Connecticut is suffering from a shortage of healthcare workers, and taxpayers are footing the bill. A new audit of the University of Connecticut Health Center found that UConn Health paid employees upwards of $19 million in overtime during the fiscal years ending on June 30, 2023, and 2024.
Connecticut’s Auditors of Public Accounts reviewed the records from the 15 employees who worked the most overtime during that time period. Four of them earned overtime ranging from 111% to 153% of their normal salaries, and three employees worked between 80 and 100 hours of overtime during the pay period.
Auditors identified a similar finding in their last review of UConn Health, which covered the fiscal years ending on June 30, 2021, and 2022.
“Various factors influence overtime payments,” UConn Health officials said in response to the auditors’ finding. “As a healthcare provider, we must ensure that shifts are always staffed, legally required nurse-staffing ratios are met, and high-quality care is provided. National shortages in healthcare affect roles ranging from direct patient care to facilities, and many specializations currently face intense competition with many systems paying high premiums for certain staff.”
The Connecticut Hospital Association (CTHA) reports that there is a “critical healthcare worker shortage” in the state. A 2024 report from Mercer estimated that the state needs to add 5,700 healthcare workers by 2028 to keep up with demand. Most of these workers will need to be nurses.
The CTHA attributes part of this problem to the wave of retirements caused by an aging workforce, which accelerated during the pandemic, and part of it to the demanding nature of healthcare jobs, which drives qualified individuals out of the industry.
There is a high rate of attrition among nurses. Almost half of the state’s 90,000 registered nurses aren’t working. Between 30% and 40% of nurses leave the profession after two years because of “burnout,” a problem exacerbated by the shortages.
“Recruitment efforts are ongoing and the human resources department has increased recruitment at career fairs, collaborating with local community colleges and universities, and is enhancing targeted advertising,” UConn’s response to the finding states. “Additionally, contractual provisions for overtime at double and triple time rates significantly increase the value of each hour worked. The highly specialized nature of healthcare makes distributing overtime evenly a significant University of Connecticut Health Center 2023 and 2024 a significant challenge.”
UConn Health also said that management will provide quarterly reporting of overtime to senior leaders for review in the future.
Auditors reported 11 problems in total, including the “excessive overtime hours” and payments. Another problem they found was that UConn Health incorrectly paid $44,123 to 18 maintenance and service employees (NP-2) at the time of their “separation” during the auditing period. The bargaining unit that oversees contracts for maintenance and service employees prohibits compensatory time balances from being paid out when a worker leaves their job.
“UConn Health incurred unnecessary costs for compensatory time payouts that were not consistent with the NP-2 bargaining unit contract,” auditors stated. “UConn Health appears to lack management oversight over compensatory time payouts.”
UConn Health agreed with this finding and said that the payroll system was modified to prevent this from happening in the future.
Was this article helpful?
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
