October 3, 2017
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
ROCKLEIGH, N. J. – Shiel Medial Laboratory will terminate 538 employees at a New Jersey facility following the company’s acquisition by Quest Diagnostics . The layoffs were announced one day after Quest’s acquisition was announced.
The layoffs will be completed by the end of the year when the Quest acquisition is completed, NJ.com reported on Sunday. The work conducted at the Rockleigh facility will be shifted to a Quest facility following the closing of the deal. When Quest announced it was acquiring Shiel the company said that services provided at that site, along with services at a Brooklyn, N.Y. facility, will transition to Quest’s flagship clinical laboratory in Teterboro, N.J. Calls to a human resources spokesperson by NJ.com were not returned, according to the publication. There was no information provided if the Brooklyn facility was also terminating its employees as a part of the acquisition.
In an email to BioSpace Wendy Bost, senior director of communications for Quest, said the acquisition will of Shiel will allow the diagnostics company to expand employment in the New York and New Jersey area by about 300 people.
“These positions are contingent upon the deal closing. We have committed to consider qualified Shiel employees for these positions and encourage them to apply,” Bost said in her email.
Shiel is a clinical laboratory provider serving the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area. In addition to the site in New Jersey and New York, Shiel also operates facilities in Pennsylvania and Connecticut, NJ.com reported.
Quest announced it was acquiring Shiel from Fresenius Medical Care on Sept. 28. Steve Rusckowski, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Quest Diagnostics, said the acquisition of Shiel will allow patients in New Jersey and New York to have “broader access to Quest’s diagnostic insights and innovations.”
“The acquisition will also deliver on Quest’s strategy to accelerate growth and drive operational excellence through strategically aligned, accretive acquisitions,” Rusckowski said in a statement.
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but the companies said the deal was structured as a purchase of assets.
In addition to acquiring Shiel from Fresenius, Quest said the two companies will collaborate on identifying patients with early-stage chronic kidney disease, based on Quest’s laboratory data analytics, who may benefit from treatment to slow progression to end-stage renal disease.
Along with the acquisition of Shiel, Quest closed out September by completing the acquisition of the outreach lab services operations of two hospitals of Hartford HealthCare, The William W. Backus Hospital and The Hospital of Central Connecticut. Testing performed by the two hospitals will transition to Quest’s full-service clinical laboratory in Marlborough, Mass, as well as rapid response labs in Wallingford, Torrington, Stratford, Hartford and Norwich, Conn.
Quest is one of the largest providers of diagnostic services. It lays claim to serving one in three adult Americans and half the physicians and hospitals in the United States. The company employs approximately 43,000 people. Quest is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
