Total Outpatient System’
UHSC Undergoes Organizational Changes
DAN WETTA
Have you been to Pickens recently? If
not, you'll find that many changes have
taken place at the University Health
Services Clinic (UHSC).
Among these changes UHSC has,
divided its services into three patient’
■ clinics — the Student Health Clinic, the
Private Patient Clinic and the Employee
Clinic. This was done to provide each
clinic with an equal distribution of
physicians, physician's associates and
nurses to handle the patient load.
"The theme of our clinic is a tota/
outpatient system," emphasized Dan
Wetta, administrative director of UHSC.
"We have made these changes in order to
make available to members of the Duke
and Durham communities the best
possible system for managing an
outpatient's care."
Since approximately half of the 1,100
outpatients seen in the clinics a week are
students, UHSC has furnished them with
their own medical team and reception
and waiting room areas. There are also
separate medical teams for the Private
Patients Clinic and the Employee Clinic,
and patients are handled by appointment
or at their convenience.
During the first week in March, more
students had been seen than in any
previous seven-day period. Dan Wetta
attributed the ability of the clinic to
handle this load to its reorganized system.
Aside from the patient care
management changes at UHSC, if you are
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VOLUME 21, NUMBER 12
MARCH 22, 1974
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
Holiday Schedule Modified To Provide
Employee Flexibility^ Easier Staffing
The 1974 holiday schedule for the
medical center has been modified to
provide greater flexibility for employees
to take time off and to aid the hospital in
staffing for holidays.
For many employees, particularly
those not directly involved in patient
care, this will not necessarily change their
holiday schedule.
The number of holidays—11—will
remain the same, but six of those days
the employee will take at a time agreeable
to him and his supervisor.
Here's the way it will work:
There are five designated holidays for
1974: They are:
New Year's Day (Jan. 1, 1974)
Independence Day (Thursday, July 4)
Labor Day (Monday, Sept. 2)
Thanksgiving Day (Thursday, Nov. 28)
Christmas Day (Wednesday, Dec. 25)
Employees who must work on any of
those days have a choice of how they will
be compensated. They may take payment
of double time and a half for that day.
Or, they may take payment of time and a
half for that day and then take another
day off. The day off may be taken within
30 days before the holiday or within 60
days after.
In addition to the five designated
holidays, medical center employees will
have six additional holidays during the
year. These are called "discretionary"
holidays because they can be taken at the
discretion, or option, of employees and
their supervisors.
Employees will earn one discretionary
holiday for each of the following six
months, provided the employee is on the
payroll the first day of that month:
March, April, May, June, August and
October.
This does not mean that the employee
must take the holiday during each of
those months; he or she merely earns a
holiday for being on the payroll those
months and may take the discretionary
holiday earlier or later in the year.
This means that employees may even
take discretionary holidays in advance of
the months in which they earn them.
For example: Let's say it's now July
and you have worked here since the first
of the year. You earned a discretionary
holiday in March, April, May and June
and took each of them. Now along comes
July 4, which is one of the designated
holidays you'll have off. July 4 falls on a
Thursday, and you would like to have
Friday, July 5, off also so you can have a
long weekend. With the approval of your
supervisor, you could borrow ahead, take
the holiday you will earn in August and
take it off instead on July 5.
If an employee takes a discretionary
holiday before he has earned it (as in the
example above) and quits work before'
working the month in which he would
earn the holiday, the payment for the
unearned holiday will simply be deducted
from his final paycheck.
Discretionary holidays also may be
carried over into the first two months of
the next year. Say, for example, it is next
January and you have not taken the
holidays you earned during August and
Octol^r. You could take those days
anytime during January and February
(Continued on page 2)
a patient planning a future visit to the
clinic, you'll discover that its physical
make-up has changed too.
At patient contact areas you'll find
receptionists and business office and
medical records personnel easily
identifiable by their new uniforms.
If you are a private patient or an
employee looking for information about
registration, the Pickens lobby has been
remodeled with carpeting and an
L-shaped counter staffed by receptionists
to help you with your patient care needs.
Once you have registered, your
medical record has been obtained from
the Medical Records Office, and you are
called to come into an examination room
you will first be seen by one of the five
PAs, each of whom has been assigned to
his own examination room and office.
Following the PA examination and his
consultation with one of the 11
physicians, should you have need of
medication you'll find a retail pharmacy
located near your examination room.
This private patient pharmacy service is
open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.—5
p.m.
After your examination is finished and
your prescription filled, a trip to the
business office in the main lobby will
complete your visit. Private patients and
employees are charged a fee for their
visits. Only those employees who have
sustained an injury or illness on the job
and students who are covered by the
Student Health Policy are exempt from
charges.
Among the other changes at UHSC are
the addition of a library and consultation
area for physicians and PAs, and the
remodeling and expansion of Dr. Richard
Stuelke's Dietary Rehabilitation Clinic
which is separately run by his staff.
As in the past, there still exists the
Screening Clinic for new employees and
those employees needing annual
physicals. The clinic also provides
pre-employment physicals for individuals
connected with industries in the
Raleigh-Durham area and for retirees who
are being tested for Social Security
benefits. - DALE MOSES
(See page 3 for photos of UHSC)-
FIRST MEETING FOR NEW GROUP—T\\e new Duke Hospital Board of Advisors, which was formed to meet periodically and
exchange ideas on health care issues facing the hospital and the community, met for the first time Tuesday night in the Medical
Center Board Room. Seated left to right are: Dewey Scarboro, chairman of the Durham County Commission; Dr. Anne F. Scott,
professor of history at Duke; George R. Herbert, president of Research Triangle Institute; and J. B. Brame, president of Brame
Specialty Co. and chairman of the advisory body. Standing left to right: Dr. Stuart Sessoms, director of Duke Hospital; Robert H.
Hosea, vice president of Liggett & Myers, Inc.; Durham Mayor James R. Hawkins; and Dr. William G. Aniyan, vice president for
health affairs. Board members unable to attend were: William L. Burns Jr., president of Central Carolina Bank & Trust Co.; Mrs.
Martie Johnson, WTVD newswoman; State Sen. Kenneth C. Royall Jr.; Mrs. Asa T. Spaulding of Durham; Nello L. Teer Jr.,
president of Nello Teer Co.; and Durham County Manager E. S. Swindell Jr. Establishment of the advisory group was authorized by
the University Boa^d of Trustees. (Photo by David Williamson)