Layoffs Plague University Medical Center

Fifty-seven employees, including six nurses, were laid off by the University Medical Center at Princeton last week, according to the Times of Trenton. The layoffs occurred after the hospital conducted a review of operations to increase efficiency. The employees affected included 33 full-time workers and 24 part-time workers. All nurses laid off worked in outpatient departments.

The University Medical Center of Princeton in Plainsboro, which is currently under construction, is expected to replace the facility on Witherspoon Street in 2011. The new hospital, which will be twice the size of the current hospital, boasts an environmentally friendly infrastructure. Soliant Health has already ranked it as one of the 20 Most Beautiful Hospitals in the United States. According to the Times, the new medical center is expected to generate new jobs in construction and after completion, but no specifics on long term employment were given.

In an attempt to cut costs and remain profitable, the Robert Wood Johnson Hospital in Hamilton, NJ also laid off 19 employees last October while adding a four-story tower wing.

By Sean Wu, staff writer