Researchers: Dan Even¹, Shifra Shvarts¹, Shlomo Vinker^2,3

Background: Israeli national health insurance law defines the right to public health services on justice and equalitarian principles, availability and accessibility; however, it fails to address the emerging professional, ethical and legal responsibility of physicians to inform patients regarding services they might benefit from.

Objectives: To examine knowledge of essential services in public medicine and referral patterns to these services.

Method: Questionnaire was distributed through the internet and medical conventions among physicians in relevant specialties. Questionnaires were analyzed using descriptive statistics with SAS_9.4 software.

Findings: Final sample consists of 780 general and specialist physicians representing the Israeli specialist physicians' community, excluding orthopedics and dentists. Half of the responding physicians failed to know that smoking cessation medications are included in public healthcare only with workshops (53.05%), half were unaware of the age range for receiving public dental care (53.17%) and most physicians were not familiar with the committee for compensating vaccination injuries (81%). Accessibility to services was recognized as a major contributor for referrals, including reasonable distance of service and operating hours.

Conclusions: The study indicated lacking knowledge of essential services in Israeli public healthcare system. Data reveals the influence of other factors on referrals to treatments apart from the patient's condition. Findings trace sources of information on services beyond regulatory institutions in the system, including the media and patients.

Recommendations: The study draws attention to the potential contribution of campaigns aiming primary care physicians focusing on deficiencies, in several cases involving the media and patients.

Research end date: 11/2018