New England Baptist Hospital seeks more acute-care beds

New England Baptist Hospital in Boston is closing its 20-bed nursing home unit and will ask the state to change the unit's license to allow beds for acute medical care, to meet added demand expected from the addition of four operating rooms, the hospital said. With the change, the specialty orthopedic hospital will have 140 beds for acute patients, most of them recovering from bone-related surgeries and procedures. The hospital told 28 employees of the nursing home unit this week that they can move to jobs at the Coolidge House nursing home in Brookline, or be retrained to work in other parts of New England Baptist, said Erin McDonough , hospital spokeswoman.
(By Christopher Rowland, Globe staff)