First to maintain (eye) contact

A fairly large number of patients who came to the Hillel Yaffe Medical Center Emergency Room in recent months met not only with the attending staff, but also with Kesher Ayin [eye contact] volunteers. Kesher Ayin is a social project, in which volunteers from the community are placed at the entrance to the Emergency Room in order to foster communication between practitioners and patients. The volunteers ask patients and families which staff members made eye contact and were particularly attentive. The information is submitted to the hospital administration so that they can act to improve patient experience.

Hillel Yaffe Medical Center is the first hospital in Israel to accept the challenge and join this project and the very comprehensive and multidisciplinary steering committee. This is yet one more initiative Hillel Yaffe Medical Center has taken in recent years to improve the quality of care and service in the Emergency Medicine Department.

This week prizes were awarded to members of the Emergency Room staff, who were mentioned by Kesher Ayin volunteers as leaders in terms of service and attentiveness: Deputy Director of the EMD Dr. Pavel Peschansky, nurse Sylvie Eyron and medical assistant Shir Shaul. Their enlarged photos were hung at the entrance to the Emergency Room in order to create awareness and positive competition among the staff in this regard. 

EMD staff receiving the awards

Make contact, get feedback

The volunteers, as previously noted, are in the Emergency Room during the various shifts. They randomly approach patients and their families, explain the initiative to them and ask them to pay attention to the various service issues during their stay in the Emergency Room. When they have completed treatment, the patients and family members are asked to complete a feedback form. The forms are collected and submitted to the Hillel Yaffe administration so that they can draw conclusions regarding patient experience and recognize staff members who are particularly attentive and caring, in order to create a positive incentive model for controlling quality of care and service.

Kesher Ayin is a social project started by Dr. Aviva Elad and Dr. Alon Margalit, with the slogan: The Social Journey to Cure Medicine in Israel. The initiative is primarily designed to improve communication between staff and patients. It was established based on the understanding that the Israeli healthcare system is facing a difficult crisis, and that despite its many achievements, there are still problems such as a lack of medical and nursing positions on the employment roster, extreme loads in emergency rooms, growing needs of the aging population and more.

Kesher Ayin volunteers, Aryeh Gilad and Batya Diskin, when questioning a patient and
companion in the Emergency Room

The ultimate goal of the project is a healthcare system that works effectively and successfully for the welfare of its patients, and does so prudently and without discrimination, with all components working together to promote the health of patients and to prevent any harm such as side effects of medical care or lack of care.

Note that the social journey is not a social protest or an attempt to impose blame on government agencies, but is solely about far-reaching social activism designed to bring about the aforementioned change.