CEO turnover is common in healthcare, as top leaders leave their organizations for various reasons. However, 2024 is shaping up to be a year of significant executive changes.
In July, Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an executive coaching firm that examines CEO turnover in the U.S., announced that hospitals reported 66 CEO exits in the first six months of 2024, down 19.5% from the 82 exits reported through the same period last year.
Hospitals announced 16 CEO exits in June, compared to 10 in May and two in June 2023, according to the firm.
Across the 29 industries and sectors measured by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, there were 234 CEO changes in June, up 97% from 119 CEO exits reported in May and 98% from 118 reported in June 2023. The June 2024 total marked the fourth time this year that CEO exits were higher than the corresponding month the previous year.
"Leaders are anticipating a sea change as we enter the second half of this year, perhaps politically, but certainly technologically. New leadership is often necessary during periods of change," Andrew Challenger, senior vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said in the report.
The CEO gender tenure gap also persists. In 2023, the average tenure for female CEOs leading Fortune 500 companies was 4.5 years, compared with 7.2 years for men, according to data from Equilar shared exclusively with Fortune.
This is in line with a persistent CEO gender tenure gap, the data showed. The gap slightly narrowed since 2014, when women averaged three years and men averaged 7.7.
Additionally, the median tenure length for S&P 500 CEOs was six years in 2013. By 2022, it was 4.8 years — a 20% decrease, according to a post from Joyce Chen, an associate editor at Equilar, on the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance.
Average CEO tenure length also decreased, from 7.6 years in 2013 to 7.2 years in 2022.
Ms. Chen attributed the shifts to factors such as the increasing demands of the role, as well as challenges such as supply chain issues and inflation.
In healthcare, there have been a number of notable CEO transitions this year, including several at prominent organizations.
Rod Hochman, MD, president and CEO of Renton, Wash.-based Providence, will retire at the end of the year, capping a 45-year career in healthcare, including nearly two decades with the Providence family of organizations. Providence COO Erik Wexler has been selected as the organization's next president and CEO.
Peter Slavin, MD, was appointed president and CEO for Los Angeles-based Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Cedars-Sinai Health System. Dr. Slavin will succeed Thomas Priselac, who is retiring.
Peter Fine, CEO of Phoenix-based Banner Health, retired June 30. Amy Perry, who joined Banner as president and COO in November 2021, was selected as the new president and CEO following Mr. Fine's retirement.
And Airica Steed, EdD, RN, was dismissed from her role as president and CEO of Cleveland-based MetroHealth System. The termination occurred weeks after Dr. Steed took a temporary medical leave of absence on July 23; she is considering legal action against the health system, calling her termination "unlawful." Christine Alexander-Rager, MD, was selected as acting president and CEO on July 26.
Read more about notable CEO transitions this year here.