PORTLAND, Ore. -- The Oregon Health & Science University says its 2009 budget will require 150 to 300 layoffs and tuition increases of up to 20 percent for medical dental and nursing students.

KGW photo

Oregon Health and Science University Hospital.

The budget the board approved Tuesday also assumes the hospital can increase revenues by 6 percent to 11 percent in each of the next four years in the face of heavy competition, while maintaining profit margins of 6 percent during a period of accelerating inflation.

OHSU's chief financial officer, Brad King, called it "a bare-bones, baseline, cut-to-the-bone budget because we don't have any choice."

The plan doesn't describe further expansion on the Portland's waterfront, beneath the campus on Marquam Hill, where OHSU has long-term ambitions for a new campus. It does call for major department restructuring.

The plan includes some changes already under way and others that will play out during the next four years. Starting next year, OHSU foresees a $375 million expansion of its Marquam Hill hospital -- the financial engine that drives the rest of its operation.

OHSU is Portland's largest private employer with about 12,000 staff members.

It projects an operating loss of about $28 million in the year ending June 30 as profits from its hospital and clinical operations are offset by a projected $57 million loss in research and medical education.

The combined deficit is 2 percent of the institution's $1.45 billion in revenue. Making up for that is foundation support, investment income and one-time gains from the sale of land on OHSU's west campus in Washington County.

OHSU announced Tuesday that former U.S. Sen. Mark Hatfield is leaving the board after eight years.

Hatfield was a major supporter of the institution when he was head of the Senate Appropriations Committee, bringing more than $300 million in earmarks to support construction and expansion.

"When I look at all the unfinished business before this board, we are going to need the wisdom of many political leaders," Hatfield told the board. "We have a big job ahead."