UT-Harris County Psychiatric Center

Nursing Procedures

 

Emergency Pay/Staffing Policy

Nursing

Harris County Psychiatric Center: Office Administration

It is the policy of the UTHCPC Nursing department to reimburse at a higher rate, select employees who:  have been required to stay at the hospital due to a severe staffing shortage; must come in to fill a highly needed shift at times of a declared staffing emergency

staffing emergency

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

 

 

Policy

Date of Last Review: 3/22/07
SME: Associate Director of Nursing

It is the policy of the UTHCPC Nursing department to reimburse at a higher rate, select employees who:

·   Have been required to stay at the hospital due to a severe staffing shortage

·   Must come in to fill a highly needed shift at times of a declared staffing emergency

Filling vacancies

Nursing must do the following to ensure that vacancies are filled:

·   Make every attempt to fill vacancies with current staff, casual and per diem

·   Notify the Director of Nursing or designee if all resources have been attempted and have failed

Who defines a staffing emergency

The Director of Nursing decides if the hospital has a staffing emergency using the following guidelines to make the decision:

·   Number of available RNs in-house

·   Number of hours nurses on affected units have been working

·   Availability of replacements (considering nurse manager, assistant nurse manager, etc.)

·   Hospital census

Note:  The Director of Nursing calls an emergency on a shift-by-shift basis until the crisis is over.

Staffing emergency process

If the Director of Nursing declares a hospital staffing emergency, the following steps are taken:

 

Step

Action

1

The Nursing Supervisor/Nurse Manager:

·   Locates self on the unit in need of RN support

·   Approves double time for nurses required to stay past the end of their scheduled shift

·   Opens the doors between two nursing care units to provide maximum visibility between stations

·   May offer $5 more per hour to RNs as an incentive to come in to work

·   Calls the Director of Nursing regarding hospital staffing every 8 hours to inform of status

2

The Nursing Supervisor directs all admissions to units other than the affected unit

3

The Director of Nursing calls a formal review the next working day to review issues surrounding the need to declare a staffing emergency.

 

Related standard

JCAHO HR 1.10