Health system executive teams are rethinking how leadership time is spent heading into 2027.
Some C-suites are shifting toward near-term execution and away from long-range planning, while others are adding systemwide roles to bring regions and functions closer together. The common goal is a leadership model that can move faster under financial pressure.
Christopher Kane, chief strategy officer of Albany, Ga.-based Phoebe Health, expects financial and operations executives to take on expanded roles and impact over the next 12 months, with IT and human resources also prominent.
“Given the industry headwinds, we need executives who are the management equivalent of World Cup sailors,” Mr. Kane told Becker’s.
He anticipates strategy leaders will help with short-term execution rather than long-range planning. “A five-year plan is not a focus,” he said, adding that the key driver is: “What is the highest and best use of a finite resource (C-suite’s time) in the next 12 months?”
Gainesville, Fla.-based UF Health is adjusting its structure around alignment and is adding systemwide executive roles in nursing and quality. It is also putting more emphasis on change leadership and on its partnership with the University of Florida College of Medicine.
“We’re shaping an agile leadership model that advances our mission, drives excellence, and positions us to respond to the growing needs of our communities,” Chief Transformation Officer Jessica Melton told Becker’s.
Ms. Melton said the system’s 2027 focus is “balancing enterprise priorities with regional needs and making collaboration more intentional across the organization.”
A broader restructuring
Those priorities reflect a wider shift across health system leadership. In October, more than three dozen hospital and health system executives told Becker’s how they plan to reboot their organizational structures. Many described fewer leadership layers, faster decision-making and closer ties between finance, operations and technology.
Several systems also expect finance and operations roles to grow. At Columbia-based University of Missouri Health Care, CEO Ric Ransom said the system uses a triad model for business-unit oversight with fewer leadership layers. He expects ambulatory care, IT and finance and revenue cycle to change the fastest. At Parkside Psychiatric Hospital & Clinic in Tulsa, Okla., CFO Brad Bivens expects a leaner structure where finance, operations, clinical, revenue cycle and technology teams work together under a broader CFO role.
At Pinnacle Hospital in Crown Point, Ind., CEO Haroon Ansari is combining financial, billing, contracting and purchasing functions into one department.
Other leaders share UF Health’s aim to balance enterprise and regional needs: Bob Riney, president and CEO of Detroit-based Henry Ford Health, said the system is standardizing where scale helps while keeping local leadership in place. At Minneapolis-based Children’s Minnesota, COO John Harding created a chief ambulatory officer role and plans to organize around care delivery and partnerships.
UF Health is also among a growing number of systems creating enterprise-level clinical leadership. The system named Janice Walker, DHA, RN, its inaugural chief nursing officer, joining Somerville, Mass.-based Mass General Brigham and Birmingham, Ala.-based UAB Medicine in adding first-time systemwide nursing executive roles in 2026.
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