State hospitals urge restoration of contract nursing funds as vacancies bite

Superintendents and agency leaders told the Committee on Social Services Budget on Jan. 22 that state psychiatric hospitals are contending with high vacancy rates and heavy use of contract nursing, and asked lawmakers to consider restoring supplemental funds to avoid cuts to bed capacity.

Agency deputy secretary Scott Bruner and Osawatomie State Hospital superintendent Ashley Byer described recruitment gains but said contract nursing remains essential. Byer said the hospital is licensed for 116 beds, admitted 196 patients in fiscal 2025 (average length of stay 139 days) and had a wait list that “wax[es] and wane[s],” reporting 43 individuals on the wait list the morning of the presentation. She told the committee that, after running the numbers, the hospital could operate only about 43 beds without the additional contract-nursing funds — requiring relocation of roughly 110 patients.

Shardae, the committee’s legislative staff presenter, summarized agency budget documents showing systemwide revised estimates and enhancement requests. For Larned State Hospital, Shardae said an agency supplemental request of $32.2 million for nursing staff was included in the agency’s request but was removed from the introduced bill; the same deletion occurred for a competency unit reopening and other reappropriations. Shardae described Osawatomie’s removed $7,000,000 FY26 supplemental for agency nursing and a governor’s FY27 recommendation of $5,000,000 for anticipated contract nursing costs.

Lawrence Hospital superintendent Lindsay Tops and other superintendents described clinical pressure from high-acuity patients who require 1:1 or 2:1 staffing. Tops said the psychiatric services program had an average of 33 patients at 1:1 in her program and highlighted that some programs draw heavily from county jails, increasing complexity and the need for on-site nursing coverage.

Presenters outlined recruitment and retention strategies: internship and clinical partnerships (including an APA-accredited psychology internship at Osawatomie), expanded nursing clinical placements with six school partners, sign-on and pickup-shift bonuses, self-scheduling for RNs that increased the share of state RNs, and efforts to renegotiate agency contract thresholds to reduce hourly costs. Byer said Osawatomie received 926 applicants in 2025 and hired 126, with common barriers including declined offers (salary or scheduling) and background or tax-clearance failures.

Committee members pressed for more disaggregated data: Representative Wolcott asked for a breakdown of applicant dispositions (how many failed checks vs. withdrew vs. declined); Byer said the program is collecting more detailed data for 2026. Members also sought clarity on whether funds tied to deleted FTEs were repurposed to pay for contract nursing; staff said those dollars are being used to help cover contract nursing costs in some cases.

What’s next: The special budget committee’s earlier deletions mean this committee will decide whether to restore enhancements when it forwards recommendations to appropriations. Lawmakers asked hospital staff to flag the most relevant details to support any reintroduction of funding in appropriations.

Quotation samples from the hearing (attributions as stated in the transcript): “If we would not receive the funds for the contract nursing … we would only [be] able to run 43 beds. That means that we would have 110 individuals that we would have to relocate,” said Ashley Byer, superintendent of Osawatomie State Hospital. Scott Bruner, deputy secretary of hospitals and facilities, asked the committee to consider restoring a multi-million-dollar reappropriation for construction and noted the governor’s recommendations for supplemental nursing funds.

Ending: The committee did not vote on any funding measures during the hearing. Members indicated they will use the hospital presentations and the committee’s review of the special budget committee’s deletions to inform whether enhancements — particularly for contract nursing — should be restored in appropriations.