What do women gain from volunteering? The experience of lay Arab and Jewish women volunteers in the Women for Women's Health programme in Israel.

Ambiguous feelings regarding women engaging in formal volunteering and concerns about their exploitation might explain the dearth of studies regarding the volunteering benefits specifically experienced by low socioeconomic status women. The current study examined benefits of volunteering among women participating in Women for Women's Health (WWH), a lay health volunteers (LHV) programme implemented in Jewish and Arab communities in Israel, and aiming at empowering such women to become active volunteers and promote health activities in their communities. Two years after the introduction of WWH in each community, all 45 Jewish and 25 Arab volunteers were contacted by phone and invited to participate in the focus group discussions.

A co-payment for consultant services: primary care physicians' referral actualization.

Prospective evaluation of the effect of a new copayment for specialists consultations on actualization of referrals (2,432 patient), was examined. Actualization of the appointment, reasons for not actualizing, and sociodemographic characteristics were recorded. Actualization was 85.

Role of nurses in a university hospital during mass casualty events.

Mass casualty events due to terror attacks have escalated throughout Israel since September 2000, with a high proportion of these events occurring in the Jerusalem area. Immediately after news of a large-scale terror attack is received, family/public information centers are set up in all local hospitals to meet the needs of members of the public who call or arrive at hospitals anxious to obtain information about relatives who may have been at the site of the attack. The most urgent task facing these centers is the quick and accurate identification of victims whose identity is in question.

Caring for a major government official: challenges and lessons learned.

Objective: Analysis of the medical, organizational, and administrative issues surrounding the care of a dignitary in an intensive care unit.

The Story: On January 4, 2006, Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister was emergently admitted to the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem owing to a severe intracranial hemorrhage. Immediately following his admission, he underwent an extensive neurosurgical procedure to control the bleeding.

Introducing co-payment for consultant specialist services.

Background: Full medical coverage may often result in overuse. Cost-sharing and the introduction of a co-payment have been shown to cause a reduction in the use of medical services.

Objectives: To assess the effects of the recently introduced co-payment for consultant specialist services on patient utilization of these services in southern Israel.

Internal and external auditing in health systems: an integrative approach.

Traditionally, auditors are apprehensive when it comes to auditing clinical decisions. A novel model might lead to better integration of auditors into the core activities of health system medical care, while creating common interests among all participants in the process.

An administrative intervention to improve the utilization of laboratory tests within a university hospital.

Background: Improving the appropriateness of testing behavior and reducing the number of laboratory tests have been recognized as essential parts of quality improvement.

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of an administrative and a short-term educational intervention aimed at reducing clinical biochemistry laboratory utilization.

Design: An analysis comparing utilization of laboratory tests performed on in-patients before and after the intervention.

The experience of one institution dealing with terror: the El Aqsa Intifada riots.

Background: During a period of 13 months--1 October 2000 to 31 October 2001--586 terror assault casualties were treated in the trauma unit and emergency department of Hadassah University Hospital (Ein Kerem campus); 27% (n = 158) were hospitalized and the rest were discharged within 24 hours.

Objectives: To analyze the special requirements of a large number of victims who received treatment during a short period.

Methods: Data were attained from the main admitting office and the trauma registry records.