It’s close to midnight. Forgive the late hour, but I just can’t restrain myself. I must share this with my fellow staff members.
Two hours ago, I got a phone call from one of community movers and shakers saying that an elderly community leader who has done so much for others is now in dire need himself. He was just given an urgent referral to the hospital ER. He was shaken and was now confronted with a night at the ER, facing the unknown alone during the dark, frightful hours when he so desperately needed the comforts and familiarity of his own home.
I was asked if it might be possible to expedite the process.
I called Moshe Charash, Director of Ezer Mizion’s Medical Referrals and Advocacy Department and asked him what could be done.
I was told that best doctor for this medical issue is in Tel Hashomer. The patient is in Haifa. Not good.
And the doctor is off duty at night. Even worse.
It’s now after ten o’clock when most of the world is thinking about calling it a night. An impossible situation.
And so we close the case and leave the patient to fend for himself? Absolutely not!
Within minutes, Moshe Charash had the specialist on the line requesting his assistance in this mission of mercy. Could the doctor say no? Apparently not. Not when he realizes how much effort Ezer Mizion puts out for its patients with no expectation of remuneration. And so the doctor gave a list of tests that he would order if the patient was in his emergency room. Blood tests by the HMO were arranged by Charash to be drawn immediately at the patient’s house. (Don’t forget, this is ten o’clock at night…)
Soon my phone rang again: “Bring the patient right now to Assuta Hospital in Haifa, to the CT Institute. They’re waiting for you.”
We got to the CT Institute. They’re generally closed at this hour, but, now, there was staff waiting for us. I started thanking them and they said to me, “When Ezer Mizion asks, we listen!”
Within fifteen minutes, we were outside, all procedures taken care of.
In under two hours, Ezer Mizion’s Medical Referrals Department “brought” the Ramat Gan Tel Hashomer ER specialist who was off duty to the frightened community leader in Haifa. Blood tests were given in the patient’s own home, a closed clinic opened up and the elderly Haifa community leader who had always been there for others slept in his own bed at home that night.
Now, tell me: Isn’t that what Ezer Mizion mean when they say “We’re there when it hurts”???
