Suburban Hospital To Lay Off 100 Nurses, Cut Emergency Department

EAST NORRITON, PA — Montgomery County's Suburban Community Hospital will lay off more than 100 nurses and eliminate its emergency department just weeks after it committed to expanding funding and staffing in a new contract with the union. The hospital will now shift to a behavioral health facility with just 15 beds.

The layoffs, which will go into effect on July 7, were confirmed in a WARN notice issued by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor this week.

It's just the latest move to downsize Suburban by its owners, Prime Healthcare Foundation, who had already shrunk its capacity significantly last summer. Suburban has been a "micro-hospital" for most of the past year, with only emergency services and some other limited offerings.

Now, the facility will focus exclusively on behavioral health. They will have 15 beds available for seniors 55 and older, Prime said in their announcement.

The news comes just weeks after Prime agreed to a new three-year contract with the Suburban General Nurses Association, the union for nurses at the hospital. The new contract committed ot increased staff in the emergency department and MedSurg tele unit, additional nurses to ensure safe staffing levels, better holiday hours and paid sick leave, experience wage increases, and general wage increases that totaled about a 9 percent raise over three years.

At the time, nurses said their goal in contract negotiations was to save the hospital and as many jobs as possible.

Patch has reached out to both the nurses union and Prime for comment on the abrupt change of course.

The nearest emergency room for residents will now be Einstein, also in East Norriton, located on 559 W. Germantown Pike.

Prime owns 45 hospitals in 14 states.