Impact of a Major Organizational Change on Employee Productivity and Mental Health (PRO-MENTA)

Impact of a Major Organizational Change on Employee Productivity and Mental Health - a Register-based Cohort Study of the Relocation of a Large Danish Hospital in 2016-2019

The study investigates the short- and long-term impact of a major organizational change on employee health and productivity. Changes in organizations is a common aspect of modern work life in all sectors and public healthcare is no exception. However, emerging evidence suggests that organizational changes may be a potential stressor which can impact on employee well-being and contribute to stress-related health problems. Using a large-scale natural experiment, the overall aim of the study is to investigate the impact of a major organizational change that took place during 2016-19 on employee health and productivity. In addition, we aim to identify groups that may be at increased risk of experiencing negative consequences of the reorganization. These at-risk groups can in turn be candidates for extended preventive measures when planning future major organizational changes.

Study Overview

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Conditions: Work Related Stress; Mental Health Issue; Work-related Illness
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Employees exposed to a major hospital reorganisation

Detailed Description

The study relies solely on data from registries and the investigators have taken great care to ensure the validity of these data. Below the main principles and procedures applied are outlined. For the data delivered from the hospital Business Intelligence (BI) database the investigators performed interviews with representatives from each workplace. This was done to ensure that the information about when a workplace underwent the organizational change was accurate, but also what type of organizational change the workplace experienced, how the workplace was organized in terms of departments/wards, and the number of employees at the workplace.The validity of the data supplied by Statistics Denmark relies on the comprehensive procedures to ensure data integrity at Statistics Denmark. All datamanagement by the investigators has been performed in the Stata software package and all decisions are documented in program files (called "do-files" in Stata teminology) to ensure a complete revision trail from the delivered raw data to the dataset used for the final analyses. The investigators have performed extensive data checks, both by tabulations, codebooks, and visual inspection of the data. To ensure against data management errors done by a single investigator when writing the program/do-files, all coding performed in the datamanagement phase has been reviewed by at least one of the other researchers.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 31555

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Denmark
  • Central Denmark Region
    • Aarhus, Central Denmark Region, Denmark, 8200
      • Aarhus University Hospital

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

The study population covers all persons that have had an employment at the hospital during 2011-2020

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• All employees at the hospital during 2011-2020

Exclusion Criteria:

• Employees who, after being informed of the study, opted out of participation (N=70)

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

1

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort	Intervention / Treatment
Employees; Persons employed at the hospital during 2011-2020	Other: Employees exposed to a major hospital reorganisation; Occupational exposure

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Employee health measured by rate of absenteeism, use of health care services and redeemed drug prescriptions	Employee health will be assessed monthly as rate absenteeism from work, use of general and mental health care services, and redeemed psychotropic drug prescriptions. The data are derived from a combination of company records and registries provided by Statistics Denmark	4 years in which the outcomes are measured monthly and form a time-series of observations for 2 years before and after workplace reorganization

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Workplace productivity measured by number of patient contacts and medical procedures	Workplace productivity is measured by the monthly number contacts and performed medical procedures. These are aggregated at the workplace level and derived from the Business Intelligence (BI) system of the hospital.	4 years in which the outcomes are measured monthly and form a time-series of observations for 2 years before and after workplace reorganization

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Aarhus University Hospital
• Collaborators: University of Aarhus; Bispebjerg Hospital; Herning Hospital
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Morten V Willert, PhD, Aarhus University Hospital

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): March 1, 2022
• Primary Completion (Estimated): December 31, 2024
• Study Completion (Estimated): December 31, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 26, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 5, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): April 9, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 11, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 10, 2024
• Last Verified: April 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavioral Symptoms; Stress, Psychological; Occupational Diseases; Occupational Stress
• Other Study ID Numbers: 1-16-02-62-20

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: The rules of Statistics Denmark prohibit the sharing of data from this study with other researchers.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No