Executive Leadership Changes at Major Hospitals
The CEO of University of Chicago Medicine's hospital division has stepped down from the role. In a separate move, Fraser Health in British Columbia, Canada, named Dermot Kelly as its new chief executive amid a broader leadership transition. The changes reflect ongoing turnover in the C-suite of major North American health systems.
- Hospital CEO turnover is a persistent trend; in 2023, there were 146 CEO changes in U.S. hospitals, a 42% increase from the 103 changes reported in 2022. Through the first half of 2025, hospitals saw 68 CEO exits, a slight increase from the 66 during the same period in the prior year. - Dermot Kelly, the new CEO of Fraser Health, has over 20 years of leadership experience in British Columbia's health system and has held several key roles at Fraser Health over the past six years, including overseeing medical imaging. He replaces interim CEO Dr. Lynn Stevenson, who was brought in after the previous CEO, Dr. Victoria Lee, departed in February 2025. - The shift of imaging services to outpatient settings is a significant trend, with approximately 40% of all radiology volume now occurring in outpatient centers rather than hospitals. Projections indicate that over the next decade, standard outpatient imaging volume will grow by 10%, and advanced imaging will increase by nearly 14%. - Health systems are increasingly developing freestanding imaging centers through acquisitions, joint ventures, or new construction to adapt to this shift in care. This strategy allows them to capture patient volume that is moving away from higher-cost hospital settings. - Effective January 1, 2025, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will separately reimburse for high-cost diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals in the hospital outpatient setting. This policy change addresses issues where bundled payments previously failed to cover the cost of expensive but necessary imaging agents. - Persistent workforce shortages for both radiologists and technologists are straining imaging departments, leading to diagnostic delays. In 2025, vacancy rates for CT technologists reached a high of 19.4%, and MRI technologist vacancies rose to 17.4%. - To combat staffing shortages, some health systems are centralizing their imaging management structure, moving from a hospital-centric model to one organized by imaging modality across the entire enterprise. One system that implemented this saw a 19% increase in work relative value units at the modality level within two years. - The Medicare Physician Fee Schedule for 2025 includes a proposed 2.8% payment cut, continuing a downward trend in reimbursement that could further impact radiology practice revenues. This follows a 1.77% reduction in 2024 after congressional intervention lessened an initially steeper cut.
