Trying to save money by cutting hospital staff rarely works.

This supervisor has been reprimanded for issuing overtime to staff, so she found a way to make the executives pay for leaving her short-staffed.

Read the full story below.

Penny wise, Pound foolish

Every so often, hospitals examine their financial reports and decide that their profit problem is staffing, never the supply contracts, manager salaries, perks, redecorating the front lobby, advertising costs, or moving the admissions department to a new location for the third time in ten years.

Supervisors at the psychiatric hospital where I worked were told, “No more overtime!” It wasn’t a suggestion. The problem was that the pool of qualified staff in the community willing to work there was not that large.

As a result, some of our lower-paid staff technicians worked 60–80 hours a week to bring staffing levels up to the required minimum, as well as make ends meet at home.

Most of the need was during non-program hours on off shifts, which required routine safety checks and paperwork.

One weekend, I had to replace three staff on the same night at short notice. I was able to get two techs from the in-house pool at the regular rate. After spending two more hours calling every other staff person on the roster, I scheduled a full-time tech for overtime.

I caught hell later in the week when timecards were reviewed for payroll. Nobody wanted to hear my reason for incurring overtime. “Don’t do it again, or it’s going to be a formal reprimand,” was the CFO’s advice to me.

Cue malicious compliance.

This supervisor used an expensive nursing agency to fill in her staffing needs.

The next pay period, the same thing happened on a weekend. I needed three techs for minimum staffing on both Friday and Saturday, but nobody would take the shifts unless I gave them OT.

Sorry, no can do.

I called the most expensive nursing agency in town and ordered three RNs at the weekend rate with night shift differential for both nights.

Agencies charge not only the staff salary but bump up the cost to make a profit since they incurred all the cost of background checks, training, and license verification.

To make our lives easier and comply maliciously, I asked the evening and weekend supervisors to do the same thing for staff call-ins for the rest of the schedule.

All shifts were filled with nurses, even if a “1:1 sitter” for extreme suicide risk was needed. That required constant observation but no medical skills.

It just so happened this was required for a mandatory 72-hour psych observation hold initiated by the police that very morning.

Once word spread to the regular staff that the agency was getting all the hours, call-ins accelerated, and the agency was supplying almost half of the staff, all LPNs or RNs.

The CFO reversed the overtime ban immediately.

When the pay period closed, the timecards and agency bill were sent to payroll. Salary costs for the two-week period were over 300% of the normal expected amount.

The organic digestive matter hit the oscillating cooling blades at a high rate of speed in the CFO’s office. The Nursing Director called me to explain my part in it.

I simply told him in my sweetest voice ever that I had no choice. “My only option was to use the agency. After (CFO) threatened me with disciplinary action.

I didn’t tell him that a technician at time-and-a-half cost $4 less per hour than a pool RN at straight time, let alone an agency nurse. I could have saved a small fortune, but I guess his accounting degree is better than mine.”

Of course, the other two supervisors gave similar answers.

A new memo came out that day stating that OT was once again approved, provided certain “financial guidelines” were followed.

The CFO went back to counting beans, and we supervisors went back to doing what we did.

Save small on staff, lose big on outcomes.

Other people are chiming in.

Nicely done, says this one.

Here’s a hilarious remark.

This person makes a good point.

This user shares some valuable advice.

And here’s a valid question.

Some lessons are learned the most expensive way possible.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.