Military medicine
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Emergency departments (ED) in Israel deal with a large number of referrals from the Israel Defense Force. In a recent study, we observed that only 3% of soldiers referred to the ED in Soroka Medical Center were hospitalized. ⋯ A discrepancy exists between the high proportion of appropriate soldiers' referrals to the ED and the low hospitalization proportion. Organizational steps should be undertaken in the Israel Defense Force to decrease excess military use of civilian ED services.