ALBANY — St. Peter’s Health Partners announced Wednesday that it will restrict anyone who lives within 50 miles of its facilities from being hired as a travel nurse, a position that can be paid more than four times the hourly wage of their St. Peter’s-employed counterparts.
Travel nurses were vital in combating a staffing state of emergency during the pandemic, helping St. Peter’s fill gaps in its workforce by hiring labor from outside the market. But now, the nonprofit health care provider says that the higher pay scale created for such workers — which was intended to cover their costs of living away from home and commuting from great distances — has instead been commanded by nurses who live in the Capital Region market, creating an unsustainable and deleterious dynamic.
“What we’re experiencing in the post-pandemic period is that our travel staff are more likely to not be actually traveling, and instead are moving over from neighboring facilities in order to take advantage of the enhanced rates,” said Steven Hanks, CEO of St. Peter’s Health Partners and St. Joseph’s Health. “Having travel staff who aren’t actually traveling work alongside our colleagues at a higher rate of pay causes resentment among co-workers and is not financially sustainable for our health system.”
The new policy will also apply to St. Joseph’s Health in the Syracuse region, which like St. Peter’s, is owned by the Michigan-based Trinity Health.
It comes as state lawmakers agreed to repeal the coronavirus-era practice of allowing a flow of nurses from out of state to work in New York hospitals and nursing homes without a state license. Earlier this month, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill requiring health care staff working under the now-expired state of emergency to apply for a New York license within 30 days to continue working here.
The legislation is intended to curtail existing multimillion-dollar…
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