Teenage pregnancy in the Philippines is increasing and alarming. Services in the antenatal care are in accordance with the Department of Health and the World Health Organization serving pregnant women of all ages. Looking at the post-partum women, we will be identifying factors among this specific teenage group who were considered at risk compared to the older pregnant women. The researcher aims to conduct a study which can give as baseline clinical picture of the product of conceptions among those teenage pregnant women admitted at Justiniano R. Borja General Hospital. Among the NCU admitted neonates, 120 (20%) were delivered by teenage pregnant women, 131 (21.83%) from 20-24 years old, and 349 (58.17%) from >25 years old pregnant women. The prevalence of teenage pregnancy in JRBGH was 20%, with 12 years old as the youngest to have live newborn for 2017. Teenage pregnancy ranges from 20 to 23% on monthly delivery census. While NCU babies born to teenage pregnant women ranges from 10 to 26% on monthly census of NCU admission. This study found out that teenage pregnancy were significantly different from the 20-24 years old in terms of their parity, timing of first ultrasound and hospital expenses. Other maternal profiles which showed no significant difference were; place of residence, menarche, blood pressure, mode of delivery. Hepatitis B status was described by percentage. Based on this study, parity is significantly different in both age groups. These study population covered the NCU babies. Repeat pregnancies should be considered seriously to prevent more cases of NCU admission or other morbidities. Post-natal care should be accessed and improved in terms of the ante-natal care, tracking system, local networking of referrals, and more improve access to data and data collection for analysis of existing health programs. The mean hopital expenses is significantly lower in the teenage pregnant women vs 20-24 years old group. The mean hospital expenses for teenage pregnant women is probably higher because of the study population (neonates) were NCU admitted compared to the total delivery. It is noteworthy to mention that majority of these teenage group (study population) are un-employed. And these hospital expenses may correlates to the out-of-pocket expenses from their families or the cost of LGU funding. Thus, the gross cost of hospitalization from these teenage pregnant women would be Php1,044,357.6 (based on the mean hospital expenses x 88 retrieved SOA) or Php 1,424,124 (based on the mean hospital expenses x 120 teenage pregnant women in NCU), or Php 17,635,402 for 2017 (11,867.7 x 1,486 teenage pregnant deliveries). There were no significant diffrence noted among the neonatal profile variables, namely; birthweight, Apgar score and outcome (complicated or non-complicated). Length of hospital for mothers and length of NCU stay of neonates were found to be not significant in both age groups.

Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) was caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and not just affected the Philippines but also globally. Data on real-time PCR cycle threshold (Ct) values were accessible in the healthcare facility and previous studies did not support its direct clinical significance on patients' management. The aim of this study was to investigate the RT-PCR Ct values of admitted COVID-19 confirmed patients in the epidemiologic context from April 2021 to November 2021. A total of 1,245 were tested and out of the 1,038 confirmed COVID-19 admitted patients, 579 (55.78%) were females and 459 were males (44.22%). There were 4 genes detected, namely: N, E, ORF1ab and RdRP genes, and the majority was N gene 925 (88.94%) while the least detected was 203 E gene of SARS-CoV-2. This study described the utilization of five (5) different COVID-19 test kits. Comparing the Ct values between the male and female groups, this study showed no significant differences. To compare between the different age groups and the three classifications of CT values was shown in Table 6. For the N gene, the current study showed a significant difference of CT value <25 among 0-17 years old vs 46-60 years old (p=0.00054), and among 0-17 years old vs >61 (senior citizens) years old group (p=0.00945). Moreover, a significant difference was observed for CT value >30 among 0-17 years vs 18-45 years old (p=0.00411) and among 0-17 years old vs >61 years old group (p=0.00025). CT values for the ORF gene showed significant differences. CT value <25 showed significant differences among 0-17 years versus 45-60 years old (p=0.00907) and 0-17 years versus >60 years old (p=0.04298). Moreover, CT value >30 showed significant differences among 0-17 years versus 46-60 years old (p=0.02344) and 0-17 years versus >60 years old (p=0.3411). Comparing the mean CT values of two consecutive months from April to November, this study showed a significant difference between April and May (p value= 0.0004), August and September (p value= 0.0212), and September and October (p value= 0.002). There was no significant difference with the following months: May and June, June and July, July and August, and October and November (Table 9). Keywords: utilization, cycle threshold values, RT-PCR SARS-Cov-2, COVID-19, cross-sectional study, admitted COVID-19 confirmed patients

