Summing up the year: 5780 – Not just coronavirus

5780 began at the Hillel Yaffe Medical Center just like any other year – with plenty of activity, a surge of development and success, and, in particular, with plans underway for many new ideas. The project for moving the Neurology Department to its new and improved home was already completed at the beginning of the year. New catheterization rooms were dedicated in a new and upgraded area, while at the same time the General Intensive Care Unit was transferred to its new and improved location, there was renovation and expansion of the area for the Emergency Medicine Department (Emergency Room), with the aid of the Friends of Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, and the icing on the cake – a new and bombproof building for the Neonatal Care Department.

At the same time, the Medical Center has begun offering new services, such as a Pediatric and Youth Psychiatric Rehabilitation Day Center, performed innovative surgeries in the orthopedic, gynecological, and cardiac fields, and also recruited new and high-quality manpower to help with the hospital’s wide range of activity. In addition, the welcome academic education in medicine and nursing continues – a day of nursing research and a ceremony to mark those excelling in teaching from the Faculty of Medicine at the Technion, in which over 30 male and female doctors participated, were held. The School of Nursing, which operates within the hospital, also received an award of excellence – first place out of 15 nursing schools in Israel, as part of a unique program by the Ministry of Health.

The new Cardiac Catheterization Room at Hillel Yaffe Medical Center

But then COVID-19 arrived...

Alongside all these impressive achievements and future plans, coronavirus (COVID-19) broke out in March. At its peak, and within a few days, the Hillel Yaffe Medical Center readied three designated departments and had two planned to treat confirmed coronavirus cases (Infectious Diseases A and B), with them fully adapted to the needs of the required treatments, as well as the purchase of designated medical equipment to treat these patients. We also opened a biological Emergency Room to treat those suspected of having or confirmed with coronavirus, separate from the main Emergency Room, and, respectively separate areas were opened to provide gynecological, obstetric, and pediatric care.

The virus created new challenges and great complexity regarding the provision of treatment and services to those coming to Hillel Yaffe. A challenge to which, as noted, all the Medical Center employees were harnessed to the best of their ability. Some of the solutions included moving the teaching childbirth education courses online, providing consultation services for patients using telemedicine, and adapting equipment and purchasing protective and treatment equipment.

Over 22,000 laboratory tests at Hillel Yaffe Medical Center

Time for numbers

Since the coronavirus outbreak, around 2,000 people have been treated in the designated Emergency Room for suspected and confirmed cases of coronavirus, of which over 400 were hospitalized in the designated departments. The Laboratory Department has carried out almost 22,000 tests for coronavirus (COVID-19). It should be noted that the laboratory also services the health funds and institutions in the area.

Regarding the “regular” annual data – there was a drop in the number of those coming to the Emergency Room and the out-patient clinics, a direct result of the coronavirus and the lockdown period during which people did not come to the hospital, and also the cancellation of ambulatory care, including the Out-Patient Clinics and non-urgent surgery, in accordance with the directives of the Ministry of Health during the lockdown period. However, there was a 4% rise in the number of cardiac catheterizations at Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, and an approximate 3% rise in the average number of hospitalization days as compared with the parallel period last year.

A new area for the Intensive Care Unit

Director of Hillel Yaffe Medical Center Dr. Mickey Dudkiewicz summarizes 5780 (2019/20)): “5780 set complex challenges for the hospital and the health services in general. Hillel Yaffe is one of the primary hospitals for absorption of confirmed coronavirus cases. We treated and continued to treat all the patients who come to us with devotion and determination, in the best and most professional manner possible. I want to take this opportunity to thank all the hospital workers for their harnessing themselves and their hard work during this period, and always. I wish all of us a year of good health, and that we have days that are quieter and calmer.”