Many hospital emergency rooms are crowded on the weekends. But at University Hospital in Newark, Mondays can also get so overwhelming at the state’s only public hospital, that the ER staff calls it: “Medical Mondays,” NJ.com reports.
Members of the largest nurses’ union in the state, Health Professionals and Allied Employees, say the emergency department wouldn’t be so overcrowded if there was room to meaningful expand. The department, designed to handle 60,000 patients, sees more than 90,000 annually.
A campaign is underway to replace the crumbling institution with a larger, more modern facility. An architectural firm, Gensler, is now developing the plans, paid for by a $500,000 grant in the state budget this year. It will take an estimated $1.2 billion to $1.4 billion and massive dose of political will to bring the project to life. Read more.
