Q&A: Jeffrey Green, ER doctor for Wisconsin and Israel | Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle

Q&A: Jeffrey Green, ER doctor for Wisconsin and Israel

Dr. Jeffrey Green was hired at the Milwaukee VA Medical Center as medical director of the Emergency Department, a position he served in from 2010-2014. He then chose to return to full-time patient care. More recently, he’s been flying between Israel and Milwaukee about every two months, a routine he’s fallen into since last year.

Q: Why do you travel between ERs in Israel and Milwaukee?

A: He gave us two reasons: One is that he’s got an adult daughter in Israel. The other is his love of Israel. He did some medical school in Israel, and he and his family lived there from 1993 to 1998.

Jeffrey Green, M.D.

Q: How can you do this?

A: Emergency medicine is a specialty that lends itself to this. There’s no beeper for an ER doctor, Green said.

“My Hebrew skills aren’t great but just enough,” he said. A scribe in Ashdod helps him with paperwork and some translation.

His arrangement has been half-time at the hospital in Ashdod and part-time with two hospitals in Wisconsin.

Q: What’s your schedule?

A: Green flies either to or from Israel around the middle of each month.

“This is a human experiment,” he said.

He’s actually slowly moving to Israel and plans to shift his monthly travel to more time in Israel.

Q: Where do you sleep?

A: In Israel, Green, 61, sleeps in an Ashdod hospital call room during the week and at his daughter’s apartment on the weekends. He gets around with an electric scooter.