Delaware County Daily Times, May 26, 2004
Delco's nurses immune to forced overtime
By PATTI MENGERS , pmengers@delctoimes.com 05/26/2004
Not since the so-called Storm of the Century in 1996 have nurses been forced to work
overtime at Riddle Hospital in Middletown.
"The last time was when we had that 30-inch snow storm and there was no way we could
get nurses in here, even with the help of the Army Reserve," said Riddle Hospital President
Dan Kennedy.
The nurses who were finished their shifts, for the most part, couldn't get home, so they agreed to stay and work, he noted.
Riddle, like all Delaware County hospitals, does not have mandatory overtime for nurses.
However, mandatory overtime is a major problem at the 80 percent of Pennsylvania's hospitals that do not have
nurses' unions noted Bill Cruice, executive director of the 5,000-member Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and
Allied Professionals or PASNAP.
Cruice was among those Monday who urged a State Senate Judiciary Committee to support a law banning
mandatory overtime, which they say is a primary cause of a nursing shortage in Pennsylvania.
The committee is considering Senate Bill 722 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.
In Delaware County, the approximately 1,200 registered nurses at Crozer-Chester Medical Center, Upland and
Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital, Darby, who are represented by PASNAP do not have mandatory overtime said Cruice.
"It's a significant problem, primarily one of patient safety," Cruice told the Daily Times Tuesday. "Nurses are prone to
make medical errors if they are made to work long hours beyond their major shifts."
Crozer-Chester Medical Center is a part of Crozer-Keystone Health System which also includes Delaware County
Memorial Hospital in the Drexel Hill section of Upper Darby where nurses are not unionized, and Springfield Hospital and
Taylor Hospital, Ridley Park, which do have nurses' unions.
"We do not mandate overtime for nurses in any of our hospitals," said Crozer-Keystone spokesperson Kathy Scullin.
Cruice said the proposed bill includes an exception for declared emergencies and mass disasters but maintained that
in those situations, plenty of nurses will usually volunteer to work overtime.
"If truck drivers and pilots have their time regulated because of concerns of safety we feel it is long past due for
nurses who are dealing with very, very sick patients.
It is long past due that overtime be banned for nurses in Pennsylvania," said Cruice.
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.
Officials from the Hospital & Health System Association of Pennsylvania contend the use of mandatory overtime is not
as widespread as nursing organizations suggest, and that imposing a ban would create an unfunded mandate.