Articles

Introducing a change in hospital policy using FMEA methodology as a tool to reduce patient hazards

Intravenous potassium chloride (IV KCl) solutions are widely used in hospitals for treatment of hypokalemia. As ampoules of concentrated KCL must be diluted before use, critical incidents have been associated ...

Authors: Fanny Ofek, Racheli Magnezi, Yaffa Kurzweil, Inbal Gazit, Sofia Berkovitch and Orna Tal

Dental reform in Israel’s National Health Insurance Law has helped children and their families, but what’s next?

Through a nationally-representative survey of 6 year-old children, Natapov, Sasson and Zusman demonstrate that the 2010 dental reform to the National Health Insurance Law (NHIL) has helped to improve the oral ...

Authors: Carlos Quiñonez

Influenza vaccination motivators among healthcare personnel in a large acute care hospital in Israel

Vaccinating healthcare personnel (HCP) against influenza is important to prevent transmission and morbidity among patients and staff.

Authors: Amir Nutman and Naomi Yoeli

Household medical waste disposal policy in Israel

Large amounts of expired and unused medications accumulate in households. This potentially exposes the public to hazards due to uncontrolled use of medications. Most of the expired or unused medications that a...

Authors: Zohar Barnett-Itzhaki, Tamar Berman, Itamar Grotto and Eyal Schwartzberg

What health care services does the public want and who should decide? Ask them!

Most of the parties involved in healthcare decisions – governments, politicians, healthcare professionals, pharmaceutical companies, special interest groups – actively work to make their desires known. In Isra...

Authors: Adele Diederich

Hyperemesis Gravidarum is associated with substantial economic burden in addition to severe physical and psychological suffering

Hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) affects 1 % of all pregnant women and in western societies it is the most common cause for hospital admission during first trimester. The economic burden of the disease has barely b...

Authors: Jone Trovik and Åse Vikanes

Does dental health of 6-year-olds reflect the reform of the Israeli dental care system?

The National health insurance law enacted in 1995 did not include dental care in its basket of services. Dental care for children was first included in 2010, initially up till 8 years of age. The eligibility a...

Authors: Lena Natapov, Avi Sasson and Shlomo P. Zusman

Perception of primary care physicians on the impact of comprehensive geriatric assessment: what is the next step?

Older adults are at high risk of developing multimorbidity, and the high levels of clinical and psychosocial complexity in this population pose special challenges for primary care physicians (PCPs). As a way t...

Authors: Pei Chen and Michael A. Steinman

Hyperemesis gravidarum in northern Israel: a retrospective epidemiological study

Hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) is characterized by severe intractable nausea and vomiting in pregnancy leading to electrolyte imbalance, ketonuria, and weight loss. The cause is unknown. This study sought to inve...

Authors: Tom Konikoff, Tehila Avraham, Ella Ophir and Jacob Bornstein

The cost and value of cancer drugs – are new innovations outpacing our ability to pay?

Cancer drug expenditures have been increasing significantly in countries around the world. A recent paper in the IJHPR provides new knowledge and insights into this global phenomenon by analyzing how it is pla...

Authors: Daniel A. Goldstein, Salomon M. Stemmer and Noa Gordon

Medical education in Israel 2016: five medical schools in a period of transition

We reviewed the existing programs for basic medical education (BME) in Israel as well as their output, since they are in a phase of reassessment and transition. The transition has been informed, in part, by ev...

Authors: Shmuel Reis, Jacob Urkin, Rachel Nave, Rosalie Ber, Amitai Ziv, Orit Karnieli-Miller, Dafna Meitar, Peter Gilbey and Dror Mevorach

Complying with the framework convention for tobacco control: an application of the Abridged SimSmoke model to Israel

The World Health Organization Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC) established the MPOWER policy package to provide practical country-level guidance on implementing effective policies to reduce smok...

Authors: David Levy, David B. Abrams, Jeffrey Levy and Laura Rosen

Trends in annual drug expenditure – a 16 year perspective of a public healthcare maintenance organization

Modern drug therapy accounts for a major share of health expenditure and challenges public provider resources. The objective of our study was to compare drug expenditure trends for ten major drug classes over ...

Authors: Yossef Lomnicky, Daniel Kurnik, Ronen Loebstein, Itzhak Katzir, Janet Vesterman-Landes and Nava Siegelmann-Danieli

Maintaining helper wellness and competence in a shared trauma reality

As shared trauma reality becomes more common in Israel and other countries, this commentary argues that we need more research to inform how to best assist mental health professionals who are both victims and h...

Authors: James Halpern

Strengthening the capacities of a national health authority in the effort to mitigate health inequity—the Israeli model

The need for a national policy to mitigate health inequity has been recognized in scientific research and policy papers around the world. Despite the moral duty and the social, medical, and economic logic behi...

Authors: Tuvia Horev and Shlomit Avni

Shared War reality effects on the professional quality of life of mental health professionals

To date, studies on the outcomes of a shared war reality among mental health professionals (MHPs) in southern Israel have focused only on those residing and working in Otef Gaza. The aim of this study is to de...

