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University Daily Kansan, March 24, 1983
New procedures shorten wait at Watkins
By JIM BOLE Staff Reporter
The wait for doctors at Watkins Memorial Hospital has been cut in half because of new streamlined procedures, a hospital official said yesterday.
The average wait has decreased from about two hours to less than an hour in the past two weeks because the flow of students to see doctors has improved and medical loads have been reduced, said Calista Orent, director of nursing services.
"It's better for the students and it's better for the doctors," she said.
MARK HOLLOWAY, Topeka senior and member of the student health advisory board, said cooperation among the clerical, nursing and physician staffs was the main reasons for the faster service.
"The improvements the staffs have made are just spectacular," he said.
Before, students were examined by doctors in the order they came to the hospital, Orent said. Doctors had to pick up students' medical records and call students from the waiting room, she said.
Now administrative clerks use color codes in a student's registration form and medical records to indicate the basic medical needs of the student, she said. The color codes show whether the student requires emergency help, immunization, orthopedic or other treatment, she said.
THE STUDENT IS THEN seen by a nurse who makes a preliminary diagnosis of the student's symptoms that will help the doctor treat the student quickly, she said. The new system is better able to 'detect students with medical problems that demand immediate attention,' she said.
For example, a nurse who saw a student complaining of mononucleosis symptoms would have the blood tests
completed by the time the student saw a doctor, she said.
The preliminary screening by nurses has saved many students from waiting because they often only want an answer to a question. Students use tests or immunization shots, she said.
After seeing a nurse, students still must wait for a doctor. Each of Watkins' eight doctors now has two offices, so while a doctor is seeing one patient, nurses can prepare a patient in his other office, she said. Lights above each office notify nursing assistants when a doctor is ready for another patient, or when a room is in use or empty, she said.
SHELLEY MORRIS, Overland Park senior, was seen by a doctor 20 minutes after she came to Watkins.
after she came back. She said she had waited more than two hours for a doctor when she had visited Watkins last spring.
A new general purpose form elim-
inates a bundle of laboratory test forms
doctors had to fill out for each student's permanent record, Orent said.
Now a doctor only has to write the student's name, check the appropriate lines and sign the new form; and clerksvs also form for permanent records, she said.
ORENT ALSO SAID a trial appointment system had been working well for Raymond Schweiger, acting chief of physician at Walkins.
Stacl Feldman, Wichita junior and member of the health advisory board said "The new system is excellent; each other provides better service."
Schwegler needs appointments scheduled because he has assumed hospital administrative duties left by his parents. Services, who have been ill, Orent said.
David Ambler, vice chancellor for student affairs, said Wollmann, who had been ill for two weeks, would be gone indefinitely.
Gunman tries to take Army honor guard hostage
By United Press International
ARLINGTON, Va. — A man held the four-man honor guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery at gunpoint yesterday but was discharged later. He was discharged him in the face with his ceremonial saber, police said.
Authorities said no members of the honor guard were harmed. They were from Ft. Myer, near the cemetery. Their names were not released.
Authorities said the gunman had
sneaked up on the honor guard during a changing of the guard at 5:30 p.m. yesterday. The soldiers, marching with precision and looking neither left nor right, did not see the man as he approached them.
A SPOKESMAN FOR THE U.S. Park Police identified the suspect as Robert Whitbeck, 36, an Air Force veteran from Virginia Beach, Va. He was cut in the face during the struggle. The Hospital for Orthopedics and Rebhabilitation, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.
"He was slightly injured while being disarmed," said Phillip Kramer, a spokesman for the Park Police.
The ceremonial swords, which hang from the hip to roughly mid-shin, are not kept sharp, the spokesman said.
No motive has been established.
The gunman held the ceremonial honor guard at bay for about 20 minutes before the lieutenant, who was one of the four guards, "kind of walked over and slashed him with the ceremonial sword before he even knew it," Kramer said.
THE SUSPECT DROPPED the gun when he was struck by the sword, and police moved in for the arrest. Officers said criminal charges would be filed against the man.
The Tomb is in an open area in the national cemetery and sits on a hill overlooking the nation's capital. Krauss's official guard was on duty 24 hours a day.
The guard is provided on alternate days by the Marine Corps and the Army.
Panel OKs postponing enactment of loan bill
By SUSAN STANLEY Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
A House subcommittee approved a proposal yesterday to wait seven months before implementing a law that would deny federal loans to any college student who had not registered for the draft.
That move, however, will not keep the University from continuing to collect draft registration verifications, Jeff Weinberg, the associate director of the office of financial aid, said yesterday.
Weinberg said that the postponement, if it passes, would be a good thing.
WINERING SAID that if the seven month delay was passed, students who would be receiving aid checks in August would not have to provide verification of their registration.
"We will go on collecting the information until a time when it seems no longer likely that it will be of any use to us," he said.
Any delay in implementation gives legislators who had voted for the bill previously the chance to reconsider their votes, Weinberg said, which might lead to the law's being overturned.
The measure now will be considered by the full House Education and Labor Committee and the Armed Services Committee. The committee is composed of the subcommittee on post secondary education, which considered the bill,
said the delay until next February was necessary because it would be very difficult for colleges across the country to occupy the law in July as scheduled.
COMPLICATING THE issue is a March 9 ruling by a Minnesota federal judge, temporarily banning implementation of the law in July.
U. S. District Judge Donald Alson, who is hearing a suit against the law, has given no indication when he will issue a final ruling in the suit, filed by the Minnesota chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Weinberg said that depending upon how the Department of Education decides to apply the law, the amount of paper work that the financial aid officer would have to do would be staggering.
GARY JONES, AN under-
secretary at the Department of
Education, told Simon's committee
that the administration opposed any
Jones said his department planned to issue a regulation in early May, modifying the controversial law so that students, until 1985, would only have to sign an affidavit saying they had registered. Mr. Jones was asked to provide a letter from the Selective Service, as the law now specifies.
College officials say that will create a lot of paperwork and cause trouble for students who have lost their letters.
Plan for the future.
Leasing now for summer and fall.
Jayhawker Towers Apartments
1603 W. Fifteenth
843-4993
FORT COLLINS, CO, Campus West COLUMBIA, MO, On the Stroll Way
GREELEY, CO, The Grealey Mall
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