Shaare Zedek Medical Center

Shaare Zedek Medical Center
Shaare Zedek Medical Center
Geography
Location	Jerusalem
Organisation
Hospital type	General hospital
Affiliated university	Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Services
Emergency department	yes
Helipad	yes
Beds	1,000
History
Founded	1902
Links
Website	szmc.org.il

The Shaare Zedek Medical Center (Hebrew: מרכז רפואי שערי צדק‎‎, Merkaz Refu'i Sha'arei Tzedek) (lit. "Gates of Justice") is a major hospital in Jerusalem established in 1902.

Shaare Zedek was the first large hospital to be located in the Western portion of Jerusalem and is today the city's fastest growing hospital and the only major medical facility in the city's center. After the Ottoman Turks gave permission in the 1890s, and with funding from European donors, the hospital was built on Jaffa Road, two miles (3 km) outside the Old City. Its opening ceremony took place on January 27, 1902. Dr. Moshe Wallach was the director from then until 1947. Schwester Selma lived in the hospital and cared for abandoned children. The building in Bayit Vegan was inaugurated in 1980.

In December 2012, Shaare Zedek assumed operational control over Bikur Cholim Hospital and merged many of its activities. The hospital treats over 600,000 patients per year in more than 30 inpatient departments and over 70 outpatient units and maintains a very active academic service as a leading research and teaching institution. Shaare Zedek is classified as a public/private hospital, serving as a non-profit institution and dependent on donor support for capital development, while committed to offering advanced medical care for the wider Jerusalem-area community.

Shaare Zedek Medical Center is located across two major campuses. The main campus is located on an 11.5-acre (47,000 m²) site between the neighborhoods of Bayit VeGan in the south and Ramat Beit HaKerem in the north, east of Mount Herzl in southwest Jerusalem. The downtown campus, formerly known as Bikur Cholim Hospital, is located in the heart of Jerusalem's downtown commercial zone.

The hospital has 1000 beds and treats over 500,000 patients a year in its in-patient and out-patient facilities.

As terrorist attacks in Jerusalem reached a peak in 2001–04, Shaare Zedek treated more victims than any other hospital in Israel. The hospital's trauma unit located within its Weinstock Department of Emergency Medicine on the Fanya Gottesfeld Heller Floor has become a model for emergency medicine and handling large-scale mass casualty incidents. The main hospital campus, completed in 1979, consists of ten interconnected buildings with the central structure being a ten-story building which houses the in-patient departments. The bottom three floors are located underground so as to allow the hospital to continue to operate even during wartime under the threat of missile strike. The Department of Emergency Medicine, the Wohl Surgical Operating Complex inaugurated in 2010, the Pharmacy and critical supply areas are all located in this underground portion and other areas of the hospital can be evacuated to this portion when necessary.