Home & Career

Paid time away

Supporting you with time to rest and renew

To care for patients, coworkers and your family, you must take care of yourself first. Taking time away from work is vital for your physical and mental health. That is why the health system provides paid time away for eligible full-time and part-time employees (those who work 0.5 FTE or more).

Paid time away includes Paid Time Off (PTO) as well as Personal Time. The programs work together to provide flexibility to meet your needs for paid time away, regardless of the reason: vacation, personal time, sick time or holidays outside of the eight provided by the health system.

Paid time away is in addition to and separate from paid holidays.

PTO

Each pay period, eligible employees (0.5 FTE and above) accumulate PTO hours based on their FTE status and completed years of service. The table below shows PTO accruals based on an employee with a 1.0 FTE.**

Years of service*	PTO accrual rate per pay period**	Maximum hours in PTO bank	PTO days accrued per year	Annual holiday hours
<1	5.23 hours	300	17+3^	64
1 and less than 5	6.15 hours	300	20	64
5 and less than 10	7.68 hours	300	25	64
10 and less than 15	8.63 hours	300	28	64
15 or more	9.11 hours	300	29.6	64
* Kansas City employees hired prior to Dec. 31, 2014, contact AskHR for accrual chart. Review policy 3.07 Paid Time Off for more information on role-specific accrual schedules. ** Part-time employees with at least a 0.5 FTE are eligible for PTO credit on a prorated basis. ^ New hires will receive 24 hours frontloaded (based on FTE) at the time of hire.

Extended Illness Reserve (EIR)

Employees with a legacy sick leave balance or employees who join the health system as part of an acquisition may have their sick leave balance moved to an account called Extended Illness Reserve (EIR).

EIR account hours will be forfeited when an employee with an EIR account leaves the health system, moves into a PRN position or moves to a non-benefits-eligible position (less than a 0.5 FTE).
EIR does not accrue additional hours.

How EIR can be used:

Approved FMLA leaves, both continuous and intermittent, for the employee’s own condition.
During the seven-calendar-day short-term disability waiting period.
Supplement short-term disability benefits up to 100%.
All other qualifying FMLA or ADA leaves, continuous or intermittent, as long as the leave is approved by our third-party leaves administrator – The Hartford. This includes:
- Leaves for bonding with a newborn child or newly placed child.
- Caring for a family member’s medical condition.
- FMLA military caregiver leave.
EIR hours for continuous leaves will be applied upon the verification of a qualifying leave unless the employee requests otherwise.
Use of EIR hours for intermittent leaves is requested by the employee in Kronos using the same processes as requesting PTO in Kronos.

Key points for Liberty Hospital employees transitioning to health system PTO

Accrued PDO balance as of December 21, 2025, up to 300 hours, will roll over to your new health system PTO bank.
- Those with more than 300 hours in their PDO bank will receive a payout with the last check of 2025 (on December 26, 2025) with PDO hours paid at 100%.
Accrued sick leave hours as of December 21, 2025, will move to an Extended Illness Reserve account (EIR). EIR hours will take effect December 22, 2025.