BOSTON--As top officials hail the merger of two of Harvard's leading teaching hospitals, the hospitals' rank and file are quietly grumbling that amid the euphoria over cost-efficiency and claims of improved service, they are being overlooked.

Administrators at Brigham and Women's and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have not said anything about whether cutting costs will mean cutting jobs at the two hospitals, nor have they said much else to their nearly 19,000 employees, according to employees interviewed at the hospitals yesterday.

The two hospitals this week took what may be the first step toward consolidating the five main Harvard Medical School teaching hospitals, hoping to reduce costs and improve care. Further, officials see the merger as a shift toward becoming a primary care network that will allow them to better cope with what appear to be imminent changes in the American health care system.

In part, administrators sought a merger with an eye to cutting $240 million in costs from the two hospi- tals' combined operating budgets of $1.2billion.

But for all the good that officials say thehospitals' consolidation will do the Bostoncommunity, employees say they have beenunderinformed and are frightened at the prospectof losing their jobs.

While employees assume that some of them willbe laid off, the full effects on staff andservices have yet to be announced.

Employees say they have stayed informed aboutthe merger mostly from newspaper accounts, insteadof from the hospitals in which they work.

"We really don't know what's going on," one MGHemployee says. "Most of what I'm gathering I'mgetting from The [Boston] Herald."

"They haven't said a word about it and to methat means...people are going to be laid off,"says another MGH employee, who refused to give hisname for fear of losing his job.

At Beth Israel Hospital, which along withChildren's and the Deaconess may eventually jointhe conglomeration, electrical staff worker DavidFitzgerald says the merger may serve the good ofthe communities, but not the employees.

"It's probably good for the hospitals, but notfor us," Fitzgerald says.

Apart from employee concerns about their jobs,there is also the possibility that the merger maycause the loss of some top physicians who may besqueezed out of their departments.

"A merger of all the hospitals would definitelymake them more efficient and cut costs," says Dr.Daveed Frazier of Beth Israel. "Right now, Bostonhas one of the biggest concentrations of topdoctors in the country and a merger might causethe loss of top talent. From an academic and acare-provided point of view, the result of amerger won't be as good."

Hospital staff said in interviews yesterdaythey thought the part of the merger mostattractive to the administration was its potentialto save money.

Administrators at the two hospitals, however,say they view the merger as a way to better theinstitutions' original purposes of "servingwhoever comes through the door," said H. RichardNesson, president and CEO of Brigham and Women'sHospital, at the press conference Wednesdayannouncing the move.

"The merger isn't primarily about costreduction. It's about how to better serve thecommunity and carry out our mission," he said.