Increased salaries are a factor
Medical Center in money crisis
By BOB WOMACK
Kansan Staff Writer
The most immediate problem facing the University of Kansas Medical Center involves a lack of sufficient operating funds, said Russell H. Miller, Director of the Medical Center.
Miller said that without additional monies to provide better salaries, the Medical Center couldn't meet competition from other Kansas City hospitals. He predicted if needed state support is not forthcoming, the Medical Center would have greater and greater difficulty attracting adequate personnel.
"We're having real difficulty maintaining our present operation at the level we think it needs to be," Miller said. Because of inflationary factors, costs are rapidly increasing for the Medical Center. Increased salary scales are a factor in the increasing costs.
The Medical Center faced a near crisis in personnel last week, in which 85-90 employees might quit their jobs if a controversial pay category established by the State Finance Council had taken effect.
The Medical Center participates in a program which gives conscientious objectors an opportunity to work as orderlies, bookkeepers, clerks, laboratory aides, and maintenance personnel in lieu of military service. An idea developed within the Finance Council that these employees should be paid at the minimum level of salary equivalent to the pay as a new recruit in the armed forces.
The Medical Center officials expressed concern that these men would quit their jobs and go to work for other hospitals in the Kansas City area which also participate in the CO program.
Miller said it would have been almost impossible to replace CO's because, "We are very un-competitive in hiring young men in the Kansas City area, and the CO's are the single largest source of young manpower we have been able to identify."
A Medical Center official said the concern to the Board of Regents, the Chancellor, and the Governor, and last week the finance Council rescinded its action to create the special low-paying classification for CO's.
Miller said, "We're quite relieved that this action was rescinded because we believe it was discriminatory as we understand the interpretation of the attorney general's office."
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Miller said the Medical Center had made an urgent recommendation that the minimum scale paid to clerical help, institutional workers, and maintenance personnel be increased to help attract workers in these areas.
The Medical Center did not receive the $150,000 they requested from the Legislature to continue their land acquisition and long range planning. Miller said a similar request would be made this year.
"Unless plans can be made fairly promptly, within the next year or two, we are going to fall behind quite rapidly," Miller said.
The second greatest problem facing the Medical Center now concerns the need for additional facilities to accommodate the teaching programs as they now exist, Miller said. He said the prospect for increased enrollment was very much limited by the present physical facilities.
Not only planning, but continued construction is a definite necessity for the Medical Center, Miller said. Obsolete hospital facilities must be replaced.
Land acquisition is a real problem for the medical Center, because it is surrounded by homes. A consulting firm and committees of faculty members have been working to develop careful long range plans, despite severe limits on funds for such planning.
Miller said the Medical Center would have to look for additional funds in the near future in order to implement the increased enrollment plans.
A $2 million project heavily financed by private sources in the mental retardation field is now under construction. The second step in this project, a clinical
Rhodesia gets free
SALISBURY, Rhodesia (UPI)
SALISBURY, Rhodesia (UPI)
—Rhodesia became an independent republic of 4.5 million blacks ruled by 241,000 whites today, severing the country's 80-year link with the British throne.
Virtually no fanfare accompanied the cutting of the ties.
"We just think of it as a dull little occurrence," a government spokesman said. "It was a sort of automatic thing. Once the constitution had been approved there was nothing else but this to happen."
"This has been exceedingly helpful and without this kind of cooperation, I think our land acquisition opportunities would be almost non-existent," Miller said.
training center for the care of children with birth defects and for mental retardation research, depends on whether the state appropriates $425,000 in additional funds, Miller said.
The University of Kansas covers 930 square acres, not quite as much as the Kodak plant in Rochester, N.Y.
The third major project will be started in July, he said. This is a critically needed central heating plant.
Miller emphasized the importance of the cooperation of the Endowment Association in acquiring land for future expansion. They can move quickly to acquire property when the owner wants to sell. The Medical Center later buys the property from the Endowment Association—if money is available.
RAISE YOUR READING RATE 50% - 100% FREE A SPECIAL MESSAGE TO WESTERN CIV STUDENTS
In order to help you prepare for the Western Civ. Comprehensive May 9, we will raise your reading speed 50-100% , free.
Bring Russell's, "Science and Religion." Please be on
(Right behind the school of Religion. Follow the signs)
Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics 1314 Oread