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State Auditor General: Law Protecting Patients, Health Care Workers Not Enforced

PITTSTON — Under state law, health care workers in Pennsylvania cannot be forced to work overtime except in emergencies. But a statewide audit of the Penn...

PITTSTON -- Under state law, health care workers in Pennsylvania cannot be forced to work overtime except in emergencies. But a statewide audit of the Pennsylvania Department of Labor finds this law rarely enforced and as a result, patient care may have suffered.

"A lot of our nurses work a 12-hour shift.  When you`re forced to stay beyond that, a lot of dangerous things can happen," said nurse Lori Schmidt who believes long hours increase the chance of mistakes with patients potentially paying the price.

That was supposed to change in 2009, when the state banned mandatory overtime for most health care workers. The law called for all complaints to be investigated.

Schmidt, who works at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, says she filed six complaints with the state Labor Department and was contacted by an investigator just once.

"The investigator said, 'I`m investigating your claim,' and I said, 'Which one?` and he said, `I think this is from 2012,' and he was calling me in 2014," recounted Schmidt.

"For basically four years, the law wasn`t being enforced," replied Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale.

DePasquale released his audit on the Labor Department's handling of mandatory overtime complaints.

Among its findings:

  • 8% of all complaints were never investigated
  • 45% of the reports on complaints were never completed
  • 87% of the cases had documentation so poor, auditors couldn't tell if complaints were handled properly

"And we really have no idea how effective it was because there was no way to follow what they were doing," said the Auditor General.

For some area nurses, the audit provides vindication.

Terry Marcavage, a staff representative of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP) says more than 400 of the state`s 1,200 mandatory overtime complaints to the state were filed by nurses from our area.

But Marcavage says not a single health care facility in Pennsylvania has been cited for violating the overtime law.

"Don`t you find that strange that in all these years, with complaint forms being filed, that not even one mistake was made by an employer in a violation of the law?" asked Marcavage.

That`s a question that may never be answered.

Auditor General Depasquale presented his findings to acting Labor Secretary Kathy Manderino who has been in office for just three months.

Manderino agrees with all the findings and has promised her agency will fix the problems and handle all complaints on mandatory overtime as quickly as possible.

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