CAMPUS AND AREA
University Daily Kansan, November 10, 1983
Page
Official cites progress at KU Med Center
By MATTHEW HARRISON Staff Reporter
D. Kay Clawson had reservations about taking the job as executive vice chancellor of the University of Kansas Medical Center after he heard about the Legislature's attempt to take Bell Memorial Hospital away from the university.
"I knew nothing about that move until I had already been appointed here," Clawson said. "It did give me second thoughts."
But several things have been done to solve some of the hospital's financial problems, including the hiring of Gene Clawson and others at the Med Center.
Clawson said, "I would say that the hiring of Gene Staples represented what I would call the hiring of a professional hospital administrator."
CLAWSON, WHOSE $79,000 a year salary makes him one of the state's highest paid officials, said the hospital was a nonprofit-minded organization and would consider running the operation under the state civil service guidelines and the legislative mandates.
"I think it is an extremely well-run, hospital given the complexities of having it under a state controlled system," he said.
A legislative committee agreed with Clawson Friday by recommending that the University continue to run the hospital as long as it showed progress.
Clawson, the former vice chancellor for clinical professional services at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, left Lexington Sept. 1 to become the executive vice chancellor at the Med Center.
HE SAID THAT he came to the University with the knowledge that the Med Center was close to becoming one of the top medical schools in the country and that he planned to work to make it better.
"We are not in that top group of school — but we are very close to it," he said.
Keeping high quality physicians and researchers at the Med Center has been another recent problem for the University. The problem must be resolved if
pool, tennis courts and other recreational activities."
Clawson, a former research scientist and medical practitioner, said that the lack of athletic facilities on the Kansas City, Kan., campus had not received adequate attention in the past despite a growing concern among medical students.
"I believe we can't ignore the fact that we have some 2,000 students here that, with the exception of the stairs to run up and down on, have recrea-
'We have never had the surplus of physicians which we now have. Hence, there is a level of competition that I don't believe is healthy.'
D. Kay Clawson, Executive Vice chancellor, K.U.Med Center
the university is to be competitive nationally, Clawson said.
The Board of Regents has instructed him to look into various incentive programs to help prevent faculty members from accepting more lucrative offers from other institutions or from the private sector.
Clawson said, "It is essential that we have good research equipment, are on the forefront of things and make the changes. We have not done that in recent years."
CLAWSON SAID HE thought that it was a definite disadvantage to have the medical center separated from the main campus.
"I am concerned that the students do not have any semblance of a community here," he said. Where I have been, he has never visited campus with access to a swimming pool.
CLAWSON. A soft-spoken man who chooses his words with the exactness of a scientist, said that dealing with it was the most frustrating part of his job.
"Everybody is more comfortable doing things the way they have always been done." he said, "even though the way they have been done in the past has not produced the results everybody wants."
Many critics of the Kansas educational system say that because there are too many state educational institutions, state funds are distributed on a quantitative rather than qualitative basis.
Clawson said that the situation disturbed his conse- quence that he to be accepted.
institution as the premiere research institute in the state and support it as a center of excellence.
"It would be nice if people in their infinite wisdom would single out one
CLAWSON SAID HE had practiced medicine under a system of socialized medicine in Great Britain and that he had discovered that under such a system doctors practiced "rationed medicine."
"You may have free access to care," he said, "but in actual fact, if you want anything done that isn't lifesaving, you must do it on a month or even years to have it done."
A dangerous situation arises when there are more physicians than there are patients, he said, because physician work to keep their skills sharpened.
"We have never had the surplus of physicians which we now have," he said. "Hence, there is a level of appreciation that I don't believe is healthy."
BELL MEMORIAL HOSPITAL was recently selected by Blue Cross & Blue Shield to be one of several Kansas City hospitals to operate under a new plan known as Preferred Provider Organization or "PPO."
Basically, the plan says that if a patient chooses to go to a doctor in a hospital participating in the PPO plan, he will completely pay the medical bill.
However, if a patient prefers to be treated at a non-PPO hospital, then the patient must pay 15 percent of his medical bill.
Clawson said, "The plan is probably not all bad, but we are going to be watching it very closely. Everybody will belong to some health plan in the future. The hospital will have to form some plan or service of their own that will be selected by a select group of people."
Alliance members try to preserve buildings
By GINA K. THORNBURG Staff Reporter
In an era of prefabricated houses and quick construction, some builders would rather raze a 100-year-old building than restore it.
But local members of a group, the Kansas Preservation Alliance, are trying to make people aware of the importance of preserving old buildings, a member of the alliance board of directors said yesterday.
“It's important to preserve historical buildings," said Michael Shaw, assistant professor of classics and an alliance member. "Preservation is nearly always a compromise between the needs of the present and preservation of the past."
SHAW SAID THAT the alliance recently had mailed 4,000 letters to people across the state as part of its membership drive.
Curtis Besinger, professor of architecture and urban design, who is also a member of the alliance, said that the National Trust for Architecture has issued a licence the alliance's membership drive with a matching grant.
About 12 people in Lawrence belong to the alliance, which has more than 100 members statewide, he said.
Shaw said that the alliance had begun in Kansas six years ago when a group of people concerned about preserving historical building had
realized the need for a non-government organization that could lobby in Topeka for the preservation of old buildings.
The alliance works with the historic preservation department of the state historical society to nominate buildings to be placed on the national register of historic preservation, he said.
"The national register slows government down and forces them to take a second look at construction projects," Shaw said.
BSENGER SAID THAT the alliance tried to encourage historic preservation by giving awards to preservation had been restored or preserved well.
Each spring, the alliance has an awards banquet to recognize about a dozen buildings in Kansas "that insure that they are in preserving property," he said.
Two buildings in Lawrence that have received awards are Marvin Hall, which houses the School of Art and Design at Columbia; the old Watkins bank, which is now the Watkins Community Museum, 1047 Mass.
Shaw said. "A lot of it has to do with simple appreciation that those old styles are really worth looking at. They are often covered up with new materials."
He said that buildings that were preserved using modern materials such as aluminum siding and plastic roofing, should recognize the Alliance would recognize
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