On-call hours and pay

[PattyE]

I work in a small rural critical access hospital. Currently with low census there are sometimes 2 or more people put on call per day. This can be either in-house or at home call. I am trying to find out how other hospitals keep track of who has had call hours or how do you decide who gets call and who works. My other question is what is your pay scale for on call hours? Our staff is trying to determine a fair way to do this and would like some ideas.

Thanks

Patty

[mom2cka]

I'm at a larger hospital, but can share what we do (from a nurses' perspective, at least, I'm sure it's different with some of the other units). Our staffing office keeps track of the on-call hours - we have two types, requests for on-call and mandated on-call. We have a certain number during a fiscal year - only the hours we are mandated count towards that number; the times we request and are granted on-call doesn't count; all on-call hours count towards benefit accrual, however.

I think we get paid minimum wage when on-call, but we can use our PTO time instead if we'd like, in order to get a full check. Once we get cut, however, we don't get paid for the rest of the shift.

In early fiscal year, on-call is by seniority, based on acuity and staffing needs. As those hours get closer to the total, then they try to even things up so no one is 'over.' As one of the newer nurses, I was on call more frequently in the early months, then the more senior nurses caught up with me.

If you volunteer or request to be on call, you can still be mandated the next shift, as only the hospital-mandated hours count; that has caused some confusion, but still keeps things fair. But if you request and are placed on call, you still get paid that low amount (unless you're cut).