Putting patients first
Patients are at the center of everything we do. Across our organization, we integrate systems of care and leverage technology and robust data sets to support our goal of delivering high-quality care in a safe environment for our patients and colleagues.
Quality at HCA Healthcare
Our approach to clinical quality at HCA Healthcare is guided by an unwavering commitment to delivering safe, effective and compliant patient care. We align our systems of care, innovations and strategic partnerships to advance health through patient-focused care.
Recognized nationally for patient safety and quality, our facilities are leading the way in shaping the future of healthcare.
Key accomplishments:
Improved safety culture scores in every region on the 2025 Culture of Safety survey.
45%
Achieved a 33-minute median door-to-needle time for stroke patients, 45% faster than the national benchmark.
Studied and spent time with industry leaders in safety systems across aviation, advanced manufacturing and military operations to adapt proven high-reliability principles into the healthcare environment.
100
hospitals recognized in the top 10% in the nation for patient safety by Healthgrades’ 2025 Patient Safety Excellence Awards.
44
HCA Healthcare hospitals included on the 2026 Healthgrades’ 250 Best Hospitals Award list, which recognizes the top 5% of hospitals nationwide for clinical excellence.
88%
of our freestanding ER (FSER) patients and 82% of our hospital-based ER patients on the Emergency Room Survey said that given the choice, their likelihood of returning to an HCA Healthcare ER was good or very good.
*Data as of Dec. 31, 2025
Improving the delivery of care and outcomes
Improving the way healthcare is provided has been a part of HCA Healthcare’s culture since our founding in 1968. Today, with approximately 47 million annual patient encounters, we manage one of the world’s largest databases of hospital outcomes. The strength of our national healthcare system enables us to support medical learning and healthcare transformation at our facilities and beyond our network. Our clinicians’ access to our expansive network and collaborative care teams helps support the standards of care for every patient.
In 2025, we focused on improving quality and patient outcomes across key metrics to help continue meeting the needs of each community we serve.
Enhancing patient care in emergency rooms
Each year, approximately 10 million patients come through an HCA Healthcare emergency room (ER). From these patient encounters, we analyze data and work to develop best practices and continuously improve patient care.
HCA Healthcare ERs continue to demonstrate measurable improvements in patient experience, throughput efficiency and leadership stability through our ER Revitalization initiative — a comprehensive effort focused on enhancing care experience, optimizing throughput operations and strengthening workforce practices.
Our focus on operational excellence has driven notable improvements, and overall ER length of stay times continue to improve each year. These advancements reflect a more coordinated patient flow, timely clinical decision-making and strengthened leadership stability across our network.
The implementation and standard use of an enterprise-wide technology provide valuable insight into daily care delivery by presenting detailed patient information in a centralized view. The tool supports visibility into patients within the emergency department and highlights key clinical and operational considerations that help guide assessments, medication administration and follow-up on diagnostic results. With streamlined access, care teams can access a detailed view of each patient’s status.
A standardized version of this technology was implemented across all locations in 2025 to help support consistent care delivery and improved throughput efficiency. It has become a core part of how we manage daily operations, promoting timely interventions and streamlined workflows.
HCA Healthcare’s scale has played a pivotal role in our ER Revitalization efforts by allowing us to engage with teams and facilities across our network to share best practices and support meaningful improvements for our patients.
Our FSER footprint is enhancing access to emergency care across the communities we serve. By expanding our network of FSERs, we are bringing emergency care directly into communities often where none existed before. This growth helps ensure that more people can receive timely, high-quality emergency care close to home, reinforcing our commitment to community health and well-being.
Collaborating with first responders
We believe that effective communication and collaboration between Emergency Medical Services (EMS) providers and our ER providers and staff is essential in caring for a patient in a medical emergency.
In 2025, we launched our first enterprise-wide experience survey focused on EMS providers.
The EMS provider experience survey received nearly 10,000 responses from 345 EMS agencies. We are using the feedback from the survey to strengthen our relationship with EMS providers, who continue to be a vital component of our care networks and an important partner in caring for the communities we serve.
HCA Healthcare’s
trauma care centers
12
Level I trauma centers
41
Level II trauma centers
8 Level I and 10 Level II trauma centers included on Healthgrades’ America’s 250 Best Hospitals List for 2026
*Data as of Dec. 31, 2025
Improving trauma care delivery
As a leading provider of trauma care in the U.S., we leverage our scale, resources and technology to help bring healing and recovery to trauma patients.
In 2025, we expanded several of our shared databases to help care teams better plan their workflow, identify trends and analyze quality outcomes. At three of our hospitals, we piloted an electronic trauma flowsheet designed to help equip our trauma care teams with data more quickly and to improve outcomes for patients.
Having a standard, uniform electronic flowsheet allows for real-time visibility into the resuscitative phase of care for providers. We plan to expand the database to facilities using MEDITECH Expanse, our electronic health record (EHR) system, in 2026.
Through our collaboration with the American College of Surgeons (ACS), we are helping provide quality benchmark reports that are designed to help enhance trauma care delivery across the industry. At the ACS Trauma Quality Improvement (TQIP) Annual Safety Conference in 2025, we had a record level of 43 abstracts accepted and six podium speakers present on a range of trauma care topics.
The ACS’ Trauma Verification, Review and Consultation Program (VRC) is designed to help ensure trauma centers meet national standards for delivering high-quality, evidence-based trauma care. At HCA Healthcare, we have a process for continuous survey readiness by integrating our own survey process, modeled after the ACS survey. The process includes a team of reviewers of trauma medical directors and trauma lead nurses that proactively review and assess trauma care quality and seek improvements. We had 100% successful trauma regulatory surveys in 2025.
Our commitment to improving trauma care extends to our communities. In 2025, we expanded the STOP THE BLEED® programs to all of our trauma facilities to help increase education in communities on how to care for people in traumatic events.
Obstetrics (OB) Safety Model
With an increasing maternal age at delivery and a growing number of high risk-deliveries in the U.S., HCA Healthcare’s High Risk Obstetrical (OB) Programs strive to continuously elevate maternal health outcomes. To support this effort, in 2025 we integrated our OB Safety Model into facilities with OB hospitalist services.
Launched in 2024 by our Clinical Services Group, our OB Safety Model’s goal is to improve patient safety for all obstetric patients through the implementation of a standard model for rapid clinical response during emergencies. HCA Healthcare’s OB Safety Model incorporates multidisciplinary rounds and safety huddles, standardizes communication and escalation pathways, and incorporates rapid response when needed by the OB hospitalist to facilitate timely, coordinated responses during emergent situations. This safety model is adopted locally by each Medical Executive Committee (MEC) and is designed to support collaboration among OB hospitalists, nurses, residents and attending obstetricians, and to prompt consistent and rapid responses to urgent conditions — such as severe hypertension, eclampsia or significant obstetric hemorrhage.
Expanding access to care
HCA Healthcare remains focused on ensuring access for our patients and removing barriers to care. This includes supporting patients with language and accessibility needs across our system. In 2025, we’ve provided over 32 million minutes of language services support to our patients across the enterprise in 193 languages and dialects.
This commitment is also strengthened through colleague education and awareness. Building on the success of our corporate-based Accessibility Awareness Labs, HCA HealthONE hosted three labs in October at Aurora, Presbyterian St. Luke’s and Swedish hospitals. Plans are underway to expand to other divisions and to develop a virtual experience to reach even more colleagues.
