The Chaim Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomer, also Tel HaShomer Hospital, is the largest hospital in Israel, located in the Tel HaShomer neighborhood of Ramat Gan, in the Tel Aviv District. In 2020, Newsweek ranked it as the 9th-best hospital in the world.
Overview
The hospital was established in 1948 as Israel's first military hospital, to treat casualties of Israel's War of Independence. It was founded in a cluster of abandoned military barracks from the Mandate era, and was originally known as Army Hospital No. 5. Israeli Prime MinisterDavid Ben-Gurion had it renamed Tel HaShomer Hospital. In 1953, it became a civilian hospital, and Dr. Chaim Sheba became its director. Following Sheba's death, the hospital was renamed in his honor. Situated on a campus in east Ramat Gan, Sheba today operates 120 departments and clinics. It has 1,700 beds, over 1,400 physicians, 2,600 nurses and 3,300 other healthcare workers. It handles over 1,000,000.5 patient visits a year, including 200,000 emergency visits annually, and conducts more than two million medical tests of all types each year, on a $320 million annual budget. Sheba is supported by donations from a network of philanthropists and friends from around the world.
Facilities
Sheba includes an acute care hospital, a rehabilitation hospital, a women's hospital, a children's hospital, an eating disorder clinic, a PTSD clinic for soldiers, a laboratory division, an outpatient division, and an academic campus. The medical center is also home to the Israel National Center for Health Policy and Epidemiology Research, the internationally acclaimed Israel National Center for Medical Simulation, the Israel National Blood Bank and Cord Blood Bank, and the Safra International Congenital Heart Center. Other major centers at Sheba include the Sheba Cancer Treatment and Research Centers, the Sheba Heart Center that was donated by Lev Leviev, and the Tel Hashomer Medical Research, Infrastructure and Services Co. Ltd., which provides global consulting and training services There is also a special rehabilitation hotel, the Shilev Hotel, for recuperating patients. It has 36 double rooms outfitted like ordinary hotels rooms, and a medical wing complete with a doctors office, nurses room, and treatment room. The medical center also maintains a hotel for guests who wish to remain close to a patient, and two shopping malls. Sheba provides services to patients from across the Middle East, including many patients from the Palestinian Authority. It also provides guidance and mentoring in the planning, construction and operation of healthcare systems and hospitals around the world. Sheba has helped to found a multi-disciplinary clinic in Ukraine, an imaging Center in Uzbekistan, a medical center in the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, an oncology center in Mauritania, a polyclinic in the Ivory Coast, and more. Sheba has sent medical support to Kosovo, Armenia, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and Rwanda. Many patients from the Palestinian Authority and the Arab world are treated at Sheba. Former Israeli prime ministerAriel Sharon was hospitalized at Sheba in May and November 2006.
Research
A large proportion of clinical research in Israel is conducted at Sheba. It is the main clinical trial venue for human healthscientific studies conducted by the Weizmann Institute of Science, Tel Aviv University and Bar-Ilan University. In 2011, Sheba topped the list of Israeli hospitals for revenue acquired through research, at NIS 42.4 million, but came second in 2012. Scientific research at Sheba includes a study of pregnancy after transplantation of cryopreserved ovarian tissue in a patient with ovarian failure after chemotherapy; a study of alginate-based stem cell biomaterial injected into heart attack victims that may repair heart tissue; and a study showing that heavy cell phone users are subject to a higher risks of benign and malignant tumors of the salivary gland. The Israeli company Ventor Technologies developed a novel type of heart valve which can be implanted by catheterization rather than open-heart surgery at Sheba. This invention was sold to medical device maker Medtronic in 2009 for US$325 million, of which about 10% went to Sheba Medical Center.
