The Ophthalmology ward in the Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot is branched to the Hadassah Hospital and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and provides innovative medical services in all areas of ophthalmology to residents of the central district, to clients of all HMOs and to all people who request to have a high quality up-to-date care from all over Israel. The ward is equipped with the most advanced technological equipment.
The ward’s doctors were specially trained abroad in all the subspecialties of ophthalmology: cataract, retina, cornea, glaucoma, children and strabismus, neuropthalmology, and eye socket. Each specialist uniquely developed his specialty, which led to centers of excellence. The integration of a highly qualified medical team and an innovative equipment, allows for high-quality, inclusive medical service, while coordinating the various areas, under a single roof.
The Ophthalmology ward in the Kaplan Medical Center is composed of three arms: admittance, outpatient clinic and designated operating rooms for ophthalmology operations. The ward doctors provides services in all these areas, as well as integrated services in the community clinics in Rehovot, Ashdod, Rishon Letzion and Kiriyat Malachi. The tight connection of the Ophthalmology ward with the community improves the quality of service and care, enables a therapeutic sequence between the hospital and the community and is a center for leading services.
Ophthalmology Department
The Ophthalmology department recently moved to a new location. The Ophthalmology department in the Kaplan Medical Center admits about 2500 patients annually, who require care as hospital patients or as outpatients. The admittance is for patients suffering from various ophthalmology disease, patients before and after surgeries and patients who were injured in accidents and other events.
Many ophthalmology surgeries are performed without any need of admittance and the ophthalmology department serves as one of the centers that concentrate the patient preparation before the surgery and testing him afterwards.
During the evening hours, and during holidays and weekends, the department serves as an emergency room for eye injuries, to examine and care for urgent eye problems.
Operating Rooms
The Ophthalmology ward in the Kaplan Medical Center has a few surgical frameworks which perform about 2500 surgeries every year.
A designated ophthalmological operation room, equipped with all technological innovations and located in the general surgery rooms area where ophthalmology surgeries are performed in a wide variety of Ophthalmology specialties: cataract, retina, cornea, glaucoma, strabismus, eyelids, tear ducts and eye socket. The surgeries are done under admittance or as outpatients, called ambulatory admittance. There is a special channel for cataract removal surgeries performed in the afternoons. The outpatient operation room performs ambulatory surgeries in oculoplastic.
A highly innovative operation room with up-to-date equipment to remove cataract, located in the new location of the ophthalmology department, allows ease of treatment, without having to move the patient.
Outpatient Clinics
The outpatient clinics host about 22,000 visits every year, which include diagnosis, follow up and treatment in the variety of ophthalmology specialties.
Integration with the Community
The Ophthalmologists provide extensive services in professional centers in the community in the central district, when part of the doctors are working in an integrating framework. The staff and the community initiate and perform joint ventures, such as a quality project for the early detection of common ophthalmology diseases.
Lately, we founded an advisory Ophthalmology clinic for pediatric Ophthalmology in the community in the child center in Nes Ziona. This is a clinic where pediatric experts from the Medical Center advise in the community.
Innovative Treatments and Multi-Centered International Clinical Studies
The ophthalmology ward in the Kaplan Medical Center is one of the leading centers in Israel in participating and activity of the multi-centered international clinical centers. Thanks to this fertile activity, the doctors and the entire staff are updated in new procedures. The patients get the most updated procedures and are in the front row of the quality of care, in an international level. Also, the participation in studies, grants the patients the possibility to receive the most advanced treatments, that can’t be achieved otherwise, and most of them were proven as efficient and effective, especially in ophthalmology diseases which induce blindness.
During recent years, the ward emphasizes innovative treatments for age related macular degeneration (AMD), blocks of the central retinal vein, diabetic harms to the retina, glaucoma, and harms to the sight nerve.
Unique Research areas
Retina
The doctors of the retina unit of the ward are international pioneers in observations and studies in two important subjects:
- Retinal blood vessels reaction in diabetic patients post-cataract operations.
- Retinal blood vessels reaction in AMD patients post-cataract operations.
These studies created an initial awareness within the ophthalmology community that retinal changes can develop after cataract surgeries. This recognition led to a relation and a change in the therapeutic approach. The unit doctors focus on cataract operations in patients with a wide variety of retinal problems.
Cataract
Another field in which the ophthalmology ward doctors are leading is the subjects of cataract surgeries, with a special emphasis on research and development of lenses implanted in a routine cataract removal operation. This research activity is also considered pioneering and it opens a new channel of ophthalmology. Among the research subjects are use of artificial lenses as a carrier for antibiotic drugs to decrease the chances of post-op infections.
Glaucoma
In the field of glaucoma we conduct a unique study to locate factors related to family heredity.
Academic Activity
The ophthalmology ward is branched to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Medical School, and it trains medical students in ophthalmology every year. Teaching excellence certificates are granted to many of the doctors, along the years.
In the ward, there is an arranged academic activity of all the staff, which includes academic meetings for updates, peer review club, and participation in many national and international convention. We also hold a structured teaching program for interns and in preparation of the internship exams.
The ward doctors lecture in many medical conventions and often receive excellence awards in the various fields of lectures and studies.
The ophthalmology ward holds professional annual conventions, designated for doctors in the community, including family doctors, pediatricians, and ophthalmologists.
