Daily Bulletin

Bookstore has a new manager -- by Barbara Hallett

Read is pleased his young friends haven't forgotten him. "It was a great experience to be there," he says of UW Place, which has a much more diverse population than that of Village I, where he served as residence life coordinator for three years. "It was good for me to be challenged in that way."

But Read was ready for new challenges, and jumped at the opportunity to work at the Bookstore. "I've always loved bookstores and books, and the operational and service parts intrigued me because of what I've learned in my MBA." A business graduate of Wilfrid Laurier University, he's been pursuing a master's degree in business administration there part-time.

Although these days he's mainly reading textbooks -- "the older you get the more relevant they seem" -- he's recently completed Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie and While I Was Gone by Sue Miller.

While Read does not bring to the post a deep knowledge of the book industry, that expertise already exists at the Bookstore, he says. "We have some very experienced people here."

His job, in part, will be to ensure that that knowledge is utilized properly. What he brings to the position is "general management abilities, a knowledge of operational processes with an HR (human resources) approach," focusing on facilitating team work and providing good service to clients.

Having big box bookstores breathing down the necks of little booksellers doesn't faze him. "A university bookstore -- which aims to break even rather than make a profit -- has an advantage," says Read, "when it comes to service. My goal is to have a really positive perception among all our clients of the Bookstore as a valuable service resource on campus. We're not in the business to make money."

A feature at the store this week is Margaret Atwood's new novel The Blind Assassin -- there will be a draw for a copy of the book and another draw for ownership of the banner promoting it that's currently on display.

Read plans to "continue to provide and build an even better service for the clients." For the students, that includes an almost daily fine tuning of the ExpressBooks service, which allows students to order their texts online and avoid the long lineups in September -- and to enjoy a savings of 10 per cent off the in-store price on all ExpressBooks orders.

"The less congestion in the store, the more satisfied the customers are, and that's our ultimate goal."

"Chapters can't really compete with us," he adds. "We know what the students need, we have the required texts in stock, and in almost all cases, the prices are the same. Our refund policy revolves around the students' add/drop schedule, and they get refunds on the spot."

Read also plans to focus on building bridges with the academic community, "developing good relationships with the faculty on campus and finding out what they need and want in terms of both texts and research material. We want to develop that connection, that comfortable feeling with academics on campus."

Positions available this week

• Operations Assistant, Cooperative Education & Career Services, USG 4
• Counsellor, Health Services, USG 10/11
• Computer Consultant, School of Accountancy, USG 7
• Project Co-ordinator, Kinesiology, USG 8
• Secretarial Assistant, Office of the Dean of Arts, USG 3
• Public Safety Patrol Officer, Security, USG 5
• Catering Supervisor, Food Services, USG 6

Concern about health waiting lists

He describes "reports that waiting lists and waiting times for essential health services are long and getting longer. To objectively and systematically explore this issue, Health Canada recently funded a team of researchers. . . . Because health restructuring has shifted responsibility for health service planning, allocation and surveillance onto hospitals, cancer centres, and regional health authorities (RHAs), the project attempted to determine if these facilities had access to valid waiting list data and how they use these lists.

"Most information on health service waiting lists and times has come from self-report surveys of physicians, despite the fact that physicians use different methods to collect, define and interpret waiting list data. Physician self-reports are also subject to bias because waiting list data provide potential leverage for securing additional resources such as operating room time (and income). As well, a long waiting list for service from one or more practitioners does not necessarily mean that citizens cannot obtain the same service from another equally qualified practitioner in their community."

He writes that a waiting list is "a valid indicator" only if the people on the list "meet some minimum clinical criteria. Generally this involves conforming to some clinical benchmark or practice guideline. Second, patients assigned to the list should be prioritized, based on their level of need, to ensure that the burden of suffering is equitably distributed and the risk of negative outcomes associated with waiting for service are minimized. Third, waiting lists require auditing at regular intervals to ensure patients continue to require the service and to re-order the queue so that patients remain properly prioritized."

