Nearly half of healthcare executives plan to leave their organizations within the next year, according to a March 24 survey by B.E. Smith, a healthcare executive search firm and a subsidiary of AMN Healthcare.
The 2025 Healthcare Leadership Trends survey, which gathered responses from 588 healthcare executives, highlights ongoing challenges related to executive turnover and workforce instability.
Here are seven key findings from the survey:
- Forty-six percent of respondents said they plan to leave their organizations within the next year, with 26% considering departure either immediately or within the next six months.
- Seventy-four percent of respondents reported receiving a credible job offer within the past six months.
- Filling executive vacancies may prove difficult, as 80% of healthcare executives described the process as extremely, very or moderately challenging.
- Interim executives are a common solution. Of the organizations that used interim leadership, 80% did so to temporarily fill open positions.
- Healthcare executives identified information technology, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence leadership roles as some of the fastest-growing positions in 2025.
- Financial pressures and workforce shortages were cited as the top disruptors for healthcare organizations in 2025.
- To navigate these challenges, healthcare leaders outlined their top three revenue growth strategies: expanding existing service lines, implementing significant cost reductions and adding new service lines.
Despite the challenges, healthcare executives remain cautiously optimistic about the financial and operational landscape in 2025. Thirty-four percent expect conditions to improve, 48% anticipate no significant change and 18% believe conditions will worsen.
Optimism is slightly lower when considering the broader healthcare industry. Thirty-nine percent expect no change, 30% predict improvement and 31% foresee worsening conditions.
