Becker's Hospital Review

7 CEO / STRATEGY Despite rising pressures, Trinity Health ended fiscal 2025 with encouraging headline performance. e system grew operating revenue by 6.6% to $25.4 billion and boosted net patient service revenue by 5.2%, driven by volume and improved payment rates. On top of that, investment earnings and proceeds from divestitures — including the cash windfall from its exit from a joint venture with BayCare — pushed net income to $1.3 billion, up sharply from $475.5 million the previous year. But those numbers masked a slight operating loss. Trinity Health reported a $12.2 million operating loss (0% margin) for 2025 (roughly flat, compared with a larger loss in 2024). Mr. Slubowski and his team see this as a call to action, not a cause for complacency. at is partly why divesting joint ventures — such as the partnerships with Clearwater, Fla.-based BayCare and Atlanta-based Emory Healthcare — makes sense for Trinity Health. Not just as liquidity events, but as moves that free up capital for ambulatory and outpatient growth, where the returns (financial and strategic) may be greater and more sustainable. Divesting from these two JVs generated about $4.3 billion in capital for Trinity Health. "We're making investments in growth in areas such as our medical groups, PACE, ambulatory surgery and freestanding imaging services," Mr. Slubowski said. "ose are really the areas where we're putting the most capital to work right now. "It's a mix of strategies. We've done some de novo development, bought into existing partnerships with physicians, and we're also part of joint ventures that were formed years ago. In some of those, we're now increasing our ownership by buying out a portion of our physician partners' stakes." n 10 vital attributes for 'future-ready' health system CEOs By Kristin Kuchno H ealth system leaders are juggling heightened uncertainties in 2025, including financial challenges and workforce shortages. The organizations that can thrive in this era will not necessarily be those with the strongest balance sheet or largest footprint, but rather those led by CEOs combining strategic clarity with dexterity, according to a Dec. 4 report from SullivanCotter. SullivanCotter's sister firm Lotis Blue gathered data from 20 of its highest-performing clients to identify the attributes and competencies that will define success in the next chapter of healthcare. The firm partnered with Hogan Assessments to apply its leadership assessment framework to identify the traits distinguishing high-performing health system CEOs. While technical and operational expertise were important to CEO effectiveness, they were not as important as cognitive, relational and adaptive capabilities, according to the report. The highest-value behaviors were distilled into 10 competencies Lotis Blue refers to as the "Vital Ten." The firm identified four domains of "future-ready" CEOs: strategic mindset, execution engine, cultural leadership and adaptive capacity, of which the "Vital Ten" are a part. Strategic mindset 1. Sound judgment and decisive action: Makes timely, well-reasoned calls on risk, capital and care. 2. Foresight and strategic navigation: Reads policy and market winds early, setting a course for the system and taking disciplined risks. 3. Systems thinking and market insights: Connects clinical realities with industry signals for smarter decision-making. Execution engine 4. Leading change and transformation: Champions new models of care and pushes past roadblocks. 5. Relentless drive for results: Consistently transfers plans into measurable gains. 6. Enterprise accountability: Holds oneself and other leaders to clear financial, clinical and access commitments. Cultural leadership 7. Mobilizing teams and talent with empathy: Builds trusting teams and leads with empathy. 8. Integrity as leadership currency: Acts with professionalism and honesty to earn trust of patients, staff, payers and regulators. 9. Clear and compelling communication: Cuts through complexity with language that informs, persuades and rallies stakeholders. Adaptive capacity 10. Navigating ambiguity with confidence: Makes progress amid uncertainty and shields teams from noise. "The research makes clear that the next generation of CEOs will be defined by balance: ambition tempered by humility, decisiveness grounded in ethics, curiosity guided by discipline," the report said. "They will combine analytical rigor with human insight, uniting mission and margin, data and compassion." n

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