CEO of the Shamir Medical Center: “The state spends very little on health”

According to her, the hospital is prepared and ready for any scenario, both routine and emergency, and serves a population of more than 1.5 million citizens. The emergency preparation includes an underground complex in the parking lot, with more than 300 hospital beds and three well-equipped operating rooms, which allow for simultaneous operations and maintaining a therapeutic sequence even in combat conditions.

“Beyond that, we have two more protected rooms in the operating room complex and another protected operating room in the maternity building. All this to maintain a professional and proper sequence of treatments,” emphasizes Levzion Korah. “The stay in the underground is mainly intended for the general intensive care and cardiac, internal, orthopedic and surgical wards, wards where patients with mobility difficulties are hospitalized, so that they can reach a protected space within a reasonable period of time. The rest of the patients are in wards that have a protected space nearby, provided that they are not on the upper floors.”

Half of the medical center remained in its usual place, with an adjacent protected complex, and the other half went down to the minus 1 floor of the building. The management of the medical center also carried out an extensive renovation in this building and unique adjustments for times of emergency. Along with the beds of the general medical center, children’s medical center and ophthalmology, the dialysis department also went down to the protected complex there, to ensure maximum safety and continuity of care for the patients who follow a day hospitalization.

This time, too, the hospital’s maternity ward was moved to the minus 4th floor – into the gym complex, which was converted into an underground maternity ward. “The move to the underground complex – which in this case is the gym – is designed to ensure that the mothers feel safe and in the best hands,” says the CEO. “We made sure that every mother and newborn received full, professional and respectful care, without compromise. The moment of birth is powerful and defining, so it was important for us to preserve this feeling even under these conditions. We put thought into every detail – including the method of transportation to the underground – to allow mothers to pass with the baby in their arms, safely and in a hug.

“The Shamir Medical Center is prepared and ready for any scenario,” she adds, “both due to its geographic location and the scope of services it provides. We are on constant alert to ensure that every patient receives professional, respectful and safe treatment in any situation.”

Protection is the basis

Since October 7, the Israeli health system has been operating in a continuous state of emergency that does not allow for a real recovery. “It’s an emergency situation after an emergency situation,” Levtzion Korech explains. “There is erosion, there is recovery, and again a profound change.” She herself canceled a trip to raise funds in the US as soon as the security situation escalated. “No one knew what would happen. We felt we had to be ready.”

Contrary to the public criticism of the state’s institutions, Levzion Korech is convinced that the hospitals passed the initial test. “The health system functioned in an exemplary manner during this period, but we are not in a good place,” she says and explains: “On October 7, we took in 180 wounded within 48 hours, and with success. Really. The health system functioned from the beginning in an excellent way. There are always lessons to be learned, but very few. The performance was exemplary.”

Like many other basic assumptions, the war also changed this concept, that there are safe areas. The conversation with Prof. Levtzion Korech clarifies that for her a hospital is not just a medical service provider, but a security component. “One of the strategic decisions is to implement protection as an inherent part of every new project. There is no more construction without protection. It is not an addition, it is the basis. The underground parking lots that were converted to emergency hospitalization are only the first step. The future planning includes protected spaces as an integral part of the hospitalization buildings themselves. The concept has completely changed. Hospitals are national infrastructure. But again – we are still far from where we should be.”

Behind the national debate on protection, budgets and the cap law (intended to regulate the accounting between the hospitals and the health insurance funds in Israel) a quiet revolution is taking place on the ground. The Shamir Medical Center is not only dealing with loads, it is changing its scale. “We are in the midst of a historic development boom,” declares Prof. Levtzion Korah. “Shamir is about to become the central hospitalization center of the central and lowland region – not just another hospital, but a large-scale health campus. The area surrounding the hospital has undergone a dramatic change in the last decade. The evacuation of the Zarifin camp and the massive construction of tens of thousands of housing units in Beer Ya’akov, Rishon Lezion, Ramla and Nes Ziona are creating rapid population growth with a direct demand for hospitalization services. This is an area that is exploding demographically. If we don’t prepare now, we will find ourselves in five Years are facing a gap that cannot be closed.”

Everyone is in deficit

If the plans are fully realized, Shamir will become one of the largest medical campuses in Israel in the coming years. A combination of general medicine, psychiatry, emergency, oncology and a super center. The hospital, which is already one of the largest in the country and serves a population of more than a million residents from the central and lowland region, is undergoing a massive expansion designed to make it the main hospitalization anchor outside the Dan area.

Among the notable moves that are expected: the establishment of a new and protected medical center with current standards for emergencies; the construction of an advanced oncology center that will bring together diagnosis, treatment and radiation under one roof; the expansion of the hospitalization and intensive care system; and the inauguration of a new maternity ward based on private rooms for each mother.

Along with the physical construction, the strengthening of the workforce, the introduction of new medical technologies and the development of areas of excellence are being carried out, with the aim of positioning Shamir as a complete alternative to the busy hospitals in the Tel Aviv metropolis and as a leading medical center on a national level.

“Ultimately, Shamir is positioned as the most significant land reserve of the health system in the center of the country. We have room to expand, which is a rare thing in the center, so our responsibility is particularly great,” emphasizes Prof. Levtzion Korech, but she is not inclined to solemnity: “In the end, everything comes back to the same point – we can build, we can initiate, but without a real national decision to increase investment in health, we will continue to run after ourselves.”

As the chairperson of the Government Hospitals Forum, she is at the heart of the budget debate on the cap law, and she does not try to embellish the reality. The coffers don’t have money either, the hospitals don’t have money either. Everyone is in deficit. It’s intentional. The state spends very little on health.”

One treatment sequence

As mentioned, as part of the medical center’s expansion plan, other centers will also move to the area of ​​the complex, including Be’er Ya’akov – Nefesh, the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Abu Kabir and the Shmuel Harofeh Center. This means a concentration of general, psychiatric and forensic medicine on one campus. “It’s a strategic move. We’re not just increasing the number of beds, we’re creating integration. Health of the body and mind together, emergency medicine alongside expertise.”

The model she describes is closer to large medical campuses in Europe – less institutional fragmentation, more treatment continuity, with one of the flagship projects being the establishment of an advanced multidisciplinary center for cancer treatment. “Today, an oncology patient moves between buildings, between services, between lines,” she describes. “We want to create one house for him. A sequence. A multidisciplinary team in one place.”

From an economic point of view, this is a significant move: the field of oncology is one of the most expensive and complex in the health care system, but also one that generates continuous demand. “We see a constant increase in the number of patients,” she says. “The population is growing and aging. There is no decline on the horizon here. It is important to understand that development and infrastructure do not solve the operation problem. You can build a new building, but if there are no standards and there is no budget for the activity, it is not enough.”

Levtzion Korah emphasizes that the leading doctors continue to perform the complex surgeries in the public hospitals, while the simpler cases go to the private system. According to her, the essential advantage of the public system is the availability of experienced and specialized teams and control over the quality of care, while the private system sometimes offers more comfortable hospitalization conditions but less continuity of care and professional follow-up.

In the heart of the busyness and activity and also in the emergency situations, Prof. Levzion Korah is not content with managing the medical center, sport is an integral part of her life and reflects the energy with which she manages the hospital. “I did half the Iron Man, and the next challenge is the Maccabiah.” When I marvel, she reassures: “It’s not that extreme, I won’t make a complete Iron Man.”