HCA Healthcare Gives Back

HCA Healthcare finds ways to give back to the community it serves — and beyond

Providing outstanding patient care is what drives every HCA Healthcare professional – and often, that care doesn’t stop at the hospital doors. From fundraisers to professional partnerships, HCA Healthcare facilities are heavily engaged in the health and well-being of the communities they serve.

What’s more, HCA Healthcare as a company often engages with large-scale national, even international, efforts to provide emergency relief and more following disasters. And then there’s the HCA Healthcare Hope Fund, which is funded by HCA Healthcare employees to support their coworkers in need.

Whether it’s the 5K fun run for a local charity, helping fellow employees who have encountered unforeseen expenses or donating to relief efforts for people halfway around the world, HCA Healthcare demonstrates every day that its giving culture has no limits.

Methodist Healthcare local outreach efforts showcase HCA Healthcare’s community involvement

In San Antonio, a longtime and successful HCA Healthcare and Methodist Healthcare partnership pays rich dividends for the community.

The San Antonio division encompasses nine Methodist facilities, which are owned in equal parts by HCA Healthcare and Methodist Healthcare Ministries. This means that the hospitals operate in the same manner as every other healthcare facility within HCA Healthcare, but that they also undertake some nonprofit functions as well.

“The IRS requires that we submit a community health assessment, and then a health-improvement plan based on that assessment,” says Carole Harris, community relations specialist. “For us to do that work, we need a lot of input. We’re a member of the Behr County Health Collaborative, which is made up of hospitals and other health-related organizations in San Antonio. We work with them to come up with five priorities, and then base our community outreach on those five priorities as a part of a three-year plan.”

This allows all HCA Healthcare/Methodist hospitals to engage with the community in many different ways, and to have a stronger outreach than they might have without the assessment and partnerships.

“We as a healthcare system are doing these assessments every four years, and they really help us button down strategies and goals for the hospitals,” says Palmira Arellano, vice president of marketing and public relations. “We are involved with health literacy, youth mental health and many other programs thanks to working with the city, county, school districts and other partners. This lets us create a very comprehensive, strategic attach on the gaps in healthcare in our community, and tackle them together.”

In addition, the hospitals have a strong internal giving component. Methodist Gives is an annual drive to raise money for the HCA Healthcare Hope Fund and other charities, and also donate to specific community endeavors.

“You hear ‘population health’ a lot as buzzwords today, but we have been involved in activities around that thinking long before it was on a lot of people’s radar,” Harris says. “Methodist Healthcare is very engaged in supporting both the community it serves, as well as the employees who provide that care.”

HCA Healthcare’s corporate gifts provide assistance at home and abroad

Leadership at every level within HCA Healthcare strongly believes in providing support to worthy organizations within the community. At the local level, that can be by participation in health fairs, 5K runs for specific charities and much more. At the corporate offices, senior leadership has embraced the company’s giving philosophy as well, making sure that HCA Healthcare is there when tomorrow’s healthcare leaders are being trained, or when people halfway around the world need medical care.

Nepal earthquake relief 

HCA Healthcare donated $1 million to support three international disaster-relief organizations following the Nepal earthquake. Doctors Without Borders and MedShare International each received $250,000, while HCA Healthcare provided $500,000 in matching funds to donations made by HCA Healthcare employees and vendors to the American Red Cross and its relief efforts in Nepal.

“As a healthcare provider with approximately 225,000 employees who treat millions of patients every year, our people have dedicated their professional lives to caring for others, and we have a long history of supporting humanitarian efforts,” says Milton Johnson, chairman and CEO.

HCA Healthcare and The HCA Healthcare Foundation have given almost $95 million to various charities since 2010. Areas and issues affected include the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, the Haiti earthquake, the Indonesian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina.

TSU scholarship donation

A recent example of the company’s contribution to our communities is a donation of $1 million, to be given over four years, to Tennessee State University’s scholarship programs for students in health science disciplines through the university’s College of Health Sciences.

The donation is part of HCA Healthcare’s annual Caring for the Community campaign, and will help ensure that there is a steady pipeline of qualified healthcare providers now and in the future. The campaign has four key pillars — learn, serve, give and lead — and has engaged 64 percent of HCA Healthcare employees as volunteers with various organizations and causes, and 66 percent of HCA Healthcare employees in giving.

