West Penn hospital consolidation to cost 1,500 jobs

The jobs of up to 1,500 West Penn Allegheny Health System employees will be lost when its two city-based acute-care hospitals are consolidated, officials announced this morning at a press conference. West Penn Hospital in Bloomfield will take the biggest hit, although a breakdown was not available. Most of the layoffs will begin in January. The WPAHS consolidation has Allegheny General Hospital on the North Side providing the system's services in oncology, the neurosciences, critical care, orthopaedics and cardiovascular care, as well as comprehensive clinical and basic research programs.