Boston Nonprofit Hospital Cuts Staff Size

One of Boston’s smallest teaching hospitals, Tufts-New England Medical Center, will lay off about 35 employees as it faces a tight budget caused, in part, by slim increases in the number of patients, reports The Boston Globe.

The hospital faces tough financial times, while its rivals — such as Massachusetts General and Mount Auburn hospitals — are thriving, the paper reports. Its decision to cut staff also comes at a time when its nurses are planning an informational picket later this month to draw attention to what they say is too great a workload for the number of nurses scheduled for each shift.

The hospital’s chief executive said spending on salaries and supplies has become too high compared with the revenue the hospital has been bringing in. “Our staffing per bed is significantly higher now than it was last year,” Ellen Zane, the chief executive, said in an e-mail message. “This is not how a successful hospital must run.”

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