Medical Experts: Magen David Adom Prevented Much Larger COVID-19 Spread
The entire world has come to a halt due to the rapid spread of COVID-19. As tens of thousands have already died from the virus, hundreds of thousands more are ill. The disease has demonstrated tremendous capacity to spread even with extreme prevention methods. Different countries have tried different approaches with varying success, but one country which focused on early lockdown measures and preventative care is Israel. Thanks largely in part to the role of Israel’s national emergency medical service Magen David Adom.
From the start of the epidemic, MDA has shown tremendous foresight in anticipating the global and national pressures due to Coronavirus. At the end of April, a paper was released in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine detailing why and how MDA’s tactics not only worked, but provided a blueprint for the rest of the world when it comes to coping with Coronavirus.
Professor. Yehuda Skornick, one of the leading surgeons in the state of Israel and the author of approximately 200 scientific publications on medicine, explained that while Israel is uniquely positioned to cope with mass casualty events, the threat of a contagious disease is slightly different. In a mass casualty event, patients will be triaged in the hospital but in the case of a disease like Corona, patients and even suspected patients can’t begin the triage at a hospital. So MDA brought the triage service to the public in a different way.
As Prof. Skornick explained, it’s not only necessary to treat patients in a crisis situation where patients are rapidly increasing, but also to separate patients from the regular hospital environment that would normally occur in any mass casualty event. Magen David Adom being a fully trained and professional EMS service with 24,000 volunteers, was able to successfully navigate and provide top quality medical services while keeping those with Corona virus and also those suspected of Coronavirus away from the public, hospitals, and other people. Their tactic of quarantining, checking on a daily basis with patients who were showing symptoms, and coordination between healthcare providers and the ministry of Health, was and is critical to Israel's success in getting the virus under control.
The triage service began with a call center where MDA received from 6,000 all the way up to over 100,000 calls a day from the public on Coronavirus inquiries and possible cases. It was MDA in conjunction with the Ministry of Health and healthcare providers who directed the public on whether or not to enter the next stage of the “triage” service. MDA also sent train volunteers to the homes of those in quarantine when symptoms would appear in order to safely test the patients for Coronavirus without them ever leaving the home. When patients were diagnosed with Coronavirus, it was MDA on the front lines helping to determine if the case was severe enough in order to warrant a secure transfer from quarantine in the home to quarantine in a hospital or even hotels which were converted to locations for COVID-19 patients temporarily. Prof. Skornick also explained that MDA’s triage service, taking the hospital to the patient, really prevented a much larger spread of the pandemic in Israel and prevented a panic with overcrowding in the hospitals.
It should also be noted that because MDA trains thousands of volunteers year round, they were able to assemble a task force of professionals fully equipped to cope with other medical crises, unrelated to Corona, at the same time – again helping to slow the influx of patients at hospitals and avoid overcrowding.
In a conversation with Prof. Skornick, he noted that MDA already has done extensive training with other EMS services around the world and in fact has played a critical role in building EMS services from the ground up for multiple nations. However, he emphasized that while MDA’s method with Coronavirus has already proven successful and it seems the crisis is subsiding in Israel, MDA needs to train more volunteers and expand in the future to advance the field and also to continue training and building more EMS systems abroad so that all countries will be better equipped to deal with a situation like COVID-19 or other public health crises.
Prof. Skornick stated that behind the MDA is truly a motivation of the Jewish concept of “Tikkun Olam,” healing the world. This is an organization seeking to save lives, to train others to save lives, and to provide quality and necessary care for all peoples regardless of faith, ethnicity, or any other characteristic. Beyond that, he said he believes that MDA will be recognized, as it already has been, as the leading EMS service in the world.
You can read the recent paper published in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine >>> here
