History of Terem

Terem Emergency Care Clinics is the brainchild of Dr. David Applebaum.  Dr. Applebaum was a man of exceptional medical ability, charisma, and had an extraordinary gift of being able to calm the patient, win his confidence and relate to him as an individual.

The Visionary

As a physician in the Shaarei Zedek Emergency Department as well as director of the mobile intensive care units in Jerusalem, Dr. Applebaum witnessed first hand the crushing burden of patient overload in emergency rooms. His dream was to provide an alternative to the emergency room for medical conditions that do not require hospitalization. This service would treat patients with a wide range of medical conditions in the most efficient, professional, and compassionate manner possible, and stabilize them until they receive follow up care with their regular physicians.

The Founding of Terem

In 1989, Dr. Applebaum, co founders Dr. Joe Djemal and Dr Mike Baum, and other partners, opened Terem’s doors in the MDA branch in Jerusalem. Jerusalem residents began to flock to Terem to answer their urgent care needs. If a child fell off a bicycle, a mom cut her finger while cutting a salad, as well as for serious conditions such as chest pains, childbirth, acute and chronic conditions, for victims of terror attacks - Terem became the place to go.

Terem continued to expand its services to an ever increasing number of communities in the greater Jerusalem region with new branches in Maale Adumim, Modiin and Bet Shemesh and a Primary/Family Medicine clinic in Jerusalem.

Tragedy

On September 9th 2003 tragedy struck the Terem family, when its beloved founder was murdered, along with his daughter Naava, in a terror attack in Jerusalem. Dr. Applebaum, so long a world renown expert in the field of mass casualty attacks, fell victim to one.

Continuing the Legacy

Dedicated and devoted to the cause and carrying on Dr. Applebaum’s legacy Terem co-founders and senior management continued to develop Terem. In 2005, in partnership with Dr Brendon Stewart, Terem opened a second branch in Jerusalem, in the neighborhood of Talpiot in South Jerusalem, as well as moving existing clinics into brand new state of the art facilities with expand hours and services.

Terem Timeline

  • 1990 First clinic opened in Jerusalem
  • 1993 Maale Adumim clinic opened
  • 1993 Family medicine clinic opened in Rehavia
  • 1998 Modiin clinic opened
  • 2000 Pioneered the introduction of digital radiology in Israel
  • 2002 Bet Shemesh clinic opened
  • 2005 Jerusalem Tayelet clinic opened
  • 2008 Jerusalem clinic moved to the Yahav building
  • 2008 Modiin moved to a new modern facility
  • 2010 Bet Shemesh moved to new modern facility

Innovation

Recent years have seen an explosion of technological innovations that were developed in-house specifically for the unique Terem environment. Led by Dr. Kovalski, Terem has developed a complete EMR solution facilitating telemedicine and remote consultation capabilities as well as allowing online access to all records for the use of patients, the HMOs and family doctors.

Recognizing waiting time as being a major factor in patient satisfaction, Terem tries hard to keep them to a minimum. Using a unique patient flow system, we monitor this dynamic constantly and as a result, nearly 90% of patients visited Terem are triaged within 15 mins of arrival and 70% are discharged home within 60 mins of arrival.

Collaboration with Community Doctors

Another innovation is related to Terem’s commitment to working with community doctors to provide them with up to the minute updates on the treatment their patients receive in Terem. For example, community doctors who are part of the ROAM (Terem Colleague Program), receive email notifications any time their patient visits Terem, along with all medical documents and lab results.

Research and Training Programs

Terem has been at the forefront of institutionalizing the discipline of Urgent Care Medicine as a unique and integral branch in the field of medicine. Over the years Terem medical staff has participated in many research projects which have earned international recognition and in 2006 has established a Research Department focused primarily on the area of urgent and community based urgent care.

Culture

Terem’s core values respect the religious traditions of the Jewish people, and to that end Sabbath is observed and religious needs of patients considered. Furthermore, Terem staff is composed of people from many different cultural, religious and ethnic backgrounds who model by their teamwork and dedication the values of mutual respect and consideration.