A new NIS 59 million emergency department – fortified to protect patients,
staffers and visitors from rockets and missiles and even biological weapons from
beyond the northern border, was dedicated on Wednesday at Carmel Medical Center
in Haifa.
During the Second Lebanon War, Hezbollah missiles struck a few
meters from the hospital. This gave the final push to build a protected
emergency room.
The Haifa facility was built with 40-centimeter-thick
walls made of cement that can stand up to missiles and close hermetically to
prevent chemical weapons affecting those inside. Patient care will be able to
continue during any such attack, the hospital said.
Carmel administrators
and physicians spent many months observing emergency departments in the rest of
the country and leading departments abroad before they decided what to do. The
Carmel emergency department covers almost three times the space the old one had
– to 2,000 square meters from 700 square meters, said hospital engineer Moshe
Berger. The number of beds, however, has not increased because the new triage
technique separates walking patients from those who are brought in lying down.
Thus, those occupying beds have more space. Up to 80 patients can be handled
simultaneously.
A triage nurse is on duty at the entrance to decide where
to send each patient, and specialists treat the sick and injured inside. There
is also an isolation room with negative air pressure where patients with
infectious diseases can be treated without harming others.
Patients and
their families will no longer have to wander from one place to another to
undergo scans of various types, as all is in one department and available 24
hours a day. A computerized system using plasma screens keeps tabs on all who
enter and their progress through treatment.
Intercoms are suited to the
deaf, and there is a special telephone suited to the blind. Some counters have
been lowered to accommodate those in wheelchairs.