Health impacts in pathology workforce during mergers and acquisitions (M&A)

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).

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.

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).

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.