| Hadassah Medical Center | |
| Hadassah Ein Kerem | |
| Geography | |
|---|---|
| Location | Jerusalem, Israel |
| Organisation | |
| Hospital type | Teaching |
| Affiliated university | Hebrew University of Jerusalem |
| Services | |
| Beds | 1000 |
| History | |
| Founded | 1934 |
| Links | |
| Website | http://www.hadassah.org.il |
| Lists | Hospitals in Israel |
Hadassah Medical Center (Hebrew: מרכז רפואי הדסה) is a medical organization that operates two University hospitals at Ein Kerem and Mount Scopus in Jerusalem, Israel, as well as schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, and pharmacology affiliated with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The hospital was founded by Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, which continues to underwrite a large part of its budget today. The Medical Center ranks as the sixth-largest hospital complex in Israel.[1]
In 2005, Hadassah was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in acknowledgment of its equal treatment of all patients, regardless of ethnic and religious differences, and efforts to build bridges to peace.[2]
Contents |
The Hadassah organization was established in 1912 in New York City to provide health care in Ottoman-occupied Jerusalem.[3] In 1913, Hadassah sent two nurses to Palestine. They set up a small public health station in Jerusalem to provide maternity care and treat trachoma, a dreaded eye disease rampant in the Middle East.[3]
In 1918, Hadassah established the American Zionist Medical Unit (AZMU), manned by 45 medical health professionals. The AZMU helped to establish six hospitals in Palestine which were then turned over to municipal authorities. That year, Hadassah also founded a nursing school to train local personnel and create a cadre of nurses.[3]
In 1919, Hadassah organized the first School Hygiene Department in Palestine to give routine health examinations to Jerusalem school children. During the Arab riots of 1920, Hadassah nurses cared for the wounded on both sides. Henrietta Szold moved to Jerusalem that year to develop community health and preventive care programs.[3]
In 1921, a Hadassah nurse, Bertha Landsman, set up the first Tipat Halav perinatal care center in Jerusalem, and Hadassah opened a hospital in Tel Aviv. The following year, it established a hospital in Haifa.[3] In 1926, Hadassah established the first tuberculosis treatment center in Safed. In 1929, Hadassah opened the Nathan and Lina Straus Health Center in Jerusalem. In the 1930s, planning began for a new hospital to replace the Rothschild hospital founded in 1888 on Street of the Prophets, Jerusalem. Rose L. Halprin, Hadassah's sixth national president, moved to Jerusalem to serve as liaison between the American office and Hadassah in Palestine. The Rothschild-Hadassah University Hospital, the first teaching hospital and medical center in Palestine, opened on May 9, 1939.[3]
The British Royal Commission, known as the Peel Commission, praised the work of Hadassah in its report:
The Hadassah Medical Organization has developed a widespread system of clinics in Jewish centres and hospitals in the principal towns...Though naturally the Jewish population benefited most, the Hadassah medical services were available to all the communities in Palestine and many of the poorer classes amongst the Arabs received much assistance from the work of the organization. This disinterested philanthropy of Hadassah deserves recognition: it was a real step towards the promotion of good feeling between the two races; but unhappily the effect of its work was impaired by other influences.[4]
The cornerstone for the Hadassah hospital on Mount Scopus was laid in 1934. After five years of construction, the complex, designed by architect Erich Mendelsohn, opened its doors in 1939.
In March 1947, the leader of the Arab Forces in Jerusalem, Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni, threatened to blow up the hospital. He did not do so, but attacks were carried out on traffic to and from the hospital. On April 13, 1948, an armoured convoy of doctors, nurses, medical students, and other staff made its way to the hospital. The group was ambushed, and 78 people were killed in what became known as the Hadassah medical convoy massacre.
Under the 1949 armistice agreement with Jordan, Mount Scopus was declared a demilitarized enclave and operation of the hospital became impossible. The staff moved to temporary quarters in Jerusalem and eventually a new campus was built in Ein Kerem.
After the unification of Jerusalem in the Six-Day War, Hadassah Mount Scopus underwent extensive renovations, reopening in 1975. With over 300 beds and 30 departments and clinics, the hospital serves all populations in Jerusalem without distinction.
From 1948-1962, Hadassah hospital operated in rented quarters, in what is now the Anglican International School on Street of the Prophets in Jerusalem. In 1961, a new medical complex was built in Ein Karem in southwest Jerusalem. The Hadassah Women's Zionist Organization of America again assisted with funding, and the somewhat out-of-the-way location was chosen in part because an appropriate site was difficult to obtain in the city-center, and Hadassah owned a large plot in Ein Kerem.
Today the hospital accommodates 700 beds. It contains 130 departments and clinics in 22 buildings. The hospital complex also includes the Hebrew University of Jerusalem schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, public health, and pharmacology, as well as many modern research laboratories.
The campus synagogue is famous for its stained glass windows depicting the twelve tribes of Israel, created and donated in 1960 by Marc Chagall.
Hadassah's director is Professor Yuval Weiss. Prominent physicians include Avraham Rivkind, founder and director of the hospital's trauma center, Ahmed Eid, head of the liver and kidney transplant unit, and Arie Eldad, head of the department of plastic surgery and burns unit.
In March 2007, Jewish American billionaire William Davidson donated $75 million dollars to the hospital.[5]
In 2008 Prime Minister John Key of New Zealand made a donation to the hospital.[6]
In April 2009, following an initiative of the Puah Institute, the hospital opened a fertility clinic for AIDS patients, the first such clinic in Israel. Prof. Shlomo Ma'ayan heads the clinic.[7][8]
|
|||||