Visit to Terem

October 4, 2008
Filed under: Life in Israel, Family

Happy new week (shavua tov) everyone. This evening I spent some time at Terem, the local urgent care clinic with my little/middle girl. It was nothing major, just a possibly infected bloody nose, and I didn’t want to wait for tomorrow.

Apparently, nobody wanted to wait for tomorrow. I thought they opened at 7:45, but when I got there at 8 PM, the line was out the door, and all seats were filled. We had registered by 8:10 (and paid 20 shekels) and found a spot to stand. By 8:30 we had been seen by a nurse (temp, pulse and blood oxygenation) and sent back to the waiting room. Given a room inside at 9:10, seen by 9:40 and home by 10 PM.

The diagnosis was that everything is fine, but it would be a good idea to put some antibiotic ointment (which is prescription only) on it for a few days. It wasn’t a wasted trip, but it wasn’t easy for a 4 year old to stay awake, so she spent most of her time running in circles.

So, you might ask, what is the point of this post? Last summer I went to the ER near my parents for a sprained ankle. I got there around 5 and stayed until at least 11, and I wasn’t even talked to by a nurse for over 2 hours. I think that Terem does a good job, and I think that some hospitals would do well to emulate them.

By the way, when I was waiting for my release note, they said that they had seen 74 people by the time I was leaving. I’m not sure if that included the people still waiting, or those who had already finished. (I think the latter.)

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