PENNSYLVANIA Nurses seek statewide ban on mandatory overtime

Workers disagree on whether a ban will help alleviate the nurse shortage.
HARRISBURG (AP) -- Certified nursing assistant Mary Cress doesn't mind logging overtime in a real emergency, such as the time she worked two 16-hour shifts sandwiched around eight hours off during a blizzard.
But it's another matter when a staffing shortage forces the overtime, such as the time a co-worker unexpectedly found herself working a double shift Christmas Day and had to forgo spending time with her ailing mother, Cress told a Senate panel Monday.
"When we're asked -- no, mandated -- to stay past our shift because there was a known hole in the schedule for weeks or there is just not enough staff to go around, that is unfair to push health care workers past the point where we can work safely," said Cress, who works at a nursing home in Frackville.
Cress was among several nursing representatives who urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to support a ban on mandatory overtime, which they say is a primary cause of a nursing shortage in Pennsylvania.
The committee is considering a bill sponsored by Sen. Christine Tartaglione, D-Philadelphia, that would limit the work schedules of nurses and other patient caregivers to 80 hours in a two-week period, except in emergencies. Hospitals and other health care facilities would face fines of $100 to $500 each time they violate the act.
Several other states have enacted overtime bans through either legislation or regulation, including California, New Jersey, Maine, Maryland and West Virginia, according to the Service Employees International Union.
But in Pennsylvania, nurses and hospital administrators disagree over whether imposing a statewide mandatory overtime ban will help alleviate the state's nursing shortage, which the federal government projects will reach 14 percent by 2010 and 30 percent by 2020.
A recent state Health Department nursing survey of registered nurses who renewed their licenses in 2002 and 2003 found that 12.6 percent reported working mandatory overtime in the previous two weeks, said Marilyn Hostetter, coordinator of the Nurse Alliance of Pennsylvania. The alliance is an affiliate of the statewide health care workers union, SEIU's District 1199P.
Nurses unions argue that mandatory overtime contributes to medical errors and high turnover, and it is costly for health care providers.
"By increasing retention, lowering turnover and reducing vacancy rates, legislation to prohibit mandatory overtime except in legitimate emergencies will ultimately help providers' bottom lines," Hostetter said.
Idle claims
But the Hospital & amp; Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania and hospital administrators contend the use of mandatory overtime is not as widespread as nursing organizations suggest, and that imposing a ban would create an unfunded mandate.
Paula Bussard, the hospital association's vice president of policy and regulatory services, said lawmakers should heed recommendations made last month by the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee, which called for establishing a task force to help state government develop a comprehensive solution to the nursing shortage.
"The reality is that there are no quick and easy fixes," Bussard said.
Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, the committee's chairman, said after the hearing that there might be alternatives to an outright ban.
The committee would try to determine whether it could encourage hospitals to follow the example of others, such as Lancaster Regional Medical Center, that have already eliminated mandatory overtime through other means, such as making it a provision of collective bargaining agreements, he said.
"We're probably going to spend the summer dealing with this issue and trying to work out the best solution," said Greenleaf, R-Bucks.
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