Authors: Itay Pruginin, Dorit Segal-Engelchin, Richard Isralowitz and Alexander Reznik

Work experiences of ethnic minority nurses: a qualitative study

Recruitment and retention of a diverse ethnic workforce in healthcare settings contribute to the provision of culturally competent care in multicultural contexts. Nevertheless, the work experiences of ethnic m...

Authors: Yael Keshet and Ariela Popper-Giveon

Multi-faceted identities and interactions in mixed health teams

The literature in the area of the health workforce and societies in conflict encompasses a wide range of studies and potential directions. Lately, Keshet and Popper-Giveon reported on a study based on intervie...

Authors: Daniella Arieli and Miriam J. Hirschfeld

The role of knowledge transfer in health policymaking: the US experience

As Ellen et al. point out, there is room for improvement in knowledge transfer between academic research and policymaking. At the same time, retrospective analyses of health policy often identify research infl...

Authors: Sherry Glied

Decision-makers’ acquaintance with the public’s priorities in health services

Decision makers often assume they know the public’s standpoints and see themselves as capable of representing them.

Authors: Giora Kaplan and Orna Baron-Epel

Pre-exercise screening: role of the primary care physician

Participation in regular physical activity is associated with a multitude of benefits including a reduction in chronic disease and premature mortality, and improved quality of life. All segments of society nee...

Authors: Elizabeth A. Joy and Linda S. Pescatello

Physician-facilitated designation of proxy decision maker

With vast improvements in healthcare in recent decades, people are living longer but often with higher rates of morbidity and chronic illnesses. This has resulted in a higher proportion of the population who m...

Authors: Amit Arora, Laura Cummings and Peter Crome

Commentary on a smoke-free medical campus in Jerusalem: data for action

Over the past 30 years, Israel has made great progress in attitudes and practices about smoking; probably nothing else has contributed more to the health of its population. Yet, a recent survey about a non-smo...

Authors: Steven A. Schroeder

Views of health system policymakers on the role of research in health policymaking in Israel

The use of research evidence in health policymaking is an international challenge. Health systems, including that of Israel, are usually characterized by scarce resources and the necessity to make rapid policy...

Authors: Moriah E. Ellen, Einav Horowitz, Sharona Vaknin and John N. Lavis

Designing online health services for patients

Patients are increasingly interacting with their healthcare system through online health services, such as patient portals and telehealth programs. Recently, Shabrabani and Mizrachi provided data outlining fac...

Authors: Bradley H. Crotty and Warner V. Slack

Trends in the use of antipsychotics in the Israeli inpatient population, 2004–2013

Although serious mental illneses are treated with both typical and atypical antipsychotic grugs, trends in their use in psychiatric inpatient population in Israel are unrecognized. The aim of this study was to...

Authors: Alexander M. Ponizovsky, Eli Marom, Michal Ben-Laish, Igor Barash, Abraham Weizman and Eyal Schwartzberg

Factors affecting compliance with use of online healthcare services among adults in Israel

The use of online health services (henceforth, OHS) among middle-aged to older adults can make health-related actions more accessible to this population group as well as help reduce the burden on the health sy...

Authors: Shosh Shahrabani and Yonathan Mizrachi

Decision making about infertility treatment: does unlimited access lead to inappropriate treatment?

The proportion of women aged 40–44 undergoing IVF treatment covered by Maccabi Health Services increased between 2011 and 2014. Although age-specific birth rates did not substantially change over this time per...

Authors: Evan R. Myers

Expanding clinical roles for nurses to realign the global health workforce with population needs: a commentary

Many countries, including Israel, face health workforce challenges to meet the needs of their citizens, as chronic conditions increase. Provider shortages and geographical maldistribution are common. Increasin...

Authors: Claudia B. Maier and Linda H. Aiken

A smoke-free medical campus in Jerusalem: data for action

Establishing smoke-free environments is a major component of tobacco control policy. The introduction of a smoke-free policy in medical campuses may serve as a role model for other educational and health insti...

Authors: Itamar Feldman, Milka Donchin and Hagai Levine

Dealing with ambiguity: Israeli physician’s attitudes and practices regarding pre-exercise certificates: a questionnaire study

It has become clear in recent years that a healthy lifestyle, including physical exercise is crucial for health maintenance. Nevertheless, most people do not exercise regularly. Physician intervention is benef...

Authors: Robert D Hoffman, Ron Golan and Shlomo Vinker

Physician-facilitated designation of proxy decision-makers: family physician perceptions

Among the challenges encountered during the care of patients at the end-of-life (EOL), eliciting preferences of patients with whom there is no ability to communicate is common and stressful for all those conce...

Authors: Gideon Lifshitz, Matan J. Cohen, Hila Shmilovitz, Mayer Brezis, Amnon Lahad and Arie Ben-Yehuda

In Vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments in Maccabi Healthcare Services 2007-2014

Israel reports the world’s highest IVF cycles per capita. However, clinical outcome data of these treatments are scarce. In a previous publication, we summarized IVF results among Maccabi Healthcare Services m...

