Lawmakers set July 1, 2026 deadline to end contract nursing at Larned State Hospital after debate on costs, staffing and fire services

The Social Services Budget Committee voted to end the use of contract nursing at Larned State Hospital effective July 1, 2026, following an extended discussion about staffing shortages, high contract rates and program risks. The division recorded a 12-5 roll-call vote in favor of the deadline.

Committee members said the decision was intended to force the hospital and state leaders to develop long-term, locally based staffing solutions after years of rising contract nursing bills. Representative Carpenter, speaking during the debate, cited pay differentials between state-employed nurses and contract nurses and argued for higher state pay to retain staff. "If we raised it to 50 or $60 an hour, we would still save $30 an hour," Representative Carpenter said.

The vote capped a lengthy hearing in which committee presenters and members described a persistent staffing shortfall at Larned and a heavy reliance on contract nurses. Committee notes and presenters said the hospital has a budgeted capacity of 520 beds and that a specialized program on the campus — referred to in testimony as a predator-treatment program — serves about 280 people. Committee members reported a roughly 69% vacancy rate for nursing positions during the discussion.

Members debated several related budget moves. For fiscal year 2025 the committee recommended adding $30,000,000 in state general fund (SGF) support for contract nursing to cover bills already incurred, while for fiscal 2026 the committee and the Legislature’s budget panel proposed deleting about $32,600,000 in SGF that the agency had requested for ongoing contract nursing expense. That FY26 deletion formed part of the rationale for setting a deadline: committee members said they did not want to continue the escalating, year-to-year contract nursing expenditures without a firm plan to replace them.

Committee members also debated a separate supplemental request to pay the City of Larned $275,825 to provide fire services to the Larned campus under a memorandum of understanding that presenters said took effect July 1, 2024. Representative Hawaii moved to add that appropriation; Representative Amick seconded the motion, but the amendment failed on a voice vote after extended comment and questions about whether the campus or other county entities already had obligations for fire response. Committee members said the MOU assigned immediate response responsibilities to the City of Larned, but they disagreed about whether the city would be reimbursed or whether operational savings could cover the cost.

Proponents of ending contract nursing said the move is necessary to stop escalating costs that undermine morale for state employees and to force a focused, cross-agency study of recruitment, housing and pay. Opponents warned the deadline could force service disruptions. Representative Carpenter told colleagues that without a managed transition the hospital could be forced to close certain programs, saying the facility had already been financially stressed by repeated contract-nursing expenditures. Representative Ballard and others urged a structured interim study that would gather data from corrections, higher education and local governments on recruitment, housing and training.

The committee asked the Legislative Coordinating Council to consider forming an interim or multi-day study group to examine contract nursing across state hospitals, including recruiting, housing and pay strategies and whether consolidation or other structural changes would reduce costs. Several members recommended collecting data on where contract nurses live and which companies supply them; Representative Sutton asked for city- and state-level breakdowns of contract nurses’ home locations to examine whether the workers are local or travel labor.

After the contract-nursing deadline passed, committee members approved the remainder of the hospital’s budget as amended. The committee also asked staff to follow up with the Department of Corrections about whether the correctional facility on the Larned campus will share in any fire-service obligations.

The committee’s actions leave a clear deadline to eliminate contract nursing at Larned State Hospital; whether the facility and state agencies can assemble a viable replacement plan — higher state pay, local recruiting, housing incentives or other steps — now becomes a policy and budget question for the interim and next session.

Ending: The committee’s order to end contract nursing is a procedural lever that puts the hospital and state policymakers on a fixed timetable. Lawmakers directed staff to gather data and to explore cross-jurisdictional solutions in the coming months; how the hospital and related agencies respond will determine whether patients or programs face service impacts before July 1, 2026.