As many health systems continue to grow, there is a trend toward eliminating individual hospital CEO roles in favor of regional leadership models, according to Peggy Loughery, MSN, RN, senior vice president of executive search at Kirby Bates Associates.
These regional models typically include a regional CEO, a chief nursing officer and a chief medical officer overseeing multiple hospitals, she told Becker’s.
“Organizations are increasingly adopting this structure to drive standardization and operational efficiency across their systems.” Ms. Loughery said.
The reasons and strategy behind this structure vary across organizations — as do the structures themselves.
San Diego-based Sharp HealthCare has implemented a consolidated leadership structure over the past few years, moving from five hospital-based CEOs to two market CEOs, according to Scott Evans, PharmD, senior vice president, chief strategy officer and market CEO.
“This modernized structure enables the CEOs to better tailor operations to their unique patient populations, with one focused on our managed-care metropolitan campus while the other focuses on our community hospital campuses,” Dr. Evans told Becker’s. “We have seen improvements in standardization, efficiency and collaboration across the system, better positioning Sharp for ongoing transformation work and future growth.”
Earlier in 2025, Norfolk, Va.-based Sentara Health adopted a market-based structure to improve collaboration and drive growth. The 12-hospital system now operates with eastern, northwestern and two southeastern markets, which report to their own acute care market president. Each market also includes a CMO and a CNO, ranging from two to four hospitals.
“The new structure allows us to tailor our approach and operational strategies based on the unique needs of each community, while still benefiting from the consistency and coordination of market-based leadership,” Eric Conely, executive vice president and president of acute and post-acute care, said in a May 13 news release.
Several other health systems in 2025 have appointed market CEOs or expanded hospital CEOs’ roles to include oversight of additional facilities. This includes UP Health System, which expanded the role of Tonya Darner, CEO of UP Health System-Marquette (Mich.), to include leadership of UP Health System-Bell in Ishpeming, Mich., as a market CEO, following the retirement of Bell’s CEO.
