MINISTRY OF HEALTH ISRAEL
“ The people who work for the Ministry of Health are people who want to do good . They work from the heart ”
Another nationwide project has been focussed on the emergency departments . Over a quarter of Israel ’ s population visits an ER at least once a year , as a patient or chaperone , many leaving with a bad experience . Targeting shortening waiting periods in the ER , Lev-Ami ’ s team is deploying a sophisticated system to improve the process . Optimising the ER workflow , while providing patients with information on their precise location in the medical process and estimated wait times , has proved vital in improving patient experience :
“ We ’ re developing an ER app which we view as a medical version of Waze , providing transparency on real-time ER situation for patients and decision-makers alike ”.
The healthcare sector is built around the concept of ‘ do no harm ’, which unfortunately goes handin-hand with ‘ make no change ’. However , Lev-Ami and her team have managed to turn the Ministry of Health ’ s IT system on its head , which has had the added benefit of vastly increasing trust in the Ministry ’ s leading role among Healthcare teams , as a valued partner .
“ The Ministry of Health is a crucial organ for Israeli society , focussing on providing quality and equal healthcare ,” Lev-Ami concludes . “ To make a process move forward you have to be both a visionary , and very proactive . In the end , the staff working for the Ministry of Health are people who want to do good . People here work from the heart .” 130 July 2016