Nothing good ever follows these words: "Hope you've got some good attorneys."

That's what a consultant who studies round-the-clock industries, including ambulance services, said when told the super-long hours that some Pittsburgh paramedics are working to cover all of the necessary shifts.

In 2007, 24 percent of the pay earned by the city's medics was the result of working overtime. The hours beyond a typical eight-hour workday were needed to provide adequate staffing levels for the city's emergency response medical units.

We don't begrudge hard-working medics who are willing to sacrifice personal time in order to earn more money, but the amount of time being put in by some individuals seems to test the limits of when quality might be sacrificed to quantity.

One crew chief, who was not the highest earner among the medics, logged 163.5 hours during a two-week pay period last month, which means he put in an astounding 16-hour day 10 times in 14 days.

James Craft, a professor of business administration at the University of Pittsburgh's Katz Graduate School of Business, asked the logical follow-up question: "What are the effects of working all those hours?" His answer to such relentless overtime was that it can lead not only to absenteeism but also "presenteeism," a condition in which a person is at work but not functioning well.

William G. Sirois, CEO of Boston-based Circadian Information, the firm that studied the effects of medics in Austin, Texas, who were working 24-hour shifts, says an organization that puts overworked employees in ambulances for long days packed with emergencies is "creating or absorbing an inordinate amount of risk."

Such warnings should not go unheeded by the city.

It often can be cost-effective and safe for organizations to spend money on overtime rather than overloading their permanent staffs. But a system sounds like it's at the breaking point if three city medics can put in enough hours to more than double their salaries and if other employees quietly describe a chronically understaffed department where they work 16 hours, take eight off, and then pull another double shift.

City Finance Director Scott Kunka said he has not yet analyzed the EMS overtime use to determine whether the city has reached the point where it makes sense to expand the paramedic corps. That should be the city's first step in making sure, to paraphrase Mr. Sirois, it doesn't need a good lawyer.