Medical Organizations in Israel

In addition to standard care facilities, Israelis rely on a system of government-funded, non-profit and volunteer-based organizations. They include:

• Yad Sarah, the largest voluntary health organization in Israel, provides a variety of free or nominal-cost services for sick, disabled and elderly people and their families.
  
  
• ZAKA (Hebrew acronym for 'Disaster Victim Identification') is a humanitarian voluntary organization of almost 1,000 volunteers who respond to tragic incidents, typically terror attacks, in Israel. ZAKA is known for its mission to protect human dignity and accord the dead the respect and customary treatment required by Jewish tradition and law.
  
  
• Magen David Adom provides Israel's emergency medical services, which include first aid stations, a nationwide blood donor program, blood banks, first aid courses, and a public ambulance service equipped with intensive care units. As many as 10,000 volunteers, many of them high school students, serve at 120 stations throughout the country.
  
  
• Magen David Adom, after a decades-long struggle to join the International Red Cross using an alternative symbol to the traditional cross, became a member of the worldwide humanitarian organization in June 2006, following a two-day International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent. The Red Crescent is frequently used in place of the Red Cross in many Islamic countries.
  
  
• The Hadassah Medical Organization (HMO) has been, and continues to be, a formative influence in the development of Israel’s health care system, and is also one of the world’s leading institutions in healthcare. Hadassah operates two medical facilities in Israel – the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center at Ein Kerem and the Hadassah University Hospital at Mount Scopus - in addition to five schools, out-patients clinics, research facilities and community health centers. Combined, HMO facilities treat over one million patients annually. Hadassah Medical Organization prioritizes clinical and scientific research and is committed to educating health care professionals without regard to race, religion or national origin. Half of all medical research in Israel is conducted at Hadassah facilities.
  

Israel has 32,000 practicing physicians and approximately 9,000 dentists and 6,000 pharmacists for a population of less than 7 million: At one time, Israel had the highest doctor-patient ratio in the world. Medical professional can train at any of Israel's four medical schools, two schools of dentistry, two schools of pharmacology and 20 nursing schools.