, will also be managing the medical-diagnostic center once it is operational. It will serve as the hub for all medical services and medical records-management of the company.
Santos is being assisted by the IT department of the company on the data management side.