Pay Raise Ordered For Psychiatric Hospital Workers

{Charleston, West Virginia}...Kanawha Circuit Judge Duke Bloom has ordered the state Department of Health and Human Resources to give raises to staffers at William R. Sharpe Jr. Hospital in Weston and Mildred Mitchell-Bateman Hospital in Huntington, two state-run psychiatric hospitals. According to testimony and evidence presented Wednesday in Kanawha County Circuit Court, the Department of Health and Human Resources spends millions of dollars on overtime at the hospitals and asks staffers to work 16-hour shifts on consecutive days. Workers say there are not enough workers so those who do work are suffering. Patient advocates and union officials say the shortages exist because the state is underpaying its workers, and the shortages are causing patients to suffer from lower quality care. Bateman CEO Vickie Jones says DHHR failed to comply with a 2009 court order that required the department to give more than $500,000 in raises to staffers who work with psychiatric patients.