A retrospective document analysis study aimed to assess the referral system on maternal services based on the referral forms of referred women of reproductive age from the referral facilities to the receiving hospital from January to December 2019. The specific objectives of the study were to describe the use of standard referral forms, compliance of the healthcare workers in using the standard form based on 14 criteria, and the utilization of relevant data related to maternal services based on 16 criteria. There were 3330 referral forms received by the receiving facility on different formats of forms during the study period. A random sampling of 384 referral forms was used as study population. Among 384 referral forms (random sampling), only 126 (31.8%) used the standard referral forms. The compliance of these referral forms using 14 criteria showed that 116 (92.06%) referral forms complied with only 51-75% of the criteria, and none of the referral forms complied with all the 14 criteria. On assessing the data entries among 384 referral forms with different formats, there were six data entries consistently used more than 60% by the healthcare providers which were not part of the printed form: last menstrual period (67.87%), expected date of confinement (64.84%), fundic height (63.04%), fetal heart beat (60.76%), birthweight (62.59%), and age of gestation (60%). Based on the 16 criteria, majority of referral forms (210) utilized 51-75% of the 16 criteria, 122 referral forms utilized 76-99%, 51 forms utilized 26-50%, and 1 form utilized less than 25% of the data entries. Several studies documented that referral forms and functional referral systems are vital to an improved maternal mortality rate (MMR) and infant mortality rate (IMR). Therefore, as part of a continued quality referral system, it is highly recommended that the required referral forms be re-assessed, revised, and regularly monitored on its form compliance and utilization. Keywords: compliance, forms utilization, maternal care services, referral system, standard referral form, women of reproductive age

Background. Chronic Hepatitis B infection comprises the mortality among viral hepatitis despite primary hepatitis B vaccination was implemented in different states health programs. Different modalities of combining active and passive hepatitis B vaccination were conducted. Pregnant women hepatitis screening was not yet streamlined in the clinical management due to social and economic challenges. Fetal to maternal vertical transmission of hepatitis B virus is still a burden to our health system. It is the objective of the study to present the cost of incorporating hepatitis B immunoglobulin vaccine in the current vaccination program, as strengthen the preventive measures of hepatitis infection locally and nationally. Methods Survey questionnaires were utilized to gather demographic data among randomly selected pregnant women during their prenatal visits at the hospital. Hospital and city-based census were used for projecting cost and revenues of having hepatitis B immunoglobulin vaccination. Results. A total of 74 respondents were identified. A financial 5-year was forecast would show a revenue of Php 1,494,500.00 ($28,869.5) on the 5th year and would spare the mothers from OOP expenses with a total amount of Php 945,500 ($18,264.40). Moreover, the monthly revenue of Hep B Ig vaccination (based on 2016 census) on a city-wide was forecasted. The difference of the total amount of PHIC reimbursement from the amount of vaccine purchasing would give the facility a projected revenue of Php 3,381,123.00 ($65,313.62) or a monthly average of Php (281,760.25). A total of 1,380 newborns would be at risk to hepatitis B-reactive mothers and would be protected by securing hepatitis B immunoglobulin and be made available in the hospital pharmacy. Furthermore, pregnant women are protected against financial risk of unnecessary out-of-pocket expenses. Conclusion. This study found that the pregnant women was aware of the economic burden of hepatitis B immunoglobulin vaccine and it would benefit the healthcare facility by strategically addressing the external factors for a sustained vaccination program.