Donors sought for Emergency PTO Program

Ten USA Health employees have requested assistance from the Emergency PTO Program because of flex scheduling or illness related to the COVID-19 pandemic, but their requests cannot be fulfilled because of a lack of donations.

Since the program began in May, 4,924 hours of PTO have been donated and distributed to eligible USA Health employees, said Tina Stalmach, director of human resources, benefits. She said the program is receiving more requests from employees recovering from COVID-19 than it did in the spring, when flex scheduling was the main reason for requests.

“We recognize that our employees look to each other as family and want to help each other,” said Owen Bailey, MHA, FACHE, chief executive officer for USA Health. “We have seen this generosity at work through the many donations of PTO to those impacted by the pandemic. We would like to remind everyone that the program is still open to donors who wish to help.”

USA Health employees who would like to donate some of their PTO must meet the following eligibility criteria:

• Be in an active employment status
• Retain 80 hours of PTO (based on 1.0 FTE) for their own use
• Donate in eight-hour increments
• May not donate more than the maximum amount of PTO leave accrued each year.

USA Health employees electing to donate PTO must submit the request online using the University’s Document Routing Procedure. PTO donations are voluntary. Employees may not donate to a specific employee, but instead the hours will be placed into a PTO bank to be distributed on a first come, first served basis to eligible employees who request a PTO leave donation.

Health system employees who wish to be a PTO recipient must meet the following eligibility criteria:

• Be in an active employment status
• Have six months of service
• Be employed in a regular benefits-eligible position
• Work 20 hours or more per week (.50 FTE or greater)
• Exhaust all personal accrued PTO leave before being eligible to receive donated PTO.

Health system employees receiving a PTO leave donation are limited to a maximum of 80 hours (prorated based on FTE).

Health system employees who elect to donate PTO or request a PTO leave donation must log in to the USA Document Routing System using their JagNet credentials (Jag number and password). Employees will then select “USA Health PTO” on the left navigation bar. This will then direct the employee to the “USA Health PTO Donation/Recipient Request Form” to start a “New PTO Request.” The employee can then elect to either donate PTO or request to receive PTO. The employee will then complete the required fields and click submit.

The Emergency PTO Donation Program was created after COVID-19 placed restrictions on people’s movements and procedures, resulting in lower patient volumes and the implementation of flex scheduling. USA Health administrators sought to ease some of the financial burden on those impacted by developing the new program.