Authors: Shahar Kol, Lucia Bergovoy Yellin, Yaakov Segal and Avi Porath

Vaccine hesitancy as self-determination: an Israeli perspective

Vaccine hesitancy can be portrayed as a broad spectrum of phenomena, ranging from a genuine call for help to complete defiance of authorities. The emphasis here is made on mid-spectrum hesitancy; hesitancy as ...

Authors: Baruch Velan

The impact of facility characteristics on the use of antipsychotic medications in nursing homes: a cross-sectional study

Antipsychotic medications (APMs) are commonly prescribed in nursing homes (NHs) and their excessive use raises concerns about the quality of care. They are often seen as “chemical restraints”, and were shown t...

Authors: Dvora Frankenthal, Gisele Zandman-Goddard, Yael Ben-Muvhar and Bat Sheva Porat-Katz

Should Israel be concerned by the high proportion of medical care paid for privately: comments from a U.S. perspective

As a frequent visitor to Israel, I am keenly aware of the concerns of many Israelis that limits in government funding is forcing a high proportion of the country’s medical care to be paid by private sources. F...

Authors: Stuart Altman

Annual acknowledgement of manuscript reviewers

The Editors of Israel Journal of Health Policy Research would like to thank all reviewers, both external and Editorial Board Members, who have contributed to the journal in 2015, and whose valuable support contin...

Authors: Bruce Rosen and Avi Israeli

Energy drink consumption in Israeli youth: Public health & the perils of energetic marketing

In a recently published IJHPR article, Magnezi and colleagues add to our knowledge of consumption of energy drinks (ED), and alcohol mixed with energy drinks (AmED), by exploring these patterns among public sc...

Authors: David L. Katz

Improving access to essential health care services: the case of Israel

In a recent article in this journal Simon-Tuval, Horev and Kaplan argue that in order to improve the protection of consumers there might be a need to impose a threshold on the medical loss ratio (MLR) for volu...

Authors: Wynand P.M.M. van de Ven

Integration of advanced practice providers into the Israeli healthcare system

Many countries around the world have integrated various types of Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) into their healthcare systems. The main motivating factors for recognizing and developing APPs worldwide incl...

Authors: Eliana Marcus Aaron and Caryn Scheinberg Andrews

Erratum to: The burden of smoking in Israel–attributable mortality and costs (2014)

Authors: Gary M. Ginsberg and Haim Geva

How can we improve amniocentesis decision-making?

The decision to have an amniocentesis entails a trade-off between a risk of procedure associated miscarriage and the benefit of obtaining diagnostic information to identify Down syndrome or other chromosomal a...

Authors: Lisa Soleymani Lehmann

Vaccine hesitancy: understanding better to address better

Vaccine hesitancy is an emerging term in the socio-medical literature which describes an approach to vaccine decision making. It recognizes that there is a continuum between full acceptance and outright refusa...

Authors: Dewesh Kumar, Rahul Chandra, Medha Mathur, Saurabh Samdariya and Neelesh Kapoor

International publication trends and collaboration performance of China in healthcare science and services research

In recent years, China’s healthcare reforms and related studies have drawn particular global attention. The main objective of this study is to evaluate quantitatively the publication trends and collaboration p...

Authors: Kai Chen, Qiang Yao, Ju Sun, Zhi-fei He, Lan Yao and Zhi-yong Liu

Private finance of services covered by the National Health Insurance package of benefits in Israel

Private health expenditure in systems of national health insurance has raised concern in many countries. The concern is mainly about the accessibility of care to the poor and the sick, and inequality in use an...

Authors: Esti Engelchin-Nissan and Amir Shmueli

Coming of age: pharmacy practice in the 21st century

Individuals, families, health plans and governments are struggling with the growing importance of managing chronic, non-communicable diseases. People in many countries are living longer and thus are facing man...

Authors: Donald F. Downing

Models for projecting supply and demand for nurses in Israel

Concern is growing over serious shortages in the nursing workforce and imbalance between supply and demand. Projections indicate that the demand for the nursing workforce will increase due to the aging populat...

Authors: Nurit Nirel, Orli Grinstien-Cohen, Yonatan Eyal, Hadar Samuel and Assaf Ben-Shoham

Procedures in pediatric primary care: first do no harm

Two important considerations arise from this IJHPR article from Zimmerman and colleagues. First, is the question regarding what can be considered a “common” procedure in primary care and whether the designatio...

Authors: Gary L. Freed

Referral patterns of Israeli pediatricians of common primary care office procedures

Pediatric primary care is the cornerstone of health care services for children. Performance of common office procedures is an integral part of primary care. Ideally, the community-based primary care pediatrici...

Authors: Deena R. Zimmerman, Yona Amitai, Zahi Grossman and Chen Stein-Zamir

A qualitative study of enablers and barriers influencing the incorporation of social accountability values into organisational culture: a perspective from two medical schools

Definitions of social accountability describe the obligation of medical schools to direct education, research and service activities towards addressing the priority health concerns of the population they serve...

Authors: Nicholas Leigh-Hunt, Laura Stroud, Deborah Murdoch Eaton and Mary Rudolf