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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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CONTACT: Michael
J. Herzing |
State Rep. Dan Surra |
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Surra reintroduces bill to ban mandatory overtime in hospitals
HARRISBURG, March 16 -- State Rep. Dan Surra, D-Elk/Clearfield, has introduced legislation that would prohibit hospitals and other health-care facilities from forcing nurses and other employees who provide direct patient care to work beyond their regularly scheduled shifts.
The legislation (H.B. 834) includes proposals from a bill Surra introduced in the previous legislation session, as well as a measure that the House of Representatives passed in 2006.
“Nurses in particular are increasingly being forced to work either back-to-back eight hour shifts or additional shifts on top of their regularly scheduled 12-hour shift,” Surra said. “In many cases, this forced overtime is not in response to an emergency but a routine staffing strategy. That is dangerous for nurses and other health-care workers, and dangerous for their patients.”
Surra’s bill would prohibit hospitals and other health-care facilities from routinely requiring nurses and other employees, besides doctors, who provide direct patient care to work beyond a regular shift that has already been agreed upon. While nurses and other employees could volunteer for extra shifts or overtime, it could not be required by the hospital, and nurses and other employees who refuse overtime could not be disciplined, discharged or discriminated against for that reason.
Hospitals and other health-care facilities could require mandatory overtime for patient-care employees in the case of emergencies or other unforeseen circumstances, and only if other reasonable efforts to provide adequate staffing have been exhausted or a patient-care procedure already in progress requires an employee to remain.
“Hospitals cannot continue to use mandatory overtime as a routine way to staff their facilities,” Surra said. “Mandatory overtime not only puts patients at risk, but has led to many nurses and other health-care employees leaving their jobs due to fatigue, frustration and the very real fear that they may someday make a mistake and harm a patient.
“Far from providing a solution for the state’s chronic nursing shortage, mandatory overtime actually contributes to the problem,” he said.
Surra said his measure would direct the state Department of Labor and Industry to develop regulations to implement the legislation, and give the department the authority to fine and/or order corrective actions for health-care facilities that violate the ban on overtime.
Surra said both the House and Senate have in previous sessions considered legislation putting limits on required overtime for nurses; however, the General Assembly has not been able to agree on a bill to send to the governor.
“Getting legislation signed into law that gives nurses and other patient-care providers the relief they need to provide quality care for their patients and also take care of themselves and their families is a crucial step in improving patient care and safety in our health-care system and reducing the nursing shortage in Pennsylvania,” he said.
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