The research project involved a survey of hospital executives, asking about waiting list data for various procedures, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG), hip or knee replacement, cataract removal, and non-urgent outpatient psychiatric therapy. Researchers also talked to cardiac surgeons, orthopedic surgeons, ophthalmologic surgeons, and psychiatrists, and there were similar surveys and consultations about radiation oncology (cancer treatment).

Among the findings: "The type and quality of available data tends to be variable. . . . Few standardized criteria are being used to define basic concepts (e.g., "waiting time") or screen or prioritize patients. Few standardized methods are in place to monitor patient outcomes or designate when actions are required to increase or decrease waiting lists."

McDonald writes: "Despite the perception that waiting list problems are on the rise, respondents believed they have at least a moderate degree of control over them. Many organizations recognized the positive benefits of initiatives such as standardizing assessment procedures and the use of practice guidelines. However, most also believed waiting lists are highly influenced by resource supply, despite the fact that the research literature found little evidence that adding resources necessarily reduces waiting list problems. . . .

"When properly organized, managed and calibrated, waiting lists can be an important planning and allocation tool to ensure citizens have equitable access to quality health care. However, there is insufficient evidence at the present time to suggest that current waiting list data are a valid and reliable indicator of access to quality health care. Therefore, we must not use current waiting list information to make sweeping statements about the impact of health reform or the quality of our health system."

McDonald said this week that a more detailed report on the study appeared in two articles in the Canadian Medical Association Journal in May. "We conclude," he said, "that more money is unlikely to help the system; rather, we require much better management of wait lists.

"It is interesting that a report from the Fraser Institute last month reached the same conclusion -- although I suspect their perspective was considerably different."

The talk of the campus

We had the first meeting yesterday of the UWinfo steering committee, created as part of the new management structure for UW's central web site. There's nothing to report yet, but the senior managers on the committee, and two of us on the staff, talked about graphic design, site structure, the balance of internal and external users of UWinfo, the need to provide an interface to administrative systems and on-line teaching as well as purely serving up information, and other such issues. The current estimate is that the UWinfo home page is the gateway to about 250,000 web pages on some 300 web servers at Waterloo.

Speaking of web sites, Linda Teather in the library's systems department sends word that "Access to the UW Library's web site will not be available on Thursday, August 31, between 5:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. to permit the implementation of a new server. There will, for example, be no access to the UW Library home page between those hours. TRELLIS and other electronic services will still be available via TriUniversity URLs. During Thursday's downtime, please use http://trellis.tug-libraries.on.ca to connect directly to TRELLIS or http://www.tug-libraries.on.ca for the full range of electronic resources."

Back here on earth, the plant operations department is closing the arts pedestrian tunnel as of this morning, for repairs and a paint job. It'll reopen Tuesday morning at 8:30.

This afternoon brings a farewell party for Dawn Ciupa of the human resources department, who's been helping to manage the UW payroll for the past 13 years. The open house will be held from 3:30 to 4:30 at the HR offices in the General Services Complex; last-minute information should be available from Sandie Hurlburt at ext. 3104.

Plan ahead: October 28 will be the date for You @ Waterloo Day, a campus visit-and-tour day for potential students and their parents. "It's the second event of its kind," says Tina Roberts, director of undergraduate recruitment. "Last year it was called Fall Saturday Tour. The event has a number of added features this year." It'll run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the last Saturday of October, "with most of the activities taking place in and around the Student Life Centre."

Among the current needs of the community, as listed by the Volunteer Action Centre: "Help prevent abuse by becoming a trained volunteer prevention educator with the Canadian Red Cross Abuse Prevention Services. By working with schools, sport organizations and community agencies, these volunteers enable teens to understand all forms of abuse and break the cycle of abuse and neglect. Volunteers must be at least 18 years old, reliable and non-judgmental. Comprehensive training is provided. Call 621-1840."

CAR

Editor of the Daily Bulletin: Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
credmond@uwaterloo.ca | (519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
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