Strengthening and supporting our workforce
Just as we are committed to providing high-quality care for our patients, we are also committed to supporting the overall well-being of our colleagues. To do this, we offer a variety of programs, resources and opportunities.
Vital Voices
Engaging and retaining our colleagues remains paramount. Twice a year, HCA Healthcare conducts an engagement pulse through our Vital Voices program that allows colleagues to confidentially share feedback on their experiences. The data gathered is used to inform initiatives and decisions at all levels of the organization, help leaders more effectively support their teams and identify colleagues’ perceptions and priorities.
Our fall 2023 engagement pulse showed exciting progress — we increased our enterprise and nurse engagement scores from the previous spring survey. We also saw momentum in key areas such as involvement, recognition and resources. Involvement, for example, increased by six points among all colleagues and nurses, demonstrating that our focus on including colleagues in the decisions that affect their work is making a difference.
Education assistance
HCA Healthcare supports the education and development of colleagues through our student loan assistance program, which provided approximately $8.8 million in 2023 to about 11,200 colleagues. Our tuition assistance program provided roughly $37.5 million to more than 4,800 colleagues.
Patricia Frist Memorial Scholarship
The Patricia Frist Memorial Scholarship — named in honor of the late Patricia Frist, a longtime philanthropist in Nashville, Tennessee, and wife of HCA Healthcare co-founder Dr. Thomas Frist Jr. — provides eligible dependents of HCA Healthcare colleagues with merit-based higher education scholarships of up to $6,000 a year (as of Jan. 1, 2024).
$11 million+
Patricia Frist Memorial Scholarships awarded since 2019
Fertility and family-building benefits
In 2022, HCA Healthcare formed a partnership with Progyny, a leading fertility benefits solution, to provide eligible colleagues access to certain treatment coverage, personalized guidance and access to specialists to support paths to parenthood. Through December 2023, the program has supported approximately 4,200 colleagues and more than 370 children have been welcomed to the HCA Healthcare family.
Financial well-being
Colleagues can speak for free with a financial professional about budgeting, debt reduction, retirement, estate planning, taxes and more. In addition, colleagues can take advantage of waived fees, consumer loans, mortgage discounts, access to financial well-being and wealth management counselors and more perks through our preferred banking partners.
Colleague Recognition Program
HCA Healthcare provides colleagues with an online platform to give and receive recognition while earning points that can be redeemed for rewards. In 2023, more than 2.5 million recognitions were shared on the platform.
Developing industry leaders
HCA Healthcare’s award-winning Leadership Institute is designed to build leaders who embrace our culture, grow the business and lead the industry. Since its inception in 2014, the Leadership Institute has graduated more than 21,275 colleagues.
Leadership Institute in 2023:
201,300+
hours of training
4,300+
graduates
4.7
out of 5.0 overall value
score by participants
The Leadership Institute offers 12 leadership development programs, including:
- The Executive Residency Program for recent graduates of master’s programs in healthcare administration (MHA) and business administration (MBA)
- The Advanced Leadership Program for assistant chief nursing officers
- Leadership Essentials for supervisors and managers
- The Nursing Leadership Certificate for clinical nurse coordinators
Notably, internal research shows a direct correlation between participation in Leadership Institute programs and colleague engagement, with graduates scoring 11 points higher on our engagement index compared to non-graduates. Even more impactful, colleagues whose leaders graduated from Leadership Institute programs score, on average, six points higher in engagement than those whose leaders have not participated.
Clinical leadership
At HCA Healthcare, our clinicians lead the way in delivering high-quality, compassionate care, and we are committed to supporting their career goals. The Leadership Institute’s Chief Leadership Program for chief nursing officers, which launched in 2023, is one of the many ways our nursing leaders can hone their leadership and business management skills.