Emergency Medicine

Department of Emergency Medicine    Head of the Department of Emergency Medicine -Dr Kalsov Leonora       E-mail : leonorak@bmc.gov.il

Over 100,000 patients a year arrive at the Barzilai MC Department of Emergency Medicine and is operative 365 days a year. It is designed to treat all varieties of emergency cases ranging from all ages, beginning with light or severe trauma up to resuscitation, acute MI, severe lung diseases, poisoning, and various animal injuries.

The emergency department, including the pediatric emergency department has been transferred to its new large, well protected underground area even for chemical events with close sophisticated radiology department The department has a very well equipped trauma/resuscitation room with state of the art monitoring systems, an ultrasonograph for detection of intra-abdominal bleeding, and a fluid warmer device for treating severe trauma.

The emergency department (ED) staff goes through frequent and continuous training in order to be prepared for mass casualty events of different causes : conventional, chemical/toxicological, or biological. The staff has acquired much experience in treating terror and anxiety victims, chemical injury victims, and suspected victims of the avian flu.

In the era of  corona virus infections, the emergency department has assigned an isolated space to treat those patients that are suspected or are already diagnosed as infected with corona virus. The treating medical team wears special protective clothing while treating the patients.

The emergency department staff has direct communication with the mobile intensive care unit of Magen David Emergency services, and patients with proved acute myocardial infarction are transferred directly to the catheterization room for emergency stent insertion, thus saving their lives.

The same procedure is undertaken for the severely injured patients. Immediately after receiving a call from the Magen David crew, a medical team composed of senior surgeon, senior orthopedist, senior anesthesiologist and senior nurses prepare the trauma room and wait for the injured patient so that no time would be wasted. The blood bank is also informed immediately and blood bags are sent to the emergency department before the patient comes in.

A well-maintained helipad is located close to the emergency department and is ready for use at any hour of the day.

The Department for Emergency Medicine at the Barzilai Medical Center was the first to develop the nurse triage in its current form, while issuing articles on the matter which were highly recognized among the hospitals in Israel. In addition, the ED was the first in Israel to begin coding the diseases and injuries in the ED according to international coding system and the Ministry of Health's inspection reports have complemented the department for those actions.

The ED admission office is also operative 365 days a year and the administrative staff is well trained in emergency registration during mass events.

The medical staff of the ED has won the 1997 excellence staff award at the national contest on behalf of Israel's Civil Service Commission.