Residents of low-socio-economic areas more likely to be hospitalized – except in Jerusalem

Health ministry report finds most patients hospitalized in a medical facility closest to their place of residence.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
Updated: OCTOBER 22, 2015 02:34
Shearei Tzedek Hospital (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Shearei Tzedek Hospital
(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
If you live in Jerusalem, you are least likely to be hospitalized for illness or accidents (not including childbirth), whatever your age, compared to all the other regions in the country. The Judea and Samaria region follows, while the highest hospitalization rates are in the Acre region.
These statistics were issued on Wednesday by the Health Ministry’s report on geographical distribution of hospitalization in general hospitals between 2011 and 2013.
In each of these years, 1.1 million people were hospitalized (not including in obstetrics departments) for a total of 4.3 million days.
The average national rate was 131 hospitalizations per 1,000 residents, while in Jerusalem (not including east Jerusalem hospitals) the average rate was 103, 107 in Judea and Samaria, 125 in Tel Aviv, 146 in Haifa, 128 in Beersheba, 165 in Acre, 150 in the Kinneret region and 165 in the Golan Heights.
If the figures included hospitalization for childbirth, Jerusalem would apparently have the highest rate. Jerusalemites on average also spend significantly fewer days in the hospital than patients in the Haifa or Acre regions do.
The hospitalization rate rises over the age of 55, and especially over 75, when people are 4.4 times more likely to be hospitalized than the average of the whole population.
Israelis are least likely to be hospitalized between ages five and 54.
Men of any age are 8 percent more likely to be hospitalized (except in obstetrics wards, of course) than women in all regions except in Judea and Samaria.
In areas with a lower socioeconomic index, residents are more likely to need hospitalization than those that are socially and economically better off, the ministry survey reported. However, although Jerusalem is on average a low-income city, residents are less likely to be hospitalized.
Most patients were hospitalized in a medical facility closest to their place of residence.
Fully 77% of those hospitalized in Jerusalem were residents of the city itself, while 13% of patients in hospitals in the capital reside in Judea and Samaria.
In a breakdown of hospitals in each region, 38% in the Jerusalem region were hospitalized at Hadassah-University Medical Center in Ein Kerem, 34% at Shaare Zedek Medical Center, 15% at Hadassah Mount Scopus and the rest in private or other hospitals.
In the Tel Aviv region, 29% of hospitalized patients went to Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center, 20% to Wolfson in Holon, 18% to Sheba at Tel Hashomer and the rest to private or other hospitals. In the Haifa region, 28% were at Rambam Medical Center, 20% at Hillel Yaffe in Hadera, 16% at Marmel, 14% at Bnai Zion and the rest at private or other hospitals. Soroka- University Medical Center hospitalized 40% of patients in the southern region, with 22 at Barzilai in Ashkelon, 12% at Kaplan in Rehovot and the rest in private or other hospitals.
Mostly due to older ages, members of Clalit Health Services were more likely than average to be hospitalized, while members of Maccabi, due to younger ages, were less likely to be inpatients in all regions.