🗞️ When the Hospital Breaks the Law It's Supposed to Model
Federal investigators found Hillcrest Medical Center in Tulsa restricted nursing employees' break time for expressing breast milk, in violation of the PUMP Act. The hospital has since updated its policies.
A federal investigation into one of Tulsa's largest hospitals has produced a finding with an uncomfortable irony: a health care facility failed to protect the basic workplace rights of its nursing employees. The U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division concluded that Hillcrest Medical Center, a 656-bed facility operated by Nashville-based Ardent Health Services, violated the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act, commonly known as the PUMP Act.
Investigators determined that the hospital conditioned lactation breaks on staffing levels and required employees to pump only at designated times, rather than allowing them to do so as needed. The law, which amended the Fair Labor Standards Act in December 2022, entitles covered employees to reasonable break time to express breast milk for up to one year following the birth of a child. Employers must also provide a private space for this purpose that is not a bathroom.
Michael Speer, the Wage and Hour Division's district director for Oklahoma City, noted that health care employers are uniquely positioned to lead on this issue, given their professional orientation toward maternal and infant health. Following the investigation, Hillcrest updated its internal policies and practices to bring them into compliance.
The PUMP Act closed several gaps that had existed in the original 2010 Break Time for Nursing Mothers law, extending coverage to salaried workers, healthcare workers, teachers, and agricultural employees who had not previously been protected. It also, for the first time, allowed employees to seek monetary remedies in court if an employer failed to comply.
Key Points
- Hillcrest Medical Center, operated by Ardent Health Services, was found to have limited lactation breaks to designated times and only when staffing permitted, violating federal law.
- The PUMP Act requires employers to allow nursing employees to take breaks as needed to express breast milk for up to one year after a child's birth.
- Employers must provide a private, non-bathroom space for this purpose; pumping time counts as work time if the employee is not fully relieved of duties during the break.
- Violations can be enforced by the Wage and Hour Division and, since the PUMP Act's passage, employees may also seek remedies directly in court.
- The hospital updated its policies following the investigation and no monetary penalty was publicly reported.
- Healthcare employers are considered particularly positioned to model compliance given their professional focus on maternal and infant health.
Primary Source Author: U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division
Primary Source: U.S. Department of Labor News Release, April 13, 2026
Primary Source Link: https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/whd/whd20260413
Supplemental Links
- FLSA Protections to Pump at Work — U.S. Department of Labor
- PUMP Act Explained — U.S. Breastfeeding Committee
- Time and Place to Pump at Work: Your Rights — U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
- H.R.3110 PUMP for Nursing Mothers Act — Congress.gov
- Hillcrest Medical Center — Ardent Health Services
- Wage and Hour Division Compliance Assistance
