LARNED, Kan. (AP) — Internal reports show that employees at one of Kansas's state mental hospitals have racked up significant overtime hours. The Topeka Capital-Journal obtained four weeks of overtime data for the hospital's nursing department covering much of December. The paper says its analysis shows that in recent weeks more than half of all employees in Larned State Hospital's nursing department have worked overtime. Hundreds of workers have accumulated more than eight hours of overtime during a single week. Some logged more than 40 hours of overtime in a week. The new leader of the Kansas Department of Aging and Disability Services — which oversees state hospitals — told employees this past week that he wants to cut nursing vacancies in half. The agency says it's taking steps to improve.
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