North country hospitals plan to take overtime law in stride

North country hospital administrators believe business will continue as usual despite the new state law banning mandatory overtime for nurses that goes into effect next July.

A Gouverneur-based health care workers union, Service Employees International Union, Local 1199, has participated in lobbying for this legislation since 2000, said Patricia B. Greenberg, executive director of the union's Nurses Alliance.

"It's been a major coalition effort," she said.

Gov. David A. Paterson signed the bill into law last week. He said in a press release that "by prohibiting mandatory overtime, New York state's hospitals and health care facilities will be able to provide a greater quality of care to its patients."

Ms. Greenberg she thinks the law will benefit nurses and patients. The law has the potential to make health care services safer and the nursing profession more appealing to the younger generation and the 70,000 registered nurses who have licenses but don't work in the field, she said.

"I think that we had to stop a practice that's dangerous to patients and undermines the nursing profession. That's the bottom line," she said.

All administrators interviewed said their hospitals rarely use mandatory overtime and it is a last resort.

"It isn't a favorable option for either the employee or the organization," said Krista A. Kittle, spokeswoman for Samaritan Medical Center, Watertown. "I really think this type of legislation is designed for organizations that may use mandatory overtime instead of a last resort as more of a standard scheduling practice. It's certainly good legislation for organizations that are abusing it."

Ben Moore III, chief executive officer of River Hospital, Alexandria Bay, said the law seems to have enough exceptions for emergencies.

"My general impression is that it's designed to make sure that nurses aren't overworked, and there are good-enough provisions in case of an emergency situation," Mr. Moore said. "I don't foresee any problems."

Exceptions to the law include natural or other types of disasters, a governmental declaration of emergency, a nurse involved in an ongoing medical or surgical procedure, when no other staffing is available and if a nurse voluntarily agrees to overtime.

"Those are really the main reasons we would really mandate people," Ms. Kittle said about the exceptions.

Some administrators had concerns even though they think the impact of the law will be minimal.

Carthage Area Hospital Administrator Walter S. Becker is worried about whether interpretation of the law's exceptions would include some of the instances in which area hospitals use mandatory overtime, such as inclement weather and an excessive number of employees calling in sick.

Nancy L. Rutledge, vice president for patient care services at Canton-Potsdam Hospital, Potsdam, said she thinks the law may exaggerate the effects of the current nursing shortage.

"For many hospitals, not necessarily ours, this will likely cause them to rely more heavily upon expensive sources of staffing such as travel nurses," she said. "We'll certainly have to look at scheduling practices."

Ms. Greenberg said the legislation eventually will alleviate the nursing shortage. She said mandatory overtime was identified as one of the major sources of dissatisfaction for nurses in their individual work situations, according to the state Board of Nursing. The survey polled 14,000 registered nurses in 2002-03.

"In some places, it has really been the big factor in nurses leaving the profession," she said.