This article is sponsored by Careers by KevinMD.com.
Employer consolidation due to the mergers and acquisitions of hospitals and health systems is becoming increasingly common within the health care industry. In fact, merger and acquisition activity doubled in the first half of this year, with the volume of value health care sector deals increasing to $315.74 billion and total health care sector deals reaching more than $2.5 trillion.
Though the exact factors driving this frenzy — from lower patient admissions and reimbursements to increased pressure to improve outcomes while reducing expenses — are up for debate, the results of big deals such as those between Sanford Health and Good Samaritan in South Dakota and Bon Secours and Mercy Health in the eastern U.S. are often similar: departmental restructuring and even the layoff of some health care staff.
“If you’re working in health care, it’s very likely that you’ll eventually go through a restructuring, merger, acquisition or divestiture,” says Terry Hoffmann, senior transition coach with RiseSmart, an outplacement services company. “It’s something that has been going on quite a bit over the last 30 years but has really accelerated in the last 10 years or so.” She points to weak earnings, hiring freezes and major cost-cutting initiatives as signs that layoffs could be headed your way.
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