Israel's First Secure Emergency Room Built and Dedicated in Light of Lessons of the Second Lebanon War

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Subject: Israel's First Secure Emergency Room Built and Dedicated in Light of Lessons of
the Second Lebanon War 1,200 days after outbreak of the Second Lebanon War, Rambam dedicates new emergency facility protected from missiles and chemical warfare

Rambam Medical Center Rambam Medical Center
Public Affairs and Spokesman
David Ratner, Director

During the Second Lebanon War, in the summer of 2006, the Rambam Health Care Campus (RHCC) admitted hundreds of wounded patients, soldiers and civilians, to an old, crowded and unprotected emergency room. As this took place, Katyusha missiles were falling in areas adjacent to the hospital.

For the Rambam administration, one of the main lessons of the war was the need to immediately construct a new protected emergency room. This facility would have to stand up to conventional and chemical means of warfare, and supply quality medical care for residents of Haifa and Northern Israel.

As a result of cooperation between donors - the Discount Investment Corporation Ltd of the IDB Group, the Jewish Agency, the Claims Conference and the non-profit organization, "Reut" - the necessary amount of 60 million shekels was raised for building and equipping the new emergency room.

"At the start of the Second Lebanon War we promised to protect Rambam. After three years we have completed the first stage," said RHCC Director Prof Rafi Beyar, referring to a huge building project at Rambam. This plan includes establishment of a secure underground hospital for 1,730 patients, a children's hospital, and facilities for cancer care and for cardiac treatment, and a tower for clinical research.

· The new emergency room is being built with an investment of 60 million shekels: one quarter of the sum comes from governmental sources, and the rest from private donors, philanthropic organizations and the RHCC budget.

· Donors: The IDB Group, the Jewish Agency, the Claims Conference and the non-profit organization, "Raiut".

· The emergency room will be secure from missile attacks, as well as conventional and chemical weapons.

· The new emergency room will be 3.5 times larger than the previous facility. It is spread over an area of 3,200 sq. meters, is spacious, computerized and equipped to treat 60 patients simultaneously, with an option to expand to 100 treatment stations in emergency situations.

· On average, some 100,000 to 110,000 patients arrive at Rambam's emergency room yearly.

· The treatment area for trauma victims and intensive care will be the largest in Israel: six treatment stations in routine circumstances and 11 stations in times of emergency. The stations are built in cooperation with the Technion to maximize the efficiency of shock room staff.

· Two digital x-ray rooms and two rooms for isolation of patients with suspected infectious diseases or weakened immune systems.

· Full computerization of all treatment stations (marking an end to the era of penned-in documents), including a computerized monitoring system developed in cooperation with the Technion and IBM .

Staff of Dept. of Emergency Medicine at Rambam

Director: Dr Shlomi Israelit Director
Internal Emergency Room: Dr Fuad Basis
Supervising Nurse: Hagar Baruch
Director, Trauma Unit: Dr Moshe Michaelson
Coordinator, Trauma: Gila Hymes
Operations Manager: Kobi Moskovitch
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