Inpatient Unit
The inpatient unit has 17 beds with 900 admissions a year. The average stay is 8.1 days, totaling 6000 hospital days a year. The average occupancy has been 103% in the year 2001-02.
The inpatient unit is undergoing renovation, and is currently located on the “Bet” floor of the Sharett Institute. At present, there are 5 isolation rooms, and the other rooms accommodate either 2 or 3 patients. All rooms are equipped with HEPA filters (High Efficiency Particulate Air filters) for cleansing the air and reducing the incidence of infections.
Most rooms have a scenic view of the Jerusalem suburban countryside. For the patients' use, there is a bright lounge furnished with a television, as well as couches and tables, where visitors can sit with the patients when they are not isolation. There is also a kitchen, with a refrigerator for storage of any food the patients or their families may bring, and a microwave for heating food which is for the use of the patients and their families.
The inpatient unit is staffed on a rotating basis by any of the department's senior physicians, each of whom is responsible for supervision of this unit for three to four months of the year. In addition, Dr. Orly Zelig, of the Blood Bank, and Dr. Ora Paltiel (formally of the Department of Social Medicine, but also an active member of our Department) are responsible for one month each.
In this way, all of the Senior Physicians contribute to patient care and to teaching the junior staff during their months in charge, and each brings his own area of expertise.
In addition, the department is staffed by two to three Fellows who are doing their subspecialty training in Hematology, and interns or internal medicine rotating physicians, who serve in the department for one to several months.
Our nursing staff is composed of a fully trained core of hematology specialty nurses who work exclusively in our department. They must have at least several years of experience in general nursing, beyond which they undergo specialty training in caring for hemato-oncology patients. As such, they are specialists in the administration and complications of chemotherapy, the use of blood products, and all other knowledge required for providing the best of care to our unique patient population. They are not only outstanding in their expertise, but in their compassion and dedication. They are headed by Mrs Ronit Halperin, who recently undertook the job of head nurse after many years of experience in Pediatric Oncology.
Our pharmacy has a specialized team of pharmacists, led by Alexander Tabatchnik, who have many years of experience dealing with cytotoxic chemotherapy agents. These specialists are extremely helpful in providing information on newer agents, and oversee the preparation of each individual dose of chemotherapy under the absolute sterile conditions of the special Cytotoxic Chemotherapy Unit of the Pharmacy Department, located on the T3 floor of the Sharett Institute.
The Day Care Unit
The Day Care Unit at Ein Kerem handles 2,500 admissions (visits) a year. It operates 5 days a week, Sunday through Thursday 8:00 am. - 4:00 pm. and it is staffed by 2 physicians. Dr. Ada Goldfarb, the senior clinician, has 2 decades of experience caring for Hemato-oncology patients.
The Day Care Unit has the facilities to provide a very broad spectrum of care. This ranges from the most simple, yet vital tasks, such as checking the blood count of patients who have recently received chemotherapy. The more complex functions include the administration of multidrug chemotherapeutic protocols, or extended infusions of novel agents such as monoclonal antibodies. By the very nature of its being operational for the entire work week, Day Care provides continuity of care and follow up for patients in the period immediately following discharge from hospital.
Two days a week the Day Care concentrates on the care of patients with thalassemia, a hereditary anemia which, in severe cases, causes lifelong transfusion dependence. Efforts are made to treat these young, chronically ill patients on the same days each week (Wednesday and Thursday) to focus on their unique problems which so differ from those of the hemato-oncological patients.
The nursing staff of the Day Care is comprised of a separate group of highly trained experienced and dedicated nurses. Like those of the inpatient department they have had many years of general nursing experience followed by an intensive course in hematological-oncological nursing. As such, they too are experts in handling chemotherapy, administering blood products, and all other aspects of the complicated care of our patient population. The Day Care nursing staff is ably headed by Mrs. Gita Dror, who recently took over this task after many years’ of experience in the Respiratory Intensive Care Unit.
The Day Care is a unique place, which is able to provide more patient services than the clinic. In fact, a visit to the Day Care can forestall hospital admission or defer a visit to the Emergency Room. This is one of our busiest facilities and it is currently undergoing a much-needed renovation and expansion. In the near future it will be moved to 2nd floor of the Sharett Institute. The current Day Care, located on T2 of the Sharett Institute is quite inadequate (only 6 beds) for the patient load it handles.
All of the ancillary services including medical specialty consultations, social work assistance, psychological counseling, dietician etc, are available to patients under the care of the Day Care, in the same way as these services are available to inpatients. Telephone number for appointments: (02) 6776701.
Departmental Activities
Each day there are a morning and afternoon rounds with a senior physician and fellow(s). Twice a week, Monday morning (3 hours) and Thursday afternoon (2 1/2 hours) there are Grand Rounds. On Mondays, every patient is visited and discussed. It has been our policy that each new difficult case is presented to all the staff, and all the major decisions regarding treatment are made during the staff meetings.
On Thursdays, patients who present a problem or a therapeutic dilemma are analyzed in detail, including complicated patients from the Day-Care, clinic, consultations, etc.
The staff meetings are attended by all physicians and fellows, the nursing staff, psychologist and social worker and medical students. In these meetings all the various consultants may also be called upon to participate.
The staff meeting on Thursday is also a forum for reporting new information from international meetings, discussing recent pertinent information from the literature and updating certain specific subjects which relate to particular patients.
The medical staff usually attends the medical grand rounds of the Hospital every Wednesday, and rounds of the Division of Internal Medicine every Tuesday, besides enjoying specific lectures by local and foreign guest speakers. The Department prepares an annual hour-long comprehensive presentation on a specific topic in Hematology, in the forum of the Hospital’s Clinical Conference on Wednesday, and in addition, 3-4 presentations a year in the forum of the Medical Grand Rounds which are held on Tuesday afternoons.
Our patients often require a number of ancillary medical consultative services, and we are very active in providing them. We have very strong collaborations with a number of medical subspecialties, which provide ongoing consultations to the department, such as infection control/microbiology, imaging, pathology, cytogenetics, social medicine/epidemiology, bone marrow transplantation and blood banking.