Date: October 18, 2015

To:
Bruce Wright, M.D.
Executive Director
Washington State University Health and Wellness Services
From: Paul Choi, Student
Washington State University
Subject: Proposal for expanded night and weekend hours at Health and Wellness

Purpose
The purpose of our proposal is to request the expansion of hours at night and during the
weekend at the Health and Wellness Services at Washington State Universitys Pullman
Campus.

Table of Contents

Executive Summary...3
Introduction..4
Research Methods.5
Results..7
Conclusion...8
Recommendation9
Work Cited..10
Appendix: Usage on Health and Wellness Services Survey11

Executive Summary

A resident in one of the residence halls on campus came and talked to me regarding
hours of the Health and Wellness Services and also the Health Fee. We came to a
conclusion that the hours available at the HWS are very limited. The hours of the Health
and Wellness services are from 9am 5pm, Mondays-Fridays, with Saturday being
9am-1pm. After the conversation with residents in the building I work in, I have decided
to develop a plan to try to potentially convince Dr. Bruce Wright to expand the hours for
Health and Wellness.
To gain more understanding of this issue, I have conducted an assessment on students
regarding usage of the HWS. This assessment/survey has been beneficial for HWS as
they can potentially see what students feel about the services offered. I would distribute
this survey around the residence halls, if given permission from the Director of
Residence Life. After receiving the survey results back, I would then assess and see
what kind of information was given. Along with this, I would like to interview with Dr.
Bruce Wright, the Executive Director of Health and Wellness to see what he thinks
about this proposal before I write the Recommendation Memo to him.
To perform this research, I project that I would spend about 20 hours on research,
writing the recommendation, assessing the data, and cost spent for my time. The total
cost would come out to be a rate of $900.00 for this assessment and information
regarding HWS to potentially expand hours.
If this research was to be approved, I would begin the research and survey immediately
as planned.

Introduction
While talking with residents in Stimson Hall, I came across the fact that students that
take 7 or more credits at Washington State University, Pullman campus are required to
pay the $180.00 Health Fee. Many students have said that this is quite an expensive
fee and also mentioned that the hours are somewhat limited to students living in
residence halls. The hours of the Health and Wellness services are from 9am 5pm,
Mondays-Fridays, with Saturday being 9am-1pm. After the conversation with residents
in the building I work in, I have decided to develop a plan to try to potentially convince
Dr. Bruce Wright on expanding the hours for Health and Wellness.
We have a Health and Wellness Service center that offers a high-quality health care
with certified physicians. Many students have said they have utilized it while others have
said that they dont use it. What is lacking is the hours in which after 5pm, the residents
and students are not able to access the Health and Wellness Services, in which they
have paid for. The understanding is that if it is past the hours, you may call the 24/7
hotline to talk to a professional in a clinic in Seattle. There is a danger in which people
call on clinic hotlines to try and figure it out because the problem could be more than
what they think it would be.
What is unknown in the problem is what kind of budget the Health and Wellness
Services have. Also, it could be a governmental law that clinics such as the Health and
Wellness Services are to only operate within a day operation hours due to it not being a
hospital. The fee also might be a necessary component in order to fund the Health and
Wellness Services staff and operations.
The audience in which will be benefited will be both Dr. Wright and the students who are
required to pay this Health Fee. Dr. Wright would be able to understand and receive
feedback to what is perceived of the Health and Wellness Services. Dr. Wright could
also help to determine whether it is possible to extend the hours of operations to later in
the night as well as the weekend.

Research Methods
In this proposal it is important to gather data and research to help determine whether
the expansion of hours for the Health and Wellness Services is possible.
The following would help determine the best course of action:

A. Understanding the statistics of late night Urgent Care usage

Statistics show that Urgent Care is highly used during the weekend after 5pm and after
7pm during the weekday. In this article, I found it to be very interesting to see a set of
data points already assessed on usage of Urgent care. This information clearly shows
what times in which Urgent Care was needed, which could help potentially have more
hours open in the Health and Wellness for students to utilize.
B. Looking at other University Hours for their HWS services.
Looking at the Vaden Health Center, the Stanford University Student Health Center, it
looks like they have medical services from 8 am to 8 pm, Monday to Thursday and 8am
to 5pm on Friday. It is also open 11 am to 3 pm on Saturdays and Sundays. This is
comparing during academic year. During the breaks all services have limited hours.
Look at the Hall Health Center, the University of Washington Student Health Center, it
hours are very similar to that of WSU with 8am-5pm, Mondays-Fridays, but the only
difference is that the health center is closed on weekends and university holidays.
C. Surveying Students regarding usage on Health and Wellness.
Health and Wellness Services is a center for students to use when needed. By
assessing what the students are saying about the Health and Wellness Services would
be important information to seek in this proposal. The survey consisted of not too many
questions, but enough to assess the issue.
The following were questions asked on the survey:

How often do you utilize Health and Wellness Services?

o Once a week
o Several times a week
o Once a month
o Several times a month
o Other
Throughout your college career, how often did you go to Health and
Wellness?
o Once a week
o Several times a week

o Once a month
o Several times a month
o Other
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being good, how were the services at
Health and Wellness?
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being very satisfied, how do you feel about
the hours the Health and Wellness Services have?
Would you want more hours available at the Health and Wellness
Services? If yes, to what time should it be expanded to?

