Border hospitals laud worker deadline extension

A nursing shortage in parts of Maine was avoided Monday when foreign health care workers including nurses were given a one-year extension to meet new regulations to keep working in the United States.

Maine hospitals near the Canadian border had feared they would lack sufficient numbers of the workers eligible to meet the new rules.

The deadline had been July 26. Instead, U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins announced that the Department of Homeland Security was granting a one-year extension.

Hospitals, nursing homes and other health care providers along the Canadian border rely heavily on the Canadian labor pool.

For example, the change in federal licensing means that 37 percent of Calais Regional Hospital’s nursing staff must be certified.

Hospitals around the state already have an 8.3 percent vacancy rate for registered nurses. Canadian nurses make up 20 percent to 35 percent of the nursing personnel at four Maine hospitals near the Canadian border.

Houlton Regional Hospital was ready to temporarily shut down its intensive care unit and maternity ward if the deadline hadn’t been extended, said Chief Executive Officer Thomas Moakler.

About 15 of the hospital’s 30 Canadian nurses had not been certified.

“With a year extension, what could have been a real crisis has been averted,” Moakler said.

Under the new rules, health care workers from Canada and Mexico, other than physicians, must obtain certificates showing they have education, training and experience comparable to requirements for U.S. health care workers. They must take exams and be licensed in the states where they practice.

In Maine, most foreign nurses passed the exams and submitted their materials, but many have not been certified because the paperwork is tied up in processing.

The backlog has caused problems for many hospitals along the Canadian and Mexican borders, said Christopher Bentley, spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Bentley said the deadline extension ensures that the health care systems along the borders will not be disrupted.

The new deadline applies to health care workers who were employed in the United States before Sept. 2, 2003, and who held a license from a U.S. jurisdiction.

David Peterson, president of The Aroostook Medical Center in Presque Isle, said his facility last fall lost seven Canadian nurses who decided they did not want to take the exam and do the paperwork to become certified.

About 10 other nurses are still waiting to get their certifications from the U.S. government, he said.

“This is an extremely positive event for the hospitals and the nurses,” Peterson said. “This will give us some breathing room.”

To be certified, nurses have to pass a clinical exam and an English exam, not necessarily given at the same time.

“We worked hard with our staff to make sure that they had everything they needed,” said Deedee Travis, director of community relations for Calais Regional Hospital.

Travis conceded that the change could have caused serious staffing problems. “We don’t have nursing staff to draw from on our side of the border. It could have been a potential big issue for us,” she said.

So far only one nurse and one lab tech have been certified at the Calais hospital.

“The majority are still waiting,” Travis said. “It could have created a hardship, but we had a contingency plan in place. We looked at scheduling and figured out how some of our nursing supervisors could fill in during this time.”

Officials at Northern Maine Medical Center in Fort Kent also are relieved. Of the 24 foreign nurses affected by the change in regulation, half have been certified.

NMMC spokeswoman Carol Ann Dube said the facility had planned to activate nurses who were not doing clinical work, if necessary.

“We are really pleased we don’t have to activate that plan,” she said Monday.