Above an AI assisted illustration for this story, after a reader told us that while he was at a Renown Urgent Care location recently, the person attending to him said that if they aren’t finished charting patient information for people they saw during their shift by the end of their hours, they have to finish on their own time for no pay.
The reader told us it seemed new AI software was helping but not enough and that such attendants, likely what is known as APRNs, or advanced practiced registered nurses, should get unionized. What are known as registered nurses who are generally more unionized do not work in Renown Urgent Care locations.
We reached out to both a local unionized nurse leader and Renown, getting responses from both for this type of possible scenario.
“We do stay after our shifts to chart if we are not finished, but it is on the clock paid,” Nicole Courts, a steward with SEIU Local 1107 assured us.
“With that said, it is frowned upon to do that regularly as they will say we need better time management,” she added. “Personally, I spend a lot of time in patient care and less time charting because I feel that’s what is important. This sometimes results in me having to stay after shift. There are also extremely busy days where the patients are very sick and require more of your time leaving you less time to chart especially in trauma situations. I have a good leadership team and if they feel this is happening too often or feel I’m struggling they would reach out to see if they could help. I cannot speak for Urgent Care, but the Union only covers Renown Regional not Urgent Care, but they would definitely fight for us if they knew that was happening. I would definitely encourage nurses who are being asked to work without pay to go to their leadership and speak up or take it to Human Resources.”
The manager of Communications for Renown Caroline Ackerman indicated in an emailed response “Renown Health is committed to ensuring that all employees receive appropriate compensation for the time they work. Employees who are in non-exempt roles are required to log all time worked, including time spent completing patient charts. Renown providers including APRNs, PAs, DOs and MDs are in exempt roles, which means there may be times where they complete tasks outside of scheduled work hours. We try to minimize work outside of clinic hours; however, Renown grants patients real-time access to clinic notes, labs and imaging through MyChart, and we always want to ensure that a licensed medical provider reviews these promptly.
Renown has a zero-tolerance policy for retaliating against employees who report concerns, and we encourage all employees to escalate perceived wrongdoing to their leader, human resources partner, or through our anonymous compliance hotline. Renown strongly aligns with People First values and we aim to foster an equitable working environment for all employees.”