At Mayanei
Hayeshua, the sanctity of human life has always been a major priority. This ethos
has helped the hospital to face the biggest Pikuach Nefesh emergency in living
memory, quickly grasping the severity and the dimensions of the coronavirus
pandemic. Working hand in hand with the Ministry of Health, Mayanei Hayeshua
sprang into action to provide urgently needed medical services for the entire
region, while continuing to function as a regular hospital.
The VIP car park at the entrance to the
hospital was converted into a 22-station field hospital overnight. By completely
separating suspected coronavirus cases, the danger of infecting regular Emergency
Room patients and staff was eliminated.
The hospital created a dedicated 18-bed coronavirus
department. Patients are first screened and tested in their own separate,
isolation rooms. To speed up results, tests are processed in the hospital’s own
dedicated testing laboratory. Patients who test negative are sent home. Patients
who test positive are then hospitalized in a separate area where they remain
under the strictest quarantine conditions until they recover. To meet growing
demand, a second dedicated 12-bed department has already been added.
Extraordinary measures have been taken to
ensure the safety of the hospital’s front-line medical staff. In order to
minimize the possibility of cross-contamination, medical teams work in 12-hour
shifts, with zero contact between the incoming shift and the outgoing shift.
With all regular childcare facilities closed, the hospital opened its own kindergarten
for the children of essential staff, allowing parents to be at their posts in
the hospital. Extra staff have been drafted into the hospital to serve in critical
areas where required.
A pandemic creates an extra layer of distress
and anxiety. As a pioneer of tele-medicine in Israel, Mayanei Hayeshua quickly
ramped up its tele-psychiatric services, both for patients and for staff. Dedicated
hotlines have been established for one-to-one psychiatric consultations, while online
media are being used to help groups of staff to cope emotionally with the
unprecedented emergency.
In hopeful news, Israeli mainstream
media has reported that Mayanei Hayeshua’s in-house medical scientists are making
great advances in their search for an antidote to the virus. While a full
vaccine remains elusive, stop-gap solutions are being developed at the hospital
that are designed to alleviate the severity of the coronavirus outbreak. The
hospital has announced that it will make its breakthrough findings freely
available to all other hospitals in Israel.
Chaim Fachler, head of Mayanei
Hayeshua’s department of overseas development:
“In these unprecedented times, with procurement
proving a global challenge, our team is working round the clock to source
urgently-needed equipment from suppliers inside and outside Israel. The team acts
promptly, reducing all bureaucratic procurement procedures to a minimum. This
is ensuring a steady stream of much-needed personal protective equipment – PPE
- including masks and gowns, as well as respirators which are in particularly
high demand. In a welcome move, the Israel Ministry of Health has pledged to
match-support the hospital’s emergency fundraising efforts.”