www.EmploymentCrossing.com <br />Seventy-three health care professionals have lost their jobs with the University of Texas Medical Branch. The layoffs are intended to improve efficiency at the academic medical center. <br />Nurses, pharmacists and even chaplains are joining the unemployment lines. Two departments, pastoral care and senior services, were gutted entirely. <br />Budget cuts will also reduce the facility’s ability to care for indigent patients. <br />University officials cut the jobs in the wake of a $50 million dollar deficit in the hospital’s 2009 budget of $1.61 billion. <br />“Layoffs are difficult and used as a last resort but are very necessary for business,” according to medical branch CEO Karen Sexton. <br />Two years ago, the Galveston-based university laid off 381 medical employees.
