Healthcare Jobs in Chicago Get the Ax
As part of an effort to decrease one hospital’s budget by 7 percent an unknown number healthcare jobs in Chicago will be cut. The University of Chicago Hospital recently announced that it will be reducing its expenses by at least $100 million and restructuring several departments. This decision came about as a way to combat problems caused by economy, including an ever-growing number of unpaid Medicare bills the state has yet to handle for the city’s poor.
Although the total number of Chicago Jobs that will be axed are still unknown, hospital officials have state that 15 senior executives will be losing their positions. President-elect Barack Obama’s wife Michelle Obama previously held one of the jobs that will be eliminated. In 2005, she collected a salary of more $300,000 before she switched to part-time. After this, she continued to make $100,000 a year.
The responsibilities of many of the higher-level positions will be shifted to other workers. According to the Chicago Tribune, the duties that used to be handled by Michelle Obama will now fall to Dr. Eric Whitaker. Officials say that the staff changes will not cause a decline in patient care.
Many hospitals throughout the nation are finding themselves in similar situations. With unemployment on the rise throughout the nation, the number of patients with health insurance is falling, which means that many lack the ability to pay the bills they accrue.
Despite the announcement that the hospital needs to decrease its spending, officials say that their plans for expansion will continue to move forward. The $700 million hospital pavilion that has been scheduled to open in 2012 will not be affected.
This new addition is expected to span the two-block area located on East 57th Street, which is north of Comer Children’s Hospital and the Duchossois Center for Advanced Medicine in the neighborhood of Hyde Park. It will have 80 private rooms and 24 intensive-care beds on each of its three top floors. The number of jobs in Chicago this will create is unknown at the time.
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