Since 2014, the Ministry of Health has been monitoring patient experience via national surveys. The results of the 2021 survey have just been announced, with Rambam Health Care Campus being named as Israel’s top hospital.
In a patient experience survey conducted during the second half of 2021 by Israel’s Ministry of Health, Rambam Health Care Campus was named as Israel’s top hospital. Rambam received this score despite 2021 being a particularly difficult year for the healthcare system, which included the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the IDF’s Operation Defensive Shield, and sporadic violence throughout the country.
The survey was conducted in all hospital departments (except for patients discharged from the gynecology, maternity, pediatrics, intensive care, and psychiatry departments, and the outpatient clinics). The Health Ministry telephoned a sample of 500 patients from each hospital who had been hospitalized for two nights or more.
Rambam stood out very favorably. Its score in 2021 (87%) compared to 2018 increased by a significant 5%, and tops the national average of 83%. In the “tertiary medical center” category, Rambam tied with Petah Tikva’s Rabin Medical Center (Beilinson Hospital) as the hospitals that received the highest scores.
Other exceptional scores related to the patients’ subjective experience and a specific department. In the “Patients Feel in Good Hands” category, Rambam received a score of 91%, which was above the national average of 88%. Rambam’s internal medicine departments received a score of 88%, well above the national average of 80%, and a 4% improvement compared to the previous survey.
The 2021 survey also showed that there was a decrease in the number of patients hospitalized in department corridors. This clearly had a positive effect on patients’ experiences, and is also reflected by the 3% increase for surgical department satisfaction, which received a score of 84%.
The information acquired through the patient experience surveys is quite important when evaluating the nation’s healthcare system. According to the Ministry of Health website, “The patient experience reflects the way in which they perceive the entirety of their experiences with the health system throughout the therapeutic sequence. This experience is influenced by the encounters between the patient and their caregivers, the patient's expectations of the health system and the organizational culture in each of the frameworks with which the patient comes in contact.”
Advocate Talia Berman-Kishony, Director of Quality of Service and Patient Relations at Rambam, remarks, "The survey findings show an increase in all indices, reflecting very hard work by the staff under difficult conditions. I am very proud.”
Professor Michael Halberthal, Rambam's Director General, concluded, “Providing a good patient experience keeps us busy all the time. This effort is shared by each and every person in every branch, division, and unit in the hospital, from senior doctors to nurses, to attentive patient transporters, to laboratory personnel, to paramedics, to security guards, to the cooks and cleaners. They all share in the constant daily effort to reach one goal: providing service to patients. It is not easy. Sometimes the hospital is crowded, lines are long, and the workload is heavy. But we continue in our efforts. There are other challenges and areas that need improvement, but first and foremost I am proud of the quality of Rambam’s staff – those responsible for this positive outcome.”