Israel’s Hospitals and Medical System is Broken. Here is Why and How to Fix it.
(As appeared in the Jerusalem Post ) A severe kidney stone attack brought me to the emergency room and then operating room of a major trauma center hospital in southern Israel. Those facilities and care were state-of-the-art. However, for the few days I spent in a recovery room, the room and care were circa 1950s. This January, a few years later, my mother lay dying in the same hospital. Again, the MADA response was quick and ER care is state-of-the-art. However, the care on the floor after admission was inconsistent, not up to modern medical standards, and the facilities were dilapidated in appearance and antiquated without hi-tech functionality. The hallways were almost always filled with an overflow of beds, as the rooms are consistently full, always with one more bed than they are designed for. This is in stark contrast to the many news headlines of constant new and exciting cutting edge medical advances developed by the “Start Up Nation.” In actuality, current medi