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University Daily Kansan, April 20, 1983
KU officials face new approach to student health care
By JIM BOLE Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
Since the beginning of this century, the University of Kansas' health service has evolved from a rented house on Tennessee Street to a modern hospital with a budget of more than $2 million.
During that time the student health fee has grown from 50 cents paid by 42 students to $51 paid by more than 24,000 students.
David Ambler, vice chancellor for student affairs, said last week that KU's history had always featured the need to complete and health care available.
BUT A RECENT leveling off in enrollment gains, coupled with rising medical costs, will force some new students to KU's student health care, he said.
KU students now receive a variety of services for the $31 student health fee. Included in the fee are unlimited visits to a physician at Watkins Memorial Hospital, most out-patient lab tests, diet and weight control counseling, four mental health clinic visits while at KU and four physical therapy visits a year.
Students must pay extra for overnight stays, in-patient lab tests, X-rays, most emergency care, pharmacy needs that are partially subsidized with fees and physical therapy and mental health clinic visits beyond those covered.
Amberl said that KU's student health care in the future would emphasize more health education and preventive medicine and use would more specialized physician assistants and nurses. He also said he would also be left to other hospitals, he said.
James Dilley, executive director of the American College Health Association in Rockville, Md., said these same trends had been emerging in college health services across the nation in the past five years.
ALTHOUGH BROUGHT ON by economic necessity, this new direction
in health care will not be detrimental to students, he said.
"Health services will be getting out of the hospitals and onto the campuses, reaching students while they are healthy," he said.
"College students have their whole hives ahead, and they need to develop new skills."
Ambler said that no immediate plans had been made toward these new approaches, but that the next decade will bring changes to KU's student health cars.
Recently, however, the health service has undergone several changes to
Last month, streamlined procedures were introduced that hospital officials say have cut waiting times dramatically.
Virginia Dellor, supervisor of X-rays and the laboratory at Watkins, has worked at the health service for 47 years.
"THIS IS THE FIRST major change in the philosophy of the operation of the bible."
Physicians, who have been overworked because of understaffing for the last two years, are being relieved by the hiring of new physicians this year. These new doctors will be paid through a $1 increase in the student health fee, which will bring the fee to $54 for fall students in 1894, new physicians were added a month to the physciens now at Watkins, bringing the total to nine.
James Strobl, acting director of KU's health service, said that by the fall semester, Watkins would have a full staff of 11 full-time physicians.
This fall, debt retirement for the $3.6 million Watkins Memorial Hospital was completed through the payment of a separate hospital building fee that has been approved since the hospital opened in 1974. The fee varied over the years.
THE CONSTRUCTION of the new Watkins and KU's present health
service differ markedly from early attempts to provide health care.
In 1906, KU students organized a Benefit Health Association A 50 cent fee was paid by 42 students. Those who visited were payed to physicians from the fees to pay for physician visits.
Between 1908 and 1932, KU's health service rented houses and health services moved from house to house, ending up at 1406 Tennessee St.
Beatrice Lins, who retired in 1976, was one of two doctors at the Tennessee Street house after she came to KU in 1930.
The house and its small staff were adequate, she said, because KU was
In 1932, KU's first hospital opened. The $175,000 hospital, which is now Twente Hall, was donated by Elizabeth
Watkins in memory of her husband, J.B. Watkins, Watkins' also donated money to KU for scholarships and a house for women students.
DETLOR STARTED WORKING in KU's health service in 1938.
"When we got the new hospital, we were considered one of the top college health services in the nation," she said, "We had people from all over the country coming to see our hospital and staff."
The staff in that new hospital offered most of services offered today — laboratory tests, pharmacy needs, physical exams, X-rays and even minor surgery, such as appendecties and tonsillectomies. In 1932, about 5,300 KU students paid the health fee, which was then $4.
The first full-time director of the KU
health service was Ralph I. Camueton, a physician who directed the service from 1929 to 1965. Members of the staff said that Camuteton, who died in 1970, was instrumental in keeping KU's health service modern and up-to-date.
JAMES GILLISPIE, now head pharmacist at Watkins, began working in 1947 as the lone pharmacist in the hospital. He said Canueton was devoted to making KU student health care top-notch.
"He was so dedicated he checked into every little thing, from looking out for the doctors to getting the new building," he said.
Through the 1930s, '40s and '50s, the hospital, which was designed to serve about 4,500 students, coped with the stress of school students by increases in staff, be said.
Watkins Memorial Hospital, which opened in 1974 at a cost of $3.6 million, was completely paid for last fall. KU's health service has undergone changes this year, and is gearing up for more changes in the future.
KU's student population grew from 4,300 in 1930 to 7,600 in 1950.
"But by the 60s, we knew we weren't going to be able to grow any more," he said.
In 1960, the number of KU students had reached about 10,000.
RAYMOND SCHWEGLER, who is now chief of physicians, became the director in 1965. Since 1958, when he came to the health service, he pushed for a new hospital to alleviate crowded conditions, he said.
"In the '05 we reached a bursting point, we had people lined up out in the street," he said.
Cramped conditions at the hospital continued into the '70s; office and labs were inadequate and waiting hours grew longer, he said.
In 1963, KU's enrollment was about
12,500, the student health fee was $12
and the health service's operating
expenses were $79,000.
By 1973, KU had more than 20,000 students who paid a $23 student health fee.
A NEW HOSPITAL, paid for with a student fee and subsidized with money from the Kansas Legislature and the department of Housing and Urban Development, was finally approved in 1973.
During spring break in 1974, the staff moved into the $3.6 million hospital, which retained the Watkins Memorial Hospital name. Health service expenses, with adjustments in the staff and move, rose to $1.5 million. A $38.50 student health brought in 74 percent of the service's income.
Since then, the health service has grown with the University. Projected expenses for 1983 are $2.7 million, and the $5 health fee will pay 77 percent of the needed amount, the remaining amount will come from patient service fees such as overnight stays, prescriptions or X-rays.
In 1979, enrollment had risen to more than 24,000 and students paid a $46 health fee.
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