D. Interview with Dr. Bruce Wright

Dr. Bruce Wright is the Executive Director of Health and Wellness Services. Having an
interview with Dr. Wright would be something I would like to do in order to try and
maybe get the idea out to him. I would definitely ask him questions regarding whether
the hours could be expanded. I am assuming that conversations about getting the hours
expanded is something not new to him so having a conversation with him before the
final proposal would be something interesting.
Some questions that will potentially be asked to Dr. Wright are:

Why are the hours of the HWS limited to 9am-5pm on Mondays to

Fridays and 9am-1pm on Saturday?
Is there a reason why you cant open hours on Sundays?
Have you considered expanding hours to benefit the students more?
Why is the Health Fee set at $180.00?

E. Final Recommendation Memo

After the survey and interview, a final recommendation memo will be written to Dr.
Bruce Wright for final review.

Results
A. Understanding the statistics of late night Urgent Care usage
According to the research done by the Bio Med Center which does Health Services
Research, that many urgent care services do not open up as much as they should do.
The survey consisted with surveying 1800 urgent care facilities in which 32.7%were
open 9am or later over the weekday, when it should be open at around 8am or earlier.
Only 41.1% were open 9pm or later over the weekday. It also stated that about 40.9%
were open 7pm or later on Saturdays and 34.1% on Sundays (Weinick)
B. Looking at other University Hours for their HWS services.
Most university hours had very similar hours of their Student Health Services as
Washington State does. Looking at the Vaden Health Center, the Stanford University
Student Health Center, it looks like they have medical services from 8 am to 8 pm,
Monday to Thursday and 8am to 5pm on Friday. It is also open 11 am to 3 pm on
Saturdays and Sundays. This is comparing during academic year. During the breaks all
services have limited hours (Vaden Health Center).
Look at the Hall Health Center, the University of Washington Student Health Center, it
hours are very similar to that of WSU with 8am-5pm, Mondays-Fridays, but the only
difference is that the health center is closed on weekends and university holidays
(Primary Care).

C. Surveying Students regarding usage on Health and Wellness.

The survey had not as many as I wanted it to have, but it had 84 responses from
students. I believe this is due to a short time to do the survey and was not as advertised
as it could have been. With the responses that I received, about 60 percent said they
dont utilize the services so they picked other. It was the same for often they go to
Health and Wellness. Many felt the services of the HWS was at a level of 4 out of 10,
and most were not as satisfied with the hours which was at 4 as well. They felt that
hours should be extended to at least 7pm or maybe even 9pm and if that were to
happen they would utilize it more often. Some other comments on the survey was that
customer service not good and felt that they did not receive the attention they needed
when they used it.
D. Interview with Dr. Bruce Wright
This interview did not happen as Dr. Bruce Wright was unavailable to do an email. I
then emailed him, but got no respond.

Conclusions
A. Understanding the statistics of late night Urgent Care usage
On the basis of Urgent care and comparing it to our HWS, the hours are very similar. As
the HWS is not an Urgent care facility the hours are not past a normal operation day. If
Urgent care facilities are not making the effort to have many hours past the operation
day 8am-5pm, there isnt a reason why HWS should extend hours.
B. Looking at other University Hours for their HWS services.
Looking at other University hours, it is quite interesting how similar the hours are
compare to WSU and University of Washington. I feel that because medical care is a
sensitive issue most universities even with a medical program feel that students should
be utilizing the hospital for better services.
But maybe having an extra 2-3 hours past 5 pm like the Stanford University Health
center could be better to give the students a better opportunity to make appointments
during their busy schedules.
C. Surveying Students regarding usage on Health and Wellness.
With the survey of students, most students felt that the hours dont need to be extended
as they do not utilize the services as much. Also, with this survey it brings up the point
that many students feel that they dont receive quality service at the HWS so many
students would rather use the hospital.
D. Interview with Dr. Bruce Wright
This interview did not happen as Dr. Bruce Wright so a conclusion will not be written.

Recommendation
Based on the research I recommend that HWS do not extend the hours of operation,
but rather aim to try and improve services at the HWS. Students felt that they needs
were not met when they used the HWS. For example, a student felt the level of
customer service they received was not top notch.

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Work Cited

24-Hour Crisis Hotline - The Samaritans. (n.d.). Retrieved October 12, 2015.
Primary Care. (n.d.). Retrieved October 12, 2015.
Vaden Health Center Hours of Operation. (n.d.). Retrieved October 12, 2015.
Weinick, R. M., Bristol, S. J., & DesRoches, C. M. (2009). Urgent care centers in the
U.S.: Findings from a national survey. BMC Health Services Research,9, 79.
http://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-9-79

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Appendix: Usage on Health and Wellness Services Survey

This was the survey that was distributed to the students in the Residence Hall. I
received 84 responses.

How often do you utilize Health and Wellness Services?

o 5%-Once a week
o 3%-Several times a week
o 25%-Once a month
o 2%-Several times a month
o 60%-Other: Never

Throughout your college career, how often did you go to Health and
Wellness?
o 5%-Once a week
o 3%-Several times a week
o 25%-Once a month
o 2%-Several times a month
o 60%-Other: Never

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being good, how were the services at

Health and Wellness?
o 1s: 2%
o 2s: 5%
o 3s: 15%
o 4s: 64%
o 5s: 7%
o 6s: 3%
o 7s: 4%
o 8s: 0%
o 9s: 0%
o 10s: 0%

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being very satisfied, how do you feel about
the hours the Health and Wellness Services have?
o 1s: 2%
o 2s: 5%
o 3s: 15%
o 4s: 64%
o 5s: 7%
o 6s: 3%
o 7s: 4%
o 8s: 0%
o 9s: 0%
o 10s: 0%

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Would you want more hours available at the Health and Wellness
Services? If yes, to what time should it be expanded to?
-7pm: 60%
-9pm: 20%
-24 hours: 20%