(AP) – A large number of workers at Larned State Hospital have been told they will be on mandatory 48-hour workweeks until further notice because of severe shortages at the facility.

The Hutchinson News reports administrators told employees Wednesday of the longer weeks because of a nursing shortage at the psychiatric hospital.

Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services spokeswoman Angela de Rocha says the hospital is down 52 people in a workforce of 860. Some have left under an early retirement plan, while others left for better paying jobs.

The hospital primarily serves patients who have been sent there by court order and others with psychiatric problems that can’t be treated in their home communities.

Patients also include those in the state’s sexual predator program.