Hospital and health system CEOs face mounting pressures and a rapidly evolving healthcare landscape — one that requires them to think critically about their leadership today, but also about how their role will need to evolve in the years ahead.
Leaders must navigate various responsibilities — from confronting health disparities and engaging more deeply with their communities and employees, to adopting AI and addressing financial challenges.
Becker’s asked CEOs to share how they see the role evolving over the next two to five years — and how they are preparing themselves and their organizations for that shift.
Editor’s note: Responses have been edited lightly for length and clarity.
Wyatt Brieser. CEO of Hammond-Henry Hospital (Geneseo, Ill.): Over the next two to five years, healthcare CEOs will be required to step beyond traditional leadership boundaries and engage more creatively and directly with the issue of health disparities in their communities. This is a moral imperative and a strategic necessity due to evolving expectations from payers, regulators and the communities we serve.
CEOs must stay closely connected to the shifting terrain of value-based care. We must ensure that implementation works effectively for those with access and innovatively bridges gaps for those lacking resources. This means prioritizing community health initiatives, creative partnerships, local government alignment, strategic investment in pro bono services, and leveraging tech health solutions that improve in house efficiencies and extend reach beyond our clinics. And we need to coordinate this with achieving a positive bottom line.
CEOs have always been expected to advocate for patients and equitable care, but there are complicating factors in today’s healthcare environment. Rising costs, social determinants of health and payer-driven outcomes metrics require a deeper, more proactive commitment. Soft or absent implementation will become a growing risk to community health and organizational sustainability.
Brad Meyer. CEO of Bluestem Health (Lincoln, Neb.): Looking ahead to the next two to five years, a less noticeable but increasingly vital shift in the CEO role is transitioning from an internal operator to a visible, engaged community integrator. As healthcare systems are held accountable for population health, equity and social determinants, CEOs must do more than lead from behind closed doors; they must actively build trust, foster partnerships, and represent their organizations in civic, public health and cross-sector spaces. This shift requires CEOs to be physically present in the community. Attending nonprofit events, health and career fairs, cancer walks and neighborhood forums is no longer symbolic — it’s strategic. Community partners, patients and stakeholders want to see healthcare leaders engaged and accessible. Visibility builds credibility; presence builds trust.
Too often, CEOs have surrounded themselves with other C-suite leaders to delegate external engagement, believing their time is better spent on internal priorities. But that model is increasingly out of step with what communities expect from healthcare institutions. When CEOs are absent from the community, they miss critical signals, weaken relationships and risk being perceived as disconnected from the people they serve. In contrast, CEOs who embrace the role of community integrator help position their organizations as anchor institutions — trusted, responsive and aligned with local needs. If the CEO is the face of the organization, that face must be seen in the community. It’s not just about attending events, it’s about being part of the conversations and coalitions that shape the future of health.
To prepare for this shift, I’m prioritizing external engagement as a core leadership function. I’m actively participating in health initiatives, building cross-sector partnerships and ensuring our leadership team is equipped to engage meaningfully with the communities we serve. We’re embedding community voice into our planning processes and aligning our organizational goals with public health outcomes.
Guy Hudson, MD. President and CEO of Northern Light Health (Brewer, Maine): As I begin my new role here as president and CEO of Northern Light Health, it is a transformational time to join this health system. We have the privilege to serve Mainers across the entire state. Comparing my current role and previous CEO positions from my career, there are a lot of similarities in terms of goals and objectives to serve our diverse communities and support our talented people. While healthcare may be in a constant state of rebalance, our focus remains the same: To ensure they have access to the care they need, when they need it, for generations to come.
When we are talking about changes in healthcare, one of the greatest innovations we are looking to incorporate — and have been, in various ways — is the role of AI and how it can us improve our care, safety, and decision making for our patients. As we become more sophisticated with our data collection and understanding of healthcare in rural communities, like many of those here in Maine, AI can organize and pull together variables to form care models that can help us more effectively deliver care to underserved and more vulnerable populations. To do this, it will require cooperation of healthcare CEOs and our partners throughout the industry, including government, state hospital associations, healthcare consultants and insurers.
