A new Covid unit has officially opened at Shaare Zedek Medical Centre.
The 60 bed department has been designed based on Shaare Zedek’s growing understanding of how to best treat Covid-19 patients and includes areas for various types of cases including intensive care, dialysis and a special area for women with Corona who have just given birth.
The need for a dedicated unit became apparent early on, during the first wave of the pandemic. Administrators realised that combatting Coronavirus would be something long-term and require extensive hospital resources. The planners identified a 700 square meter area that used to be the staff cafeteria and adapted it in a relatively short amount of time.
The new Unit is located in an area of the hospital on its third floor that is completely separated from other patient-care areas but is easily accessible for admitting new patients. New equipment enables patients of all degrees of severity to be cared for as well as patients with other pre-existing conditions that require dedicated care.
Tamar Keynan, Director of Nursing for the Internal Medicine Division said this development is an important step forward both for the patients and the medical staff. “There is a definite feeling of excitement and responsibility with this opening. The COVID-19 care teams come from all over the hospital and our previous Corona care facilities were other areas of the hospital that had been quickly repurposed. As a dedicated COVID-19 facility that was designed from the outset for this purpose this is an advanced treatment centre with new equipment that can be best used for the very specific needs of these challenging cases”