The 2025 healthcare COO appointment trends tell a story of leadership progression, operational consolidation, and the growing integration of clinical expertise at the executive level.
COOs are responsible for realizing the CEO’s vision and holding executive leaders from across the organization accountable to meeting strategic goals. They work with teams to improve performance and organizationwide culture.
That’s not an easy job right now. A PwC Pulse Survey released in June showed COOs are “under pressure to transform their organizations while navigating ongoing complexity” and face big challenges in execution. Out of the 82 COOs surveyed, the top barriers to execution were:
- Talent retention and skill shortages: 46%
- Sourcing challenges: 43%
- Limited collaboration across operational and supply chain functions: 41%
- Resource constraints: 39%
- Inconsistent or siloed data: 35%
Becker’s tracked 104 hospital and health system COO moves since mid-March and found the following trends.
Clinicians are taking on the COO role. Leaders with the MSN, RN and DNP credentials are becoming more common in the C-suite with a variety of roles, including the COO. They bring a unique perspective in and credibility with the clinical staff to lead change management and transformation. They understand what it takes to work with patients on the frontlines and keep the patient’s experience at the center of the decision-making process at the corporate level to make sure cultural change and technology adoption sticks.
Recent examples include:
- James Roundtree, BSN, RN, appointed COO of PeaceHealth Sacred Heart (Springfield, Ore.)
- Rachael Kincaid, DNP, appointed COO of South Peninsula Hospital (Homer, Alaska)
- Tonya Smith, PharmD, appointed COO of Valley Health (Winchester, Va.)
- Kerin Da Druz, MSN, RN, was appointed COO of UF Health Jacksonville
Large systems are also prioritizing COOs. As health systems grow, they’re appointing COOs over multiple facilities to harness “systemness” and empower effective hospital-level leaders to scale their success across the organization.
Recent examples include:
- Mark Sparta, appointed COO of Hackensack Meridian Health (Edison, N.J.)
- Joe Camillus, appointed COO of Boston Medical Center Health System
- Chad Tuttle, appointed COO of Corewell Health (Grand Rapids, Mich.)
- Lisa Foo, appointed the first COO of Tenet Healthcare (Dallas)
Dual role COOs are proliferating. Health systems see a strong need for operational executives, and adding the title to existing C-suite leaders to grow influence within the organization. The leaders sometimes have a clinical background; other times they’re core expertise is in finance, technology or administration and consolidating the COO role streamlines operations.
Recent examples include:
- Oscar Marroquin, MD, appointed chief administrative and operating officer at Emory Healthcare (Atlanta)
- Chris Pizzi, appointed COO and CFO of Asante Rogue Regional (Medford, Ore.)
Hospitals are using COOs as a pipeline to the CEO role. COOs have the right combination of strategic mindset and execution-oriented vision to lead organizations over the next several years, as healthcare rapidly evolves in response to changing economics, legislation and technology.
Recent example include:
- Katherine Edrington’s appointment to CEO of Adena Health (Chillicothe, Ohio)
- Ken Stevens’ appointment to Medical City Frisco (Texas)
- Craig Moore’s appointment as CEO of AdventHealth Kissimmee (Fla.)
