Almost 80 hospital CEOs have left their positions in 2025

According to a new report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, 1,358 CEOs have left their roles so far this year, a 9% increase from the 1,250 who left their roles during the same period last year.

"CEO turnover continues to climb in 2025, reflecting the immense pressures leaders face in navigating economic uncertainty, rapid technological change, and shifting organizational priorities," said Andy Challenger, a workplace and labor expert at Challenger, Gray & Christmas. "We're seeing companies recalibrate leadership faster than ever, with boards demanding adaptability and fresh perspective at the very top."

Among the different industries, healthcare/products companies had the third-highest number of CEO departures, with 133 CEO exits through July 2025. This is an 8% increase from 123 CEO departures during the same time last year.

Within this sector, hospitals reported 78 CEO exits so far this year, with 10 occurring in July. Hospital CEO departures have increased by 15% since July 2024, when there were 68 CEO exits.

According to industry observers, the workforce is getting older, and some health system leaders do not want to deal with the potential financial fallout of President Donald Trump's new tax law, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which includes hundreds of millions in Medicaid cuts.

"States, especially those that have expanded Medicaid, are going to get hit really hard by the 'One Big Beautiful Bill,'" said Greg Button, president of global healthcare services at executive search firm Korn Ferry. "If you pile that on with what has happened with National Institutes of Health cuts and what has happened with academic medical center research enterprises, some leaders are throwing the white flag up."

"I don't think succession planning is getting the attention it needs. It takes more than filling in a few slots for potential replacements — it takes some money and resources that a lot of boards haven’t felt the need to invest," industry consultant Paul Keckley said. "Those health systems are risking their reputation, their finances and the potential of becoming obsolete."

Although most health systems look internally to fill CEO departures, these plans don't always end up working out.

"Health systems know how to define competencies for future leadership roles, but many don't know how to build the leaders for those roles," said Aaron Sorenson, chief behavioral scientist at consultancy Lotis Blue.

To help develop leaders within their organizations, some health systems have implemented personal development and training programs aimed at select executives.

For example, John Ryan, board chair of Northern Light Health and chief counsel officer for Temple Health, said Northern Light started training potential internal candidates for over two years before it named a new CEO. After identifying several executives who had or could develop the right leadership competencies for the CEO position, Northern Light assigned executive and communication coaches to each candidate and put them through media training.

Although Northern Light ultimately chose an external candidate — Guy Hudson, a pediatric urologic surgeon and former president and CEO of Swedish Health Services — Ryan said the development programs will be beneficial for the organization, as well as potential CEOs-in-training, over the long term.

"They were disappointed they didn't get the job, but they might be our next CEO, and they are better executives for it," Ryan said.