§ 167. Restrictions on consecutive hours of work for nurses. 1. When\nused in this section:\n a. "Health care employer" shall mean any individual, partnership,\nassociation, corporation, limited liability company or any person or\ngroup of persons acting directly or indirectly on behalf of or in the\ninterest of the employer, which provides health care services (i) in a\nfacility licensed or operated pursuant to article twenty-eight of the\npublic health law, including any facility operated by the state, a\npolitical subdivision or a public corporation as defined by section\nsixty-six of the general construction law, or (ii) in a facility\noperated by the state, a political subdivision or a public corporation\nas defined by section sixty-six of the general construction law,\noperated or licensed pursuant to the mental hygiene law, the education\nlaw, the correction law, or section five hundred four of the executive\nlaw.\n b. "Nurse" shall mean a registered professional nurse or a licensed\npractical nurse as defined by article one hundred thirty-nine of the\neducation law who provides direct patient care.\n c. "Regularly scheduled work hours", including pre-scheduled on-call\ntime and the time spent for the purpose of communicating shift reports\nregarding patient status necessary to ensure patient safety, shall mean\nthose hours a nurse has agreed to work and is normally scheduled to work\npursuant to the budgeted hours allocated to the nurse's position by the\nhealth care employer; and if no such allocation system exists, some\nother measure generally used by the health care employer to determine\nwhen an employee is minimally supposed to work, consistent with the\ncollective bargaining agreement, if any. Nothing in this section shall\nbe construed to permit an employer to use on-call time as a substitute\nfor mandatory overtime.\n 2. a. Notwithstanding any other provision of law no health care\nemployer shall require a nurse to work more than that nurse's regularly\nscheduled work hours, except pursuant to subdivision three of this\nsection.\n b. Nothing in this section shall prohibit a nurse from voluntarily\nworking overtime.\n 3. The limitations provided for in this section shall not apply in the\ncase of:\n a. a health care disaster, such as a natural or other type of disaster\nthat increases the need for health care personnel, unexpectedly\naffecting the county in which the nurse is employed or in a contiguous\ncounty; or\n b. a federal, state or county declaration of emergency in effect in\nthe county in which the nurse is employed or in a contiguous county; or\n c. where a health care employer determines there is an emergency,\nnecessary to provide safe patient care. For the purposes of this\nparagraph, "emergency", including an unanticipated staffing emergency,\nis defined as an unforeseen event that could not be prudently planned\nfor by an employer and does not regularly occur; or\n d. an ongoing medical or surgical procedure in which the nurse is\nactively engaged and whose continued presence through the completion of\nthe procedure is needed to ensure the health and safety of the patient.\n 4. The provisions of this section are intended as a remedial measure\nto protect the public health and the quality of patient care, and shall\nnot be construed to diminish or waive any rights of any nurse pursuant\nto any other law, regulation, or collective bargaining agreement.\n 5. Oversight of the use of mandatory overtime during an emergency. a.\nThe commissioner, in consultation with the commissioner of health, shall\nhave the authority to promulgate any regulations necessary to carry out\nthe provisions of this section.\n b. Any health care employer that utilizes an exception to the\nlimitation on mandatory overtime provisions as provided for in\nsubdivision three of this section shall notify the department when such\nprovisions are in use. If a health care employer has utilized the\nmandatory overtime pr
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