“All over the world I am asked how Israel does this,” Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said on Sunday. “The reason is that we prepare on the spot, sign in time with the leading companies and convince them that if they gave us the vaccine, the health funds would know how to administer it in a very short time. That is exactly what is happening. “
Here are nine more reasons why Israel is currently the number one vaccinator in the world:
1. Universal health
Universal health has existed in Israel since before the foundation of the state and has remained a valuable factor ever since. According to Dr. Dorit Nitzan, director of emergencies for the World Health Organization, the coronavirus pandemic proved that this type of care was essential to control the health crisis.
Now, according to Ran Balicer, director of innovation at Clalit Health Services and president of the National Expert Advisory Panel for the government on COVID-19, it is proving to be essential in vaccination against the virus.
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As part of a universal care offering, the most critical types of care are provided to citizens free of charge, including general practitioner, urgent hospitalization, laboratory work and vaccination.
“The system revolves around the intimate connection of the cradle to the grave between citizens and their health care provider,” said Balicer, adding that general practitioners have a list of people for whom they feel responsible for health and illness. , which proved to be fundamental for reaching the country elderly and chronically ill and causing their funds to vaccinate.
According to Tamar Fishman-Magen, registered nurse and member of the Nursing Division of the Meuhedet Health Maintenance Organization, “This is proof that we have waited so long – the importance of community medical services.”
2. People trust their health funds
At a time when about 62% of the population does not trust their prime minister, according to the Israel Institute of Democracy, it is impressive to know that, according to a 2020 survey conducted by Myers-JDC-Brookdale, 90 % of Israelis are satisfied with their health funds.
Only about 1% of Israelis annually choose to switch to an alternative health fund, although it is easy to do so, said Balicer.
“It tells you something about the level of trust and infrastructure built up over the years,” he said.
3. Focus on preventive care
Health funds are focused on ensuring that their clients take care of themselves and not just cure them after they get sick. Some health experts have suggested that one of the reasons why the mortality rate from coronavirus in Israel was lower than in other countries was because there are fewer untreated and undiagnosed chronic diseases in the country.
In Israel, health funds are paid at an age-adjusted per capita financing amount for each member, rather than for services provided. As such, there is a lot of emphasis on preventive, proactive and extension care, and clients are used to listening to their health funds.
Clalit, for example, has started using predictive models, advanced big data analysis and artificial intelligence to identify patients before they get sick and provide preventive care so they don’t have real diagnoses or symptoms of an illness. This year, even before the coronavirus vaccination, Clalit used these mechanisms to provide flu vaccines to patients at higher risk for complications, said Balicer.
4. Israel meets emergencies
“We are like sprinters,” said Arnon Afek, deputy general director of the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer. “Israel knows how to mobilize.”
He recalled that in 2010, when a major earthquake struck Haiti, Israel was on the ground in 48 hours and was already operating a sophisticated field hospital even before the arrival of the Americans.
“We got used to working in a state of emergency,” said Balicer. “Our four health funds were used to act quickly, instantly preparing for emergencies and providing complex reassignments for large numbers of employees.”
In short, Israel knows how to do things.
5. Many people work for health funds
Clalit is the largest employer in Israel, with more than 45,000 workers. According to the Leumit Health Care Services website, the fund employs 2,000 specialists among its tens of thousands of employees.
Having that immense workforce – a clinic in every neighborhood in the country from north to south – gives health funds a lot of power, said Balicer.
6. This is not the first time that funds vaccinate many people
Thus, according to Ido Hadari, director of communications and government at Maccabi Healthcare Services, the funds had the infrastructure to make the vaccination campaign against coronavirus happen on a large scale.
“Make an appointment for a vaccination, to inform or remember that you have an appointment tomorrow, to understand why you didn’t come, to make the second appointment for the second dose during the first interaction – we make it look very simple,” he said .
For this particular vaccination campaign, it was important that funds separate healthy patients who came for inoculation from those who were sick, which meant raising separate vaccination compounds.
Maccabi installed 85 complexes across the country, but, according to Hadari, they had a rehearsal just a few months earlier.
“In normal years, we apply the flu vaccine at the clinic,” he said. “But this winter, with the coronavirus, we started vaccinating against the flu out of most of them, in the same compounds that we are using now for COVID.”
Health funds have the process reduced to a science. Maccabi knows that it takes seven minutes to vaccinate someone, so he makes appointments every seven minutes, with an extra free slot to accommodate the unexpected, so they don’t end up accumulating, Hadari said.
“My husband and I had [the vaccine] via Maccabi at Shlomo Arena in Tel Aviv, ”wrote Shelley Goldman last week in a Facebook response to a question about her vaccination by The Jerusalem Post. “It was all very well organized.”
“I’ve been to Haturim [in Jerusalem]”, Wrote another interviewee, Deborah Lustig. “Don’t even wait. Without agglomeration. Super impressed. “
There is also the challenge of preventing the loss of the vaccine; each dose of vaccine costs Israel about NIS 100 or NIS 200 per person. According to Balicer, Israel had to destroy less than 0.1% of its doses.
Although resources are superorganized with schedules, as Hadari explained, each bottle of Pfizer contains five to six doses, and if, at the end of the day, a bottle is opened to inoculate two patients, the resources are flexible enough to reach people who have no commitments and invite them in.
7. Data and technology
All health funds work with computerized records that feed data securely and without revealing particular details to the Ministry of Health to monitor the progress of the vaccination campaign and any side effects or other information reported by those who receive it.
“Israel has a technical advantage,” Afek told the Post.
Although there is no contract with Pfizer to share data, he said, he assumes that the company “saw the possibility of Israel not only vaccinating, but monitoring whether people have side effects and realized that Israel can become an international experimental arena for see quickly and effective vaccination of the public … For any company, this is very valuable. ”
But these data also work for patients, said Fishman-Magen.
The funds’ personalized medical records date back to 50, 60 and 70 years, and doctors and other relevant medical professionals can quickly ensure that patients to be vaccinated do not have contraindications or problems that may be caused by administering the vaccines.
8. Communication
The country not only launched its campaign, but along with health funds and hospitals, it ran a broad campaign on TV, radio and the newspaper encouraging people to get the vaccine, noted Fishman-Magen.
In some health funds, each person who receives the injection is encouraged to photograph themselves and share it on social media to encourage others who may be hesitant.
Balicer also noted efforts to gain public confidence in the safety and efficacy of vaccines before inoculation begins.
“It took us a long time to explain the scientific evidence,” he said. “I personally went to the main sessions with the haredi [ultra-Orthodox] community and we had long discussions with its leadership until we had a rabbinical decision that vaccines are safe and should be sought. “
The country’s understanding of the need to have a lot of cultural competence and targeted messages has proven to be effective, he said.
According to Fishman-Magen, “Before the campaign started, we only had about 40% of the population saying they would be vaccinated, and other percentages said they might or might not be interested. Now, we see that everyone is interested and we have to prioritize ”.
9. The spirit of the people of Israel
But in the end, it all comes down to the people, Afek said.
Health professionals first offered to work overtime to make sure people were vaccinated, he said.
But also the general public.
“You can have all the staff ready and trained and the supplies available, but if the public doesn’t cooperate, it can’t be done,” said Hadari.
“We really felt that the public was waiting for this vacation as a hope that is coming true,” he added.
Hadari recalled that, as a child, during the First Lebanon War, when he lived in a northern village, when a helicopter landed near the village, people ran out with cakes and juice to thank the soldiers.
“Now, people are bringing pizza, hamburgers and fruit trays to our team,” he said. “Now we feel like soldiers, and the audience is really giving us that warm hug. The audience is very grateful. ”