Hospitals Cutting Corners at the Expense of Employees

In the midst of a health care renovation, it is not only the patients who are feeling the pressures of today's economy. The Obama administration is seeking an investigation into several hospitals and their overtime pay practices.

Nurses tend to be the primary victims of these pay practices. They are being classified as exempt employees and are expected for work 50+ hours a week without being paid for that extra time. Throughout hospitals many workers are working through their lunch time but since the time is automatically deducted from their daily hours they are essentially working for no pay.

I believe that this practice is not only happening in health care. Many employers have developed a system which deducts meal times from daily hours under the assumption that said employees are taking their lunch. This problem is becoming more apparent within the hospital systems because major systems are losing law suits in this area and are having to pay back the money that is owed to the employees. Kaiser Permanente of California will have to pay 7.25 million if they decide to settle on a lawsuit which claims that many workers were wrongfully classified as exempt and denied any overtime pay.

With the economy how it is, it is no surprise that everyone is trying to cut costs in several areas. Even the health care industry, which is in constant demand, needs ways to conserve. This does not mean that it needs to come at the expense of their employees. It seems that they are working their employees to the extremes but are not willing to compensate for their time. I have seen a lot of waste within the health care industry so maybe they should hire employees who can analyze these areas and develop some efficient and cost conscious processes.

Regulations need to be put in place to make sure that employees aren't being taken advantage of. Health care workers aren't typically a part of a union and it takes maintenance on a federal level. There is The Joint Commission who creates regulations for hospital practices but there needs something similar for hospital personnel. With the law suits that are arising from this maybe a commission will be instituted to maintain pay and employment practices in health care.