During the recent war against Iran and Hezbollah, Matan Tal, a senior nurse in Israel’s northern district, received an urgent call from the caregiver of 94-year-old Yoash Tadmor, a resident of Kibbutz Yehiam, about 14 miles southeast of the Lebanese border. Tadmor was suffering from shortness of breath, swelling and a history of heart failure.
Tal, an experienced emergency room nurse and a resident of the same kibbutz, responded immediately. He examined the patient at home, consulted with a physician and promptly began administering diuretics.
The intervention—carried out while missiles flew overhead—kept Tadmor out of the hospital. He has since recovered.
Care under fire
The war has accelerated a quiet transformation in the country’s health-care system, with increasing reliance on hospital-level treatment delivered in patients’ homes—often with better outcomes than traditional hospitalization.
A new large-scale study by Clalit Health Services, Israel’s largest healthcare provider, suggests that in-home care not only reduces strain on hospitals but can also outperform them in key measures, including mortality and readmission rates.
The study analyzed 6,670 patients treated either at home or in hospitals for conditions such as pneumonia, heart failure and urinary tract infections. It found that 30-day mortality was 5.8% among patients treated at home, compared to 9.1% in hospitals. Readmission rates were also lower—13% versus 16%—and 84% of patients said they would prefer home care in the future.
The shift has been accelerated by wartime conditions, particularly in the early days of “Operation Roaring Lion,” when unprotected hospital wards were evacuated, and thousands of patients were transferred to home-based care.
“It is my community in the kibbutz, so I want to serve and give all I can to make people feel better,” Tal said.
Tal said home visits allow for more accurate assessments and closer interaction with family members and caregivers, often preventing conditions from worsening.
“In most cases, we can treat at home,” he said. “If we treat chronic conditions properly, they won’t become acute and require hospitalization.”
In Beersheva, geriatric nurse Anastasia Sergievski Rabinovich has seen similar benefits. Visiting patients at home allows her to assess not only medical needs but also living conditions—an important factor in areas frequently impacted by Iranian missile fire.
She recalled visiting Diana, an 84-year-old Holocaust survivor, after nearby missile strikes damaged her apartment.
“I went there and didn’t know what I would find,” Rabinovich said.
She found shattered windows, broken glass in the bedroom and essential medications buried under debris. With the patient’s daughter stranded abroad, Rabinovich arranged for medical care, coordinated volunteers to clean the apartment and ensured temporary repairs were made.
Rabinovich and her team provide a range of treatments, including antibiotics and IV therapies, effectively creating what she described as “a hospital at home.”
“We prevent hospitalizations,” she said. “It is better for patients in their own environment, in their own bed, with family.”
A model beyond wartime
This approach has also required medical teams to operate under fire. Dr. Moshe Sagi, head of home hospitalization in Clalit’s Tel Aviv-Jaffa district, recalled taking cover from incoming missiles while en route to treat a patient.
Despite the risks, Sagi has championed advanced home care, including the use of portable ultrasound devices to diagnose conditions such as pneumonia, pleural effusions and blood clots.
In one case, he identified acute gallbladder inflammation in a patient initially thought to have pneumonia, enabling timely hospital transfer and life-saving treatment. Without that diagnosis, Sagi said, the patient likely would not have survived.
Professor Doron Netzer, head of community medicine at Clalit and a co-author of the study, said home hospitalization reduces pressure on hospitals while improving outcomes, making it a critical component of both routine care and emergency response.
Clalit CEO professor Eytan Wirtheim said the war has exposed structural challenges in Israel’s health system, particularly the need to expand capacity without building new infrastructure. Home-based care, he said, offers a practical and effective solution.
