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P»je 10 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE December 21, 1979
Hospital with heart
Shaare Zedek serves the sick-
all nationalities, all religions
by Dvora Waysman
I walked from the bus in dappled
sunshine to the main entrance,
pausing to admire the wide paving
of mellow Jerusalem stone;
landscaped gardens already
bloomed with pink geraniums and
purple bouganvillea. A large sign
informed me that I was
approaching the main entrance—
outpatient clinic and “delivery
suite”—which mystified me until 1
read the Hebrew and smilingly
realized it was a euphemism for
maternity ward. This is the Shaare
Zedek Center—the new name for
Shaare Zedek Hospital, now in its
new location opposite Mount
Herzl. .
Everything is so new in this $40
million project that you feel a
suppressed excitement as you
enter. Although there is still a great
deal of work to be done, the
hospital is already fully
functioning in a calm, efficient way
that must engender confidence in
patients who are being admitted.
Shaare Zedek (the name means
“Gates of Righteousness”) has
long been known as “The Hospital
With a Heart." For eight decades it
has been serving the sick of
Jerusalem of all nationalities and
religions, and is an intimate part of
its history. Jusf after the Yom
Kippur War, 1 was a patient in the
old building on Jaffa Road, which
by then had long outgrown its
facilities. Wounded soldiers were
being treated in annexes and
corridors everywhere, but despite
the over-crowded conditions, the
place maintained its high
reputation. The mainly religious
staff both doctors and nurses —
are famed for their warm and
caring attitude.
Now the job of the 120 doctors
and 360 nurses is made much
easier. The new Medical Center,
which is a teaching hospital, covers
1,300,000 square feet with 500
beds, allowing for an expansion to
600. The nine interconnected
buildings include research
buildings, a nursing school and an
underground emergency shelter.
There were very many things
that impressed me on my tour—
too many to list. A few are:
—The intensive care unit for
premature and critically ill babies
uses the most sophisticated
medical equipment available; with
heart beats, temperature and
blood-pressure registered on
television screens, monitored
around the clock.
—The hospital has the largest
solar energy project in Israel to
provide hot water, heating and air
conditioning.
Shaare Zedek has Jerusalem’s
first and only Total Body Scanner
to provide instantaneous
photographs of cross-sections
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and intensive care, all of which can
function under any conditions.
Shaare Zedek has overcome
some unusual problems. Being a
religious hospital, the emergency
department must take into account
Sabbath laws which prohibit work
on that day. However, the Torah
endows human life with such
sanctity, that prohibitions arc
suspended if a patient is in danger;
thus the emergency department is
able to function on the Sabbath.
Nevertheless, non-Jews do all the
writing, man the switchboard and
drive the ambulances, and
maximum preparations are made
before the onset of the Sabbath.
Shaare Zedek enhances
Talmudic law wherever possible
with modern technology, and
confers closely with the Jerusalem-
based Institute for Science and
Halacha. They have incorporated
such devices as the “gramma"
(causation) .switch in nurse-call
systems, laboratory tests. X-rays,
emergency lighting, elevators and
other vital functions. Pressing the
gramma switch is a completely
mechanical action and does not
operate within an electrical circuit
It is therefore permitted for
Sabbath use in a hospital situation.
Despite all the sophisticated
equipment and careful planning,
what impressed me the most was a
very human aspect. The staff of the
hospital are treating people and
patients, not just their diseases,
and they care, they care very much
indeed
A Shaare Zedek nurse administers some TLC to a young
patient .
anywhere along the body.
—When a patient presses the
bedside bell, it is registered on a
screen in the Communications
Room which flashes the bed
number, ward and even illness.
Highly trained, multi-lingual staff
speak to patients individually and
then communicate their needs to
the relevant doctor or nurse, who is
always contactable via “beepers”
carried in the pocket.
The hospital has other unique
features. Experts in dealing with
the aftermath of wars and terrorist
attacks, they have built a fully
protected underground hospital
and emergency shelter with
facilities for surgery, blood bank
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