Lab Matters Summer 2025 | Page 24

FEATURE

As staffing is a critical part of public health infrastructure, Achilles is only one of many laboratory leaders who is thinking seriously about the growing challenges in staff retention. Because staff retention drives laboratory innovation, and public health laboratories must innovate to meet changing mandates within their communities.

Weathering A Changing Landscape

In March 2025, the US Department of Health and Human Services( HHS) announced that it will terminate more than $ 11 billion in COVID funding that was awarded to state and local health departments. Much of that funding supported testing and pandemic response, but it also provided critical investments in public health infrastructure— including funding for public health laboratories to strengthen testing capacity, modernize facilities and more— to prepare for future health threats.

An additional blow came soon after, with the announcement that HHS would streamline its operations with a reduction in force of 10,000. The hardest hit was laboratory services among HHS departments, including at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention( CDC) a primary supporter of many public health laboratories.

For public health laboratory directors, the funding seesaw is nothing new— in the 1980s there was a similar drastic contraction in healthcare and public health industries, and after the events around September 11, 2001, there was a large funding infusion into readiness and response activities. But having just weathered a pandemic and with the( re) emergence of mpox, tuberculosis, polio and bird flu, among other diseases, the recent funding claw backs, recissions and staffing reductions feel ill-timed.

While many long-time public health laboratorians may be used to the ebb and flow of funding, newer scientists have found it hard to adjust to the changes. Many laboratories around the country have had a lot of departures since the COVID-19 pandemic, which came at a price: loss of knowledge about processes, procedures and partner relationships that allow public health laboratories to meet testing and response challenges. To provide some stability, especially for newer laboratorians, directors are

While many long-time public health laboratorians may be used to the ebb and flow of funding, newer scientists have found it hard to adjust to the changes.

changing their way of thinking about how their laboratories operate. Taking a page from corporate industry, some public health laboratories are bringing a more business-like approach to recruiting and retention.

“ For many of the challenges we face, the public health laboratory is already very well positioned to respond to evolving needs,” said Luke Short, PhD, director of the Dallas County Health and Human Services Public Health Laboratory.“ I don’ t view our laboratory as a nonprofit agency; we are a business, our shareholders are the community we operate in, our customers are the clinics and the people they serve, and our profit is going to be helping the community in whatever way we can.”

For many of the challenges we face, the public health laboratory is already very well positioned to respond to evolving needs.”

Luke Short, PhD, director of the Dallas County Health and Human Services

Public Health Laboratory

Short emphasizes that looking at change as opportunities that are on the horizon rather than restrictions can also help prepare laboratories for adaptation and staff retention, ensuring that laboratorians remain agile enough to respond to new situations within their communities. Approaching new projects and innovations using return on investment( ROI) practices can benefit not only the laboratory, but funders as well.

“ Once you quantify a project and restructure your arguments to numbers and people that are helped, that becomes less anecdotal and more concrete for funders to evaluate,” he said. In addition, by providing the type of data and information for day-to-day activities, that leaves room for the endeavors that ordinarily would not be funded.

“ Create room for those aspirational projects and you can create a roadmap for being able to do the innovative work,” said Short.

Gathering Data to Strengthen Retention

An important part of tracking employment trends, especially in laboratories, is to gather data through workforce surveys. In spring 2024, APHL fielded a new workforce profile survey of its members, and received over 1,900 responses to questions about demographics, job satisfaction and factors influencing decisions to stay or leave their current position. Like surveys fielded in 2016 and 2022, responses