Haifa’s Bnai Zion Medical Center ranked No. 1 in pediatric patient satisfaction in the Emergency Medicine Department out of all other government hospitals, a survey published last month by the Health Ministry showed.
The hospital received a satisfaction score of 93% – one percentage point above Samson Assuta Ashdod University Medical Center and seven above the third-place competitor.
“We work very hard to teach our personnel to always put the patient at the center,” said Bnai Zion CEO Ohad Hochman. “It is in our culture that the patient is the most important thing we have in the hospital, and the whole environment is structured around serving the patients. We pay a lot of attention to this matter – from me, to the rest of the management and all the medical and non-medical staff in the hospital.”
Bnai Zion also ranked high in adult overall satisfaction (79.4%) and in overall satisfaction (82%).
The survey by the Health Ministry was conducted between May and November 2021 to gauge how Israelis feel about their emergency room care. Such surveys have been conducted every two years since 2015.
The survey was conducted among patients who have visited emergency departments and then been discharged or moved to other units. It included people who received almost all types of urgent medical care, the ministry said.
Some 8,000 people were surveyed at 29 general hospitals across the country. Patients were given a survey in their preferred language and respondents were interviewed within two weeks of their discharge.
The questionnaire included more than 40 points of evaluation, from wait times to environmental conditions.
Built in 1922, Bnai Zion is the first hospital to be established in Haifa.
The facility has “a lot of special things that make our hospital unique,” Hochman said, including being the first medical center in Israel to conduct laparoscopic operations. Today, most of the hospital’s operations are done using a laparoscope with a video camera on the end that is inserted through small incisions, meaning they are less invasive and patients have shorter recovery times.
The hospital also allows any patient interested in receiving alternative medicine alongside traditional Western treatments to get them. It has one of the country’s largest food-allergy clinics and a noteworthy rehabilitation facility.
Hochman said the hospital just opened new delivery rooms, which were donated by George And Irina Schaeffer, and is completing work on a revamped emergency department, which is slated to open in the coming months.
This article was written in cooperation with Bnai Zion.