Drs. Harvey Lefkowitz and
Jay Novetsky

Dr. Korman said the drill showed
how a hospital changes when a disas-
ter emergency takes place.
It showed "how the patients are
moved to make more room, how the
ambulances are redirected to another
area outside the hospital with hoses
built into the ground to wash down
the incoming," he said. "They time
how long it takes to transition, get-
ting to the gear, get the outside set
up. When we were there, it took
about 15 minutes, but they weren't
happy, they wanted more like 12
minutes."

Dual Purpose

There are two purposes for the course
coordinated by the Israeli Ministry of
Health in cooperation with the med-
ical corps of the Israel Defense Forces
and the American Physicians
Fellowship.
"One is to prepare us to go to
Israel," said Dr. Kelman, and the other
is "to take this information back here
and say, 'Wake up, guys, let's institute

The late Dr. David Applebaum

started in the fall of 2000, when travel
in the area became too risky.
"We had to set it up very quickly,"
Dr. Glick said of the•freestanding
emergency room put together with a
volunteer administrative board of five
physicians and 10 non-physicians.
The board consulted with Dr.
David Applebaum, a former
Detroiter who was the director of two
major emergency rooms in Jerusalem.
Dr. Applebaum was killed with his
daughter Nava in a suicide bombing
in a Jerusalem cafe on Sept. 10, 2003.

these sort of programs here.'"
Dr. Korman said it comes down to
cost benefits.
"It cost them $15,000 to do the
drill for the whole hospital," he said.
"They'll bring everybody. They'll use
sterile equipment in the drill. They
have pre-packaged drawers that suit a
particular procedure. If a doctor needs
to give a transfusion, he opens one
drawer, and everything they need to
perform one, except the blood, is in
that one drawer."
The Israelis have random, sporadic
drills in hospitals around the country,
he said.
"You sort of get an appreciation of
all the complications that occur
when a multi-casualty event takes
place," said Dr. Harvey Lefkowitz, a
Ferndale podiatrist who took the
course in October 2004 with Dr. Jay
Novetsky, a Sterling Heights oph-
thalmologist.
They took a tour of a 600-bed hos-
pital in Kiryat Shemona, near the
Lebanese-Syrian border. "Underneath
the hospital, under 6 feet of walls that
can withstand bombs, is another hos-
pital that lies completely empty with

"He was very instrumental in getting
the project off the ground," said Dr.
Glick, who identified their bodies at
the bombing scene. "He was an inspi-
ration and our mentor. I worked side
by side with him for over 20 years."
The goal for the EEMC is to raise $2
million to build a new center with
triple the space, within two years. They
have raised half the money and recently
approved the final architectural plans.
The center is able to manage oper-
ating expenses with the help of
HMOs that reimburse the patients
almost fully, said Menachem Fogel,
Efrat Development Foundation exec-
utive director. But the center needs
money to build for the future.
Right now, two beds and one exam-
ination room serve approximately
50,000 people as the only medical
center between Hebron and Jerusalem.
Two paramedics and one physician
are on staff during a shift, and 20-40
volunteers, many of them voluntary
EMS providers, are on call 24 hours a
day as first responders.

beds and nursing stations," Lefkowitz
said. "Underneath the underneath
hospital is a water reservoir that can
keep the hospital running for two
weeks without outside water."
Dr. Korman said that during a sec-

Dr. Robert Korman, left, prepares for
chemical drill with two unidentified doctors.

"Patients come in with asthma,
dehydration, gastroenteritis, pediatric
fever, just like any other center," said
Dr. Glick. "EMS will go on about
five calls a day related to cardiac, res-
piratory and automobile accidents,
and terror events as well. Major emer-
gencies that necessitate an operating
room will still have to be evacuated
to a major hospital in Jerusalem."
If the main roads are available, the
trip by vehicle is about 25 minutes, he
said. "We also have the option of air
evacuation or bulletproof ambulance."
With no radiology department, the
high percentage of patients who needs
to be X-rayed have to be evacuated,
which defeats the purpose, he said.
The majority of people living in
the Gush Etzion-Efrat area are Jews, a
small percentage of patients in the
immediate towns are Arab," he said.
"We don't turn anybody away." El

and trip, each doctor will work their
specialty. "Obviously, that is really
what's the nuts and bolts of it," he
said. "This is a teaser to get you in
and make you understand the impor-
tance of it."
Dr. Novetsky said he remembers his
feelings while watching the chemical
attack drill in October.
"On one hand, I'm so impressed by
the organization and the teamwork,
how the entire hospital is coordinating
to prepare," he said. "On the other
hand, I'm horrified because what
they're practicing for means there
could be thousands of people dying."
Dr. Kelman said he would love to
spend weeks in the program "just kind
of honing in on things I'd like to get
better at."
"It's a very safe way to do it, obvi-
ously expensive, but a great way to
practice on fake scenarios so, if God
forbid, something came in, you're real-
ly honed in," he said. "Hopefully, we'll
never get called." ❑

To donate, go to
www.efratemergencymedical.org

For more information, e-mail
Carol Ghatan at carol@apfmed.org

6/16

2005

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