Mr. Glenn Vanden Houten, the American Heart Association Regional Director of Europe, Africa and Israel, presented the staff of Shaare Zedek’s Weinstock Family Emergency Medicine Department the official certificate for becoming an International Training Center in Israel. There are only three other hospitals in Israel with such a designation, with Shaare Zedek being the only one in Jerusalem.
Several months ago, Dr. Todd Zalut, Director of the Department of Emergency Medicine, together with Dr. Avi Alpert, a specialist in Emergency Medicine who works at Shaare Zedek, had the idea that Shaare Zedek should become an International Training Center for the American Heart Association in Israel. They wanted to focus on teaching advanced cardiac life support skills to the medical staff in a systematic fashion that would meet international standards.
Dr. Zalut said, “This is a significant step forward for the academic program of the Emergency Department as well as the entire hospital. It reflects the hospital’s commitment to improving the quality of the care the staff provides to patients, not just in the Emergency Medicine Department, but in the entire hospital. It is no coincidence that we are one of only a few such centers in the country, and the first in Jerusalem, as Shaare Zedek Medical Center continues to lead the way to improve the quality of emergency care throughout the country”
A training consultant for the American Heart Association, Ms. Marida Straccia, was sent from Europe to Shaare Zedek to teach the instructors the initial course. She shared, “It was very exciting to come to Shaare Zedek, a prestigious hospital that is well-known in Italy. I was very impressed by the people in this course. I have taught this course many times and this group is highly competent and skilled—there were parts that we were able to go through very quickly. It was clear that this group has experienced a wide array of medical situations. It is amazing to teach people with so much passion, it was an honor to teach them.”
Congratulations to the Emergency Medicine Department for this prestigious certification.
Please read this article (in Hebrew) for more details.
