For the first time in the history of medical and chessed services in Israel, a multifaceted, broad-range collaboration was announced between the biggest medical entity in the country – Klalit Medical Services – and the biggest chessed entity in the country – Ezer Mizion.
By: Hilah Palach, Yom L’yom
Last week a meeting took place between representatives of two entities, with many people in at
tendance. The meeting represented an unprecedented event in the world of medicine and the world of chessed. It was one of those groundbreaking events that make people ask themselves, “Why didn’t we think of this earlier?” There is no question that very positive results are expected to come out of the meeting, which promises to bring benefit both to members of the Klalit Health Fund and the population benefiting from Ezer Mizion’s services. Behind the idea lie a number of central goals and areas in which the two entities can assist one another.
Medical Counseling
Hundreds of calls come in to Ezer Mizion’s Medical Counseling Division every day from across the country, seeking advice in the various medical and health fields. Whenever possible, the Division staff prefers to find the callers a solution within the framework of their medical insurance. In light of this, it is immeasurably important that there be constant and unhampered dialogue and collaboration between Ezer Mizion’s counseling staff and key people at the respective health funds.
The new collaboration with Klalit will greatly propel the ability of both entities to provide the maximum assistance, both at the informational level and at the level of consideration given to special, irregular requests concerning Klalit members.
Ezer Mizion’s counseling staff will be able to address questions and requests to Klalit’s Customer Relations directors throughout the country. They, in turn, will be able to expand their sphere of assistance by referring their members to Ezer Mizion’s various divisions.
Cancer Support
At the meeting, an emphasis was placed on the needs of Ezer Mizion’s division providing support for cancer patients and their families. In this area as well, the ability to offer help is two-sided. On the one hand, the Customer Relations Directors can point out solutions available to patients in the framework of their membership in Klalit, and on the other hand, a new door is opened to Klalit representatives inviting them to seek a range of solutions for oncology patients via Ezer Mizion.
Mental Health
Klalit’s Customer Relations Directors are in constant contact with the community in all regions of the country. The connection to their members is on an individual, personal level. Klalit members feel free to call the Customer Relations Director in their region at his personal phone number to consult with him on various medical issues. At times, Klalit’s Customer Relations Director is the first one to hear about a problem in the mental health area.
Now, with the formal connection that has been forged with Ezer Mizion, which operates a highly impressive network of services for everything related to mental health, the Customer Relations Director can refer his clients to the appropriate department within Ezer Mizion’s Mental Health Division. This is especially relevant now that the whole field of mental health is to be taken out of the hospitals’ domain and privatized.
Ezer Mizion’s Mental Health Division staff, on their part, will be able to get direct updates on the range of solutions and services in this area that are included in Klalit’s health services plan.
Volunteer Network
Anyone who was ever hospitalized or who has accompanied a sick relative knows the pervasive sense of helplessness that overcomes patients and their families when they are compelled to make a medical decision, fill out official forms, and deal with all the other details involved in a hospital stay.
Ezer Mizion operates a tremendous network of volunteers across the country, who are deployed by the many local Ezer Mizion branches. From now on, Klalit Health Services will be able to draw from this enormous enterprise to intersperse volunteers throughout the Klalit hospitals. Those volunteers will be able to avail themselves of the services of Klalit’s Customer Relations Directors active in the hospitals in different points in the country in order to expedite procedures and cut through the bureaucracy.
Present and taking active part in the meeting were Rabbi Chaim Freund, director-general of Ezer Mizion, Rabbi Aharon Levy, member of Ezer Mizion’s administration, Rabbi Shimon Rogovay, Head of Ezer Mizion’s Counseling Division, Rabbi Shraga Yaakovson, and other directors of related areas.
Customer relations directors assembled from all reaches of the country: Ms. Gitty Abeles, director of the Beitar clinics, Rabbi Yossie Oknin, Customer Relations Director in the North, Ms. Rivka Barr, Customer Relations Director in the Haifa region, Rabbi Eliyahu Braverman, Customer Relations Director in Netivot, Ms. Yehudit Gabai, Customer Relations Director in Zefat, Rabbi Moshe Gevirer, Customer Relations Director in Elad, Rabbi Zevulun Hamburger, Customer Relations Director in Jerusalem, Ms. Mazal Harari, Customer Relations Director in Hadera, Rabbi Avraham Weiss, Customer Relations Director in Modi’in Ilit, Rabbi Moshe Weingot, Customer Relations Director in Ashdod, Ms. Segulah Cohen, Customer Relations Director in Teverya, Rabbi Yerachmiel Markowitz, Customer Relations Director in Modi’in Ilit, Ms. Tirtzh Manela, Customer Relations Coordinator in the Soroka Medical Center, Rabbi Baruch Packer, Customer Relations Director in Ofakim Tifrach, Rabbi Yaakov Friedman, Customer Relations Director in the Sharon-Shomron region, Rabbi Shlomo Kopolowitz, Customer Relations Coordinator at Beilinson Medical Center, Rabbi Yoel Klupfer, director of the dati-chareidi sector in the Jerusalem region, Rabbi Shmuel Elazar Klein Customer Relations Director in Beit Shemesh, Rabbi Mordechai Rosenberg, Customer Relations Director in the Kaplan Medical Center in Rechovot, and Rabbi Yechezkel Schreiber, Customer Relations Director in Ofakim.
Rabbi Avraham Konsky, manager of marketing for the chareidisector says: “Klalit sees fit to create official collaboration with Ezer Mizion, which has amassed a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience in dealing with urgent medical situations. Ezer Mizion’s requests will be addressed and referred to medical specialists from within and without Klalit, as dictated by the medical needs.”
The meeting was addressed by Rabbi Chananya Chollak, International Chairman of Ezer Mizion, who greeted the attendees and wished all the representatives great success in the joint endeavor. Rabbi Avraham Konsky praised all those who were behind the collaborative plan between Klalit and Ezer Mizion, especially Rabbi Moshe Rosengarten, who worked very hard to bring about the perfect coordination between the entities and will continue working to bring the decisions arrived at in the meeting to fruition, and Ms. Chana Koritz, Klalit’s director of publicity for the chareidi sector. Rabbi Maoz Porat, director of Klalit’s Dan-Petach Tivkah (Bnei Brak-Elad) chareidi cluster, insisted that all those present at the meeting share one role – to give new hope to all those patients in despair who do not know where to turn and whom to ask for help in their darkest hour.
