The Ministry of Health project, which compares hospitals in Israel, is a significant project that has a tremendous impact on hospitals and the public, but now – according to Raz Reznik in Yisrael Hayom – there are claims that the data is biased and modified at times by hospitals that want to improve their standing.

This is a program whose findings are published publicly to the public every year. The program includes a comparative examination of about 35 medical procedures among 136 organizations, including general hospitals, geriatric rehabilitation, psychiatry, ambulances, well-health baby clinics, rehabilitation of mentally ill patients, health offices and districts of the Ministry of Health.

Among other things, the report measures the speed at which critical tests are performed for patients with cerebral events or heart attacks, the speed with which urgent patients are examined, the speed at which patients are treated (mostly elderly) with hip fractures, the speed at which patients are treated and diagnosed in the emergency room, such as intestinal surgery and cesarean sections and more.

According to the report in the newspaper, the Ministry of Health is examining the serious claims that the comparative indices in the framework of the national plan have caused a real damage to the quality of treatment and even to the risk of patients. According to these claims, since hospitals are eager to succeed in these measures, there is a phenomenon of unnecessary surgeries and procedures, and surgeries that are done too hastily and without adequate preparation only to appear in hospital indices as being performed quickly.

There are additional claims that hospitals ‘adjust’ the reports manually to improve their standing and that of the hospital in the ministry’s plan. According to the claims, since in some of the hospitals the data is transferred for the purpose of conducting the surveys by means of manual recording and not by computerization, there are cases in which some of the information does not reach the Ministry of Health at all, and the data is based on partial data only.

The Ministry of Health claims that there were cases in which the data from the hospitals was not legible or comprehensible, and then it was claimed that the data was incomplete; according to a report by an employee who sent a letter to the Health Ministry.

The National Quality Indicators Program in the Ministry of Health has been operating for five years and is considered the most important project of the Ministry of Health to improve the quality of medical care and service. The program was highly praised and headed by Dr. Anat Ecka-Zohar, who founded the National Program and serves as Head of Quality, Service and Safety Administration at the Ministry of Health.

According to the report, between Dr. Zohar and Health Ministry Director-General Moshe Bar-Siman Tov, there is a serious confrontation over the issue. As part of the confrontation, the director general summoned Dr. Zohar for a hearing, with many arguments against her, and she is likely to resign from the Health Ministry in the coming months.

Attorney Ram Gamliel, who represents Dr. Zohar, said in response to the Yisrael Hayom report that “unfortunately, out of egoistic considerations and contrary to any familiar procedure in the public sector, the Health Ministry director general, Moshe Bar-Siman Tov is gunning for Dr. Zohar.”

Gamliel explains that his client has simply been targeted as the scapegoat in this case.

“His repeated attempts to get my client to resign or to dismiss her were rejected, and were found, more than once, by the legal adviser of the Ministry of Health, attorney Mira Hibner, and by the legal advisor of the Civil Service Commission, to be improper, despite the warnings. In addition, he will not be able to protect them if Bar-Siman Tov continues his actions,” added attorney Gamliel.

“In any case, the strange claims to the ‘falsification of the data’ are not possible, since my client does not have the ability or the authority, nor the technical ability, to change the data. It is important to note that when Dr. Zohar updated the data, it was the director-general of the ministry who preferred not to take action against the hospital.”

The Ministry of Health said in response: “The National Quality Indicators Program has made a significant contribution to advancing the quality of hospital care, and the Ministry of Health is not discussing them in the media.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)