A new report found that year-to-date, there was a 58% increase in CEO exits in 2023 compared to 2022.
Hospitals experienced 18 CEO exits in February 2023, according to a new Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. report.
Year to date, 41 hospital CEOs have made role changes, the report found. This is a 58% increase year over year, where only 26 hospital CEOs made exits during the first two months of 2022.
"We will likely continue to see increased CEO exits in hospitals as they recover from the pandemic, consolidate, and respond to both worker shortages and increased costs," Andrew Challenger, SVP of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. said in a statement.
Hospital CEO exits have slowed down following a surge in January, where 23 hospital CEOs left their posts, leading the turnover rates for all sectors tracked by the firm for that month. But while hospitals experienced a high rate of CEO turnover in January, it's common for the first month of the year to have the highest turnover rate of the year.
Additionally, January 2023 was the highest hospital CEO turnover rate since August 2018, when 24 hospital CEOs left their post during the month of January. Of the 112 CEO exits tracked in January, hospital CEO exits made up 21% of the total exits.
Across all sectors, CEO exits surged 49% from the 112 tracked in January to the 167 exits tracked in February, according to the report. This is the highest monthly total tracked since January 2020, when 219 CEOs left their posts.
"The jump in CEO exits in February suggests companies are gearing up for a lot of change in the coming months," Challenger said.
Melanie Blackman is a contributing editor for strategy, marketing, and human resources at HealthLeaders, an HCPro brand.