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Original research
Health impacts in pathology workforce during mergers and acquisitions (M&A)
  1. Paul Zone Chiou1,2,
  2. R Patti Herring2,
  3. Jisoo Oh2,
  4. Ernest Medina2
  1. 1 Clinical Laboratory Science, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, Newark, New Jersey, USA
  2. 2 Loma Linda University School of Public Health, Loma Linda, California, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr. Paul Zone Chiou, Clinical Laboratory Science, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, Newark, NJ 07107, USA; paul.chiou{at}rutgers.edu

Abstract

Aims To compare burn-out in laboratory professionals (LPs) with exposure to consolidation to those without, and to investigate the role of social support as a moderator in the exposure to mergers and acquisitions (M&A).

Methods Surveys were sent to the clinical LPs, including 732 with exposure to M&A and 819 without. The dependent variable was burn-out, and the independent variable was exposure to M&A. In investigating the role of social support in exposure group, a logistic regression was used with education, time since M&A, gender, merger types, practice setting, lab hierarchy and race as covariates.

Results Exposure to M&A was associated with higher levels of burn-out (p<0.05). In logistic regression of the workforce exposed to M&A, the odds for LP developing a high level of burn-out are lowered by 7.1% for every unit of increase in social support (OR 0.93; 95% CI 0.88 to 0.98; p=0.004).

Conclusion LPs exposed to M&A are more likely to experience higher levels of burn-out but having social support can protect against burn-out, which has policy implications for leadership managing laboratories in times of M&A.

  • CYTOLOGY
  • MANAGEMENT
  • Laboratory Personnel

Data availability statement

Data are available on reasonable request.

https://doi.org/10.1136/jcp-2023-209124

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    Data availability statement

    Data are available on reasonable request.

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    Footnotes

    • Handling editor Vikram Deshpande.

    • Twitter @chioup

    • Contributors PZC: conceptualisation, survey design, sample collection, data analysis, methodology, original draft writing, review and editing, RPH: conceptualisation, resources, review and editing, JO: methodology, resources, review and editing, EM: resources, review and editing. All authors have read and agreed to the published version manuscript. PZC accepted full responsibility as guarantor for the finished work and/or the conducted of the study, had access to the data and controlled the decision to publish.

    • Funding This study was funded by Loma Linda University, School of Public Health.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

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