“HCA Healthcare is woven into the fabric of communities,” Johnson says. “We are in the relationship business with our patients, physicians, vendors, each other and in our communities. We are proud to support our neighbor, TSU, and we have many graduates who have done an outstanding job for us.”

“Tennessee State University thanks HCA Healthcare for their support and for consistently recognizing the talented young people we produce by investing in them,” says Glenda Glover, the university’s president. “This is not the first time HCA Healthcare has backed TSU, and we appreciate yet another generous donation that will provide us the opportunity to recruit, graduate and prepare students for employment as top-notch healthcare professionals who deliver quality services across the country.”

Clinical mission trip connects employee’s skills with people in need

Many HCA Healthcare caregivers donate their time and expertise to outreach efforts that provide healthcare to the neediest in their communities, both at home and abroad. It’s a way that they can take their unique skills and make a difference for people who otherwise might never have even basic healthcare services, and the opportunity means a great deal to those who participate. Other trips take that focus on healthcare and broaden it to include providing clothing and other quality-of-life services that also enrich the local communities.

Take Samantha Lacey, an implementation specialist in HCA Healthcare’s Clinical Services Group. She is involved with Live Beyond, an organization providing on-the-ground medical services in Haiti. Her work with the group has led to the first of many planned mission trips and a commitment she says will last a lifetime.

“A few colleagues donated to support the trip I took last fall, and HCA Healthcare allows employees to use their volunteer hours for something like this,” she says. “You can donate those hours anywhere, as long as you are working with a 501(c)3 organization.”

On this trip, Lacey and her fellow travelers brought musical instruments for children in local orphanages, as well as thousands of pairs of shoes for children and adults.

“We brought food, bags of rice and beans, because many of these people would die if they did not get this kind of support,” Lacey says. “We also provided medication and whatever else they might need in the areas we visited, even if it’s just toiletries and the basics we take for granted here. I hope I can go back at least every other year, because the need is so great. It is wonderful that HCA Healthcare helps by providing the volunteer hours, so that myself and my colleagues can be of service in our communities, elsewhere in the country and even overseas.”

HCA Healthcare Hope Fund continues strong growth thanks to employee donations and support

When Joshua Schade took a job closer to home, it was good news to wife Jennifer and their five sons. He’d be on the road less, and even though the freight he was hauling was dangerous, he wasn’t too worried.

“He hauled sulphuric acid, which is pretty nasty stuff, but he wore full protective gear when he had to unload it with a pressurized hose,” says Schade, a medical office specialist at Northern Utah Cardiovascular. “But there was an explosion, and the acid melted right through the clothing. He was covered head to toe.”

Joshua’s accident took place in early 2015, and he suffered third-degree burns over 70 percent of his body and was hospitalized for months. His condition was touch and go for several weeks, including six weeks in a coma.

Over the first few months of his rehabilitation, he underwent more than 14 surgeries, as skin grafts and other procedures are performed, literally inch by inch, to re-cover his body.

“The process is really long, because he’d do well with physical therapy in between the surgeries, and then another operation would slow him down again,” Schade told the Hope Fund in August 2015. “He’s now tube-free, and making great progress. The doctors are thinking that soon he can go to rehab, so that he can continue to re-learn how to walk, and feed himself. He has to really start over with everything. It’s been a long road, but he’s a fighter.”

Jennifer had to take time off from work, and the bills quickly began to pile up. She wasn’t familiar with the Hope Fund, but when she heard about it she was eager to learn more.

“With neither of us working, what money we had set aside went really fast,” she says. “I spoke with someone in our office who told me about the Hope Fund. I was still in shock, because it was soon after the accident and I didn’t know if he was going to live or die, and I was trying to keep things together for our five boys. I eventually just called the number.”

That call made a world of difference, Schade says.

“The person I spoke with was so kind,” she recalls. “Someone from out here had been in touch with them and said I would be calling, so she was ready to answer my questions. It really was something: I was only calling to see if I would qualify, and here I’ve got this nice woman telling me that people there had been praying for me.”

Within a few days, the Hope Fund had processed her application, and the money was in her checking account.