Hillel Yaffe Sums Up the Year

With the Jewish New Year just around the corner, this past year is leaving us with new hopes. Just like every year, Hillel Yaffe takes time out to look back on this past year's accomplishments, feeling quite proud.

"Given the ongoing crisis in public medicine, it's nice to see that we are still managing to meet, and even exceed, the goals we set each year," said HYMC Director General Prof. Meir Oren. "This year, we also saw strong performance in medicine, nursing and paramedical fields, as reflected in a marked increase in the hospital's activity."

Let the numbers do the talking

Activity at Hillel Yaffe Medical Center has increased, year after year, in a wide range of areas. This past year there were over 4,000 babies born in HYMC delivery rooms, including 95 sets of twins. This year has already shown a 4% increase over last – with over 4,200 births – including a 20% increase in the number of twins, for a total of 115 sets of twins. In this respect, the Maternity Ward has been blessedly busy.

The new pediatric ER. Significant increase in activity

The number of people visiting the emergency room grew by over 7% – to almost 110,000 – translating into an additional10,000 people visiting the emergency room compared to last year. The most significant increase was seen in the number of people from this region who visited the renovated pediatric emergency room. Last year, 10,000 people visited the pediatric emergency room, while this year the number rose to 14,000, up by almost 30%. We should also note here that the recently renovated Pediatric Department was built and equipped to respond optimally to the needs of children and parents. The department now runs a very active education and learning center that undoubtedly makes hospitalizations there easier.

Alongside this increase was an impressive 4% drop in the number of traffic accident victims treated in the Hillel Yaffe emergency room, an unquestionably satisfying statistic. At the same time, the hospital still treats a very large number of accident victims. According to the annual average, close to 20% of all traffic accident victims in Israel are taken to Hillel Yaffe's emergency room (1 out of every 5). This is apparently due to the hospital's unique location between major highways and the fact that it is a regional trauma center.

The hospitalization rate in the various departments this past year also increased by 6% or over 41,000 in-patients, a number that is steadily rising from year to year. The year also saw 10,500 surgeries performed at Hillel Yaffe, a number that is expected to grow in light of the official opening of three operating rooms in the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department.

Outpatient clinics: Last year there was a 5% increase over the previous year in the number of people who visited the outpatient clinics. Hillel Yaffe's outpatient clinics treated approximately 150,000 people this year.

What else?

Hillel Yaffe Medical Center is justifiably proud of its achievements in research and academia, as well as of its technological accomplishments and integration of new services:

• Construction: The new inpatient building opened at the start of last year, followed by the opening of an additional internal medicine department - Internal

  Another Internal Medicine Department. The doctors of Internal Medicine D on rounds

  Medicine D. Additionally, the IVF clinic relocated to its new, spacious, state-of-the-art location, and additional operating rooms were added to the Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science Department. Many departments were renovated and expanded, including Internal Medicine C, which just last week moved to its new location. Extensive sections of the hospital underwent and are still undergoing renovation.
• Academia and research: The construction of a new gynecology research laboratory was completed and began operating this past year. In addition, Hillel Yaffe is proud of three additional doctors who were conferred the title of Professor: Prof. Meir Oren – Director General of Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, Prof. Avinoam Ophir – Director of the Ophthalmology Department and Prof. Avraham Shotan – Director of the Cardiology & ICCU Department. HYMC now employs ten physicians with the distinguished title of Professor from the Ruth & Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine at the Technion (and there will be more).
• Hille Yaffe is proud of the new clinics and services it launched this past year such as the Uro-gynecological service, alternative medicine therapies including biofeedback, osteotherapy, use of Western acupuncture methods in the Physical Therapy Department, a new appointment scheduling service in the outpatient clinics, osteoporosis clinic, and more.
• Adoption of cutting-edge technologies in pacemakers, orthopedic treatment and vascular surgery. Hillel Yaffe demonstrated pioneering medical capabilities and technologies, and was the first to use them in Israel. In addition, sophisticated equipment was acquired for the Nuclear Medicine Institute and Cardiac Institute.
• HYMC also hosted numerous conferences for the regional community, including a conference on pregnancy and childbirth.

Prof. Oren emphasizes that all this is part of the extensive work done at HYMC. "We are actively promoting other construction projects," he said, "as well as working to introduce new technologies and taking advantage of new services. We are constantly innovating for the benefit of all employees, patients and their families as well as for the community. Although this past year was particularly productive, we are not resting on our laurels. Working hand in hand with our wonderful staff and board of directors, we will continue our efforts to provide the best possible care to local residents and to everyone else."