How an HCA Healthcare Leadership Institute session led to a life-saving cancer diagnosis

When a group of HCA Healthcare physician leaders gathered for a Leadership Institute session this spring, they expected to discuss strategy, collaboration and the future of care delivery. They did that and more when one doctor’s trained eye detected something no one else had — a small lump that would ultimately lead to a life-saving cancer diagnosis.

That moment reflects the deeper purpose behind the HCA Healthcare Leadership Institute. At HCA Healthcare, leadership is more than strategy and management — it’s about connection, compassion and the ability to make a difference in the lives of others. The Institute was created to equip leaders across the organization with the skills to guide teams, strengthen collaboration and elevate patient care.

Through formal programs and self-paced development resources, the Leadership Institute supports executives, physicians and nurses at every stage of their leadership journey. Since its inception in 2014, more than 40,000 HCA Healthcare colleagues have participated in programs like the Director Development Program, Physician Leadership Academy, Executive Development Program and the Chief Leadership Program – reinforcing the idea that leadership and service are inseparable.

It’s a place where learning and service intersect — and where leadership can literally save lives.

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The Leadership Institute class that saved a life

When Meghan Schneider, director of physician leadership development at HCA Healthcare’s Leadership Institute, stood before a room full of division chief medical officers (DCMO) in the spring of 2025, she thought she was there to facilitate a series of sessions on strategy, connection and leadership as a member of the human resources team.

She didn’t know one of those leaders would save her life.

“The DCMO Colloquium is a meeting where division chief medical officers from across HCA Healthcare come together,” she explained. “It’s part learning, part strategy, part connection. It’s an opportunity for these leaders to explore ways to work more effectively together.”

The moment of detection

After facilitating one of the sessions, Meghan found herself talking with Dr. Andrew “Andy” Moore, a division chief medical officer and orthopedic surgeon in HCA Healthcare’s Gulf Coast Division.

“He’s constantly joking around,” Meghan said. “When he first pulled me aside, I thought he was messing with me because that’s his personality, but he just kind of looked at me and stopped all of a sudden and goes, ‘Hey, can you swallow for a second?’”

Dr. Moore had seen what no one else had — a small lump in Meghan’s neck.

“Meghan is someone I genuinely adore — she’s a kindred spirit and a 1000-Watt light in any room,” Dr. Moore said. “And as we were speaking together during a break, I noticed a slight asymmetry and an apparent small mass in her thyroid.”

“You have to remember that this is a room full of people that I work with in physician leadership development — they’re all doctors,” she recalled. “The way they all activated was immediate. All of the sudden, we’ve got people calling endocrinologists. I mean, it was just so fast. I was cared for from the literal moment Dr. Moore saw something strange in my throat.”

Accessing care through HCA Healthcare

Meghan acted quickly after the session wrapped up and went to TriStar Southern Hills Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. Because her passion is physician development, she was drawn to seek care where HCA Healthcare is developing the next generation of physician leaders through the organization’s Graduate Medical Education (GME) program. This particular hospital is home to a Family Medicine Residency Program.

 “The residents there are newly graduated and learning apply their knowledge in a clinical setting, so they are so willing to listen to you in a different way as they are learning to provide comprehensive care,” Meghan said.

For Meghan, that experience mirrored her philosophy as a developer of physician leaders: that care and learning are inseparable acts of service. “It’s really important to me that if we’re saying these are the people we believe in, then I’m going to put my care in their hands too,” she said.

“Meghan truly practices what she preaches when it comes to developing and supporting physicians,” Dr. Moore said. “Her decision to seek care within an HCA Healthcare facility that’s training the next generation of physicians speaks volumes about her passion and commitment to what we do. I’m incredibly grateful she trusted us with her care. I’m also very proud of how our HCA Healthcare family across multiple divisions, hospitals and specialties rallied together to ensure she received the care she needed.”

Meghan’s diagnosis and path to recovery

Ultimately, Dr. Moore’s instincts proved right. After follow-up testing and a biopsy, Meghan was diagnosed with a follicular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma — thyroid cancer.

“If I hadn’t been in that room talking to this specific group of people at that specific moment, my cancer never would have been caught,” she said. “I had no symptoms. I had nothing wrong with me.”

“Not to get dramatic about it,” she continued, “but while thyroid cancer is one of the best possible ones to have because of the high survival rate, it’s still cancer. I’m a mom of two young kids. If Dr. Moore hadn’t caught it and it had gotten all the way throughout my body — it terrifies me to think about what my experience could have been like.”

Meghan quickly worked to schedule a surgery at TriStar Centennial Medical Center, a part of the Sarah Cannon Cancer Network within HCA Healthcare, in Nashville, Tennessee. Meghan found comfort returning to the hospital where her mother was once a physician to have the golf ball-sized tumor on the left side of her thyroid removed.

“They took out half of it,” Meghan said. “The surgeon agreed — we’ll take out the bad side and see how you do with the other half. So, I actually have the other half of my thyroid and it’s working fine. I’m not even on medication now.”

“When a lump in the neck persists, the right next step is to have it checked by a physician,” said Dr. James Bekeny, Meghan’s head and neck surgical oncologist at TriStar Centennial Medical Center.

Throughout her cancer journey, Dr. Moore stayed connected with Meghan, checking in every month and providing insight at every stage. When she asked him about how she could repay his kindness, he said, in the same joking style, “You can buy me a donut.”

And before 2025 wrapped up, that is exactly what Meghan did.

Advice for others

When reflecting on her cancer journey, Meghan is still in awe of it all. “It’s the craziest thing,” she added. “I had no idea.”

And she uses her personal experience to advise others going through similar situations. “You can ask your doctor to check your thyroid,” she said. “It’s becoming a lot more common. A trained physician could feel that there was a lump.”

“HCA Healthcare’s mission statement — Above all else, we are committed to the care and improvement of human life — guides how I approach every single day,” Dr. Moore said. “I always challenge our teams to think beyond their roles and ask themselves, ‘What can I do to make our hospitals the kind of places where I would confidently take the people I love most in the world during their time of need?’ That mindset drives a higher level of attentiveness, compassion and accountability.”

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