The contentious debate in the Legislature and media on the Maine State Nurses Association’s legislation banning the use of mandatory overtime has been unfortunate. Our nurses and other caregivers are the heart and soul of our hospitals. The debate has unfairly pitted hospitals against our most valuable resource and centers around legislation that will do nothing to advance the interests of these health care professionals. In fact the legislation fails to address the true challenges confronting the health care workforce. Even worse, the legislation may have severe negative consequences for both our caregivers and patients.

The men and women who staff our hospitals take their responsibility to care for patients very seriously. They know that a hospital is always open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. By definition, the delivery of hospital care is unpredictable. Illness and injury know no clock. Patient needs can and do surface at any time. Hospitals must have the ability to meet these needs no matter when they present themselves. Heart attacks, having a baby, or accidents are not planned events.

That’s why we are so concerned about the misguided legislation that allows a direct care employee to independently make a decision that could shut down an intensive care unit or force the transfer of a patient to another hospital miles away. MSNA’s legislation fails to ensure that other staff are available to care for patient needs when an employee makes the independent decision to leave. Most of Maine’s nonprofit, community governed hospitals already have policies in place that call for minimizing the use of mandatory overtime. No one wants caregivers on the job who are too tired to provide top quality care.

This means that hospitals have voluntarily agreed to use this tool only when it is clear that a patient’s safety is at risk and no one is available to provide needed care.

Nurses are right to be concerned with the use of too much overtime. But we must be clear about the root cause of this problem. We have a shortage of nurses and other health care professionals. However, the proposed legislation will not address this fundamental problem. Worse, it may exacerbate the current situation and place patients at risk. We must focus our time and energies on productive efforts to recruit more individuals into the healthcare field. Maine’s hospital community cannot stand by and allow this ill-conceived legislation to be viewed as the answer to the complex problems of our work force shortages.

We must not pass a law that at its core places patients at risk.

Steven R. Michaud is president of the Maine Hospital Association.