Bnai Zion Medical Center

The Bnai Zion medical center is a municipal public hospital with 450 beds. Attention is given to rehabilitation services that include: orthopedic, neurological, cardiological, physical and occupational therapy. It is the only hospital in northern Israel with a comprehensive rehabilitation program. The center has an average of 142,000 visits per year and the emergency department receives 65,000 visits. In the center, 14,000 surgical procedures are performed per year. There are 3,500 births per year. The center has a workforce of 1,800 employees.[1]

The hospital is in a state of constant alert, and at any moment it is ready to receive the victims of terrorist attacks. In times of national emergency, the entire medical center switches to crisis mode, and at the time of the attack, it receives severely injured victims, who have a critical need for trauma care.[1]

The Israeli government has designated the hospital as an official military hospital that meets the medical needs of soldiers in the region. During and after the Second Lebanon War (2006), the hospital treated civilians and provided rehabilitation services to wounded military men and women.[1] The center is within the range of rocket attacks from Lebanon. Since the emergency department of the hospital is vulnerable, Bnai Zion is raising funds to build a new protected underground unit, which will be fortified against nuclear, biological and chemical attacks.[2]

The Bnai Zion medical center is affiliated with the Ruth & Bruce Rappaport School of Medicine of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and serves as a teaching hospital for its students. Many of the center's department heads and physicians are on the faculty and are associated with their various medical research initiatives. The hospital also operates one of the oldest nursing schools in Israel, which offers an academic degree.[1]