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University Daily Kansan, August 18, 1983
Watkins Hospital offers inexpensive health care for students
By MELISSA BAUMAN Staff Reporter
Michelle felt awful.
Her head acched; each breath was a wheeze; she felt nauseated.
So she did the next best thing to going home to Chicago for chicken soup —she went to Watkins Memorial Hospital, the University-financed health care center that is southeast of Robinson Center off Naismith Drive.
THE SERVICES AT Watkins are prepaid by the student health fee that is included in tuition, according to Jim Sirobl, acting director of Watkins. Full-time students are entitled to most visits and treatments at no charge.
A fully paid health fee, which is $66, entitles students to doctor or nurse visits, most laboratory tests, dietary advice and the first visit to the mental health and physical therapy clinics, he said.
Part-time students, who pay only a partial health fee, may receive all of the services at no charge except for laboratory tests, Strobl said.
He said that all students must pay for X-rays, in-patient services, medication from the pharmacy, laboratory tests that cannot be done at Watkins and, after the first visit, any visits to mental health and physical therapy clinics.
Strobli said that the hospital could do about 85 percent of the laboratory tests that students required.
THE OTHER 15 PERCENT must be sent to the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan., or another hospital because it is not feasible for Watkins to purchase the equipment for the tests, he said.
Tests processed outside Watkins cost only what the hospital that performs the tests charges Watkins, Strobli. However, he said that he has asked David Abbott, an intern for choir offiffs, to allow Watkins to charge a $3 handling fee.
Payment for health service, Strobli said, is based on a sliding scale and may cost from $3 to $35. Visits for health care are free. Visits and visit $3 for any visits after two.
Emergency room visits are $5, which covers supplies used in the emergency room. Strobil he also has asked him to fill out an emergency room charge to $10 a visit.
Free shots for influenza are offered by the hospital during some winters when the hospital receives free medicine from the state for outbreaks of flu.
Although services for which students are charged are more than they have been in previous years, Wakkins reported that those of other hospitals, Strobl said.
"EVERY SERVICE IN the building has just been increased or will be increased Aug. 1. We need the money to hire two new doctors," Strobil said.
The biggest increase in hospital charges has been in room rates. The rates jumped from $23 a day to $50, Strobli said. Although this is more than half the increase, the rate is less than Lawrence Memorial Hospital's new rate of $155 a day.
Srobli said that the increase in room rent was the largest increase in prices at the 32-bed hospital, but that the rate was about three times the cost of rooms at Lawrence Memorial.
"This probably will increase again next year, as probably all the prices Stripe
Although the addition of two new doctors, who have increased the size of the staff from nine to 11, has caused an increase in the price of services at the doctor's office will decrease the average time a student waits to see a doctor. Strobil said.
Students also will have shorter waits because in March each doctor was assigned two offices, Strobli said.
"As the doctor is seeing a patient in one office, the nurse or attendant is ushering a second patient into the other office, so hopefully that would help get better use of the doctor's time." Strobi said.
He said that the nurse assessed the patient's problem and handled matters that did not require a doctor's direct attention.
In addition to these measures, the hospital also has a nurse practitioner screening patients.
Strobl said that the nurse screening procedure began in March.
The first week that the screening began, the hospital averaged 180 patients a day, he said, and the nurse bandled about 10 percent of the cases.
STROBL SAID THAT about 80,000 people seek treatment at the hospital each year.
The hospital also has opened a gate that will take patients by appointment.
The hospital's allergy and immunology clinic and its wart removal clinic also will take patients by appointment, but the nurse will decrease the waiting time. Strobel said.
Although all three clinics, whose services are prepaid, depending on the treatment required, will take patients by appointment, students may still get into the clinic on a walk-in basis if there is an open slot in the clinics schedules, be said.
Strobl said that the hospital wanted to begin an appointment system for the waiting room but that doctors would still be available for walk-in service.
"I THINK THE APPOINTMENT
system would help spread out our work flow, which means that we won't have 500 patients today and 100 tomorrow. anytime you have a peak and valley situation, you're talking about a wait," he said.
Watkins not only offers prepaid and inexpensive services; its pharmacy also sells relatively inexpensive medications acting as the director of the pharmacy.
"There are some things that are a lot cheaper, and there are some things that are fairly comparable in town. As a general rule, however, any item that is not much more expensive can be obtained for less expense than other places around town." Baughman said.
The pharmacy can offer cheaper medicines, he said, because it buys its supplies from the state purchasing division, which purchases medicine in large quantities, thus getting the medicine at a reduced rate.
THE COST OF MEDICINE plus a pharmacist's filling fee determines the price a patient pays for the medicine. Baughman said,
The pharmacy, whichills 60,000 to 65,000 prescriptions a year, is staffed by
professional pharmacists and fourth- fifth-year pharmacy students, he said.
Baughman said that emergency room nurses could provide a 34-hour supply of medicine if a physician were present in the clinic after the pharmacy was closed.
However, he said, the nurses do not have access to the pharmacy. The pharmacists pre-package medication available to emergency room nurses.
Baughman said that if a patient needed help with a medical problem he could call the pharmacy or the emergency room nurse.
THE PHARMACY'S HOURS are 8
m. to 1 p.m. weekdays and 8 to 11 a.m.
thursdays
He said that filled prescriptions must be picked up during preschool pharmacy hours and that they could not be left alone in the hospital to be picked up.
The hours students may check in to see a doctor are from 8 to 11:30 a.m. and 2 to 4:30 p.m. weekdays and 8 to 11:30 a.m. Saturdays.
The hospital's emergency room is open 24 hours a day.
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ENTRIES DUE
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at 4 at 9:00 p.m. for your viewing
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Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Cartoons Beach Party with Frankie Avalon & Annette
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OFFICIALS CLINIC Thurs. Sept. 1 4:30 p.m. Robin. Fields
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Touch Football Managers Meeting Tues. August 30 Robinson N. Gym 6:00 p.m. Sept. 6
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Troy Morrison a.m.
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Stephane Learned/instructor
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Dr. Wawrone Ossaslest/instructor
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