As a public hospital, it provides a range of general medical and surgical services, including:

• Emergency care

• Outpatient consultations

• Hospitalization

• Basic surgical procedures

• Maternal and child health services

• Preventive healthcare programs

State health institutions have undergone different stages of evolution throughout the history of Panamanian public health.  

The pre-Republican era (before 1903) was characterized by greater environmental dominance over humans, who thus paid an enormous price in diseases that are now preventable, such as yellow fever, malaria, smallpox, and typhoid. There was a lack of scientific techniques for organizing attacks on the most important ecological factors.

In the early years of the Republic's independence (1903-1914), limited health care efforts were directed by a Public Hygiene and Charity Section and a Donations Section of the Public Works Department of the Ministry of Development. This period was characterized by human domination of the environment with the construction of the Panama Canal. However, there is still a marked lack of organized Preventive Medicine and Public Health in the rest of the country, with the exception of limited patient care in the few existing hospitals and limited attention to public hygiene.