“Diversity in the Heart of a Hospital”

FOR CHAPEL CREDIT: On Thursday, March 22, at 1 PM in Longaker Recital Hall, the Center for Non-Western Studies and the Student Health Profession Organization will host Dr. Arie Eisenman, a Jewish Israeli, and head of Internal Medicine in the Emergency Dept. at the Galilee Medical Center; and Dr. Khaled Atalla, a Christian Arab Israeli, and a specialist in Internal Medicine and resident in Emergency Medicine at the Galilee Medical Center.

Only 6 miles from the Lebanese border, the Galilee Medical Center has a long history of readiness for mass-casualty events. GMC was the first in Israel to build an underground hospital, enabling it to provide continuous, safe care to patients in the event of warfare. GMC serves a mixed population of Jews, Muslims, Christians, and Druze, providing care in the last several years to more than 2,000 Syrians affected by the unrest, about a third of whom are women and children under the age of 18.

Drs. Eisenman and Atalla will present “Diversity in The Heart of a Hospital,” addressing ethnic diversity and coexistence in the Western Galilee and the impact it has upon the work in the hospital. This PPT presentation includes a detailed description of the area, the medical center, the various communities as well as Dr. Atalla’s personal story and how the coexistence affected the medical center and the region during the Second Lebanese War and the War in Syria. The presentation is followed by short footage made by French TV (in English).