NASHVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA), one of the nation’s leading healthcare providers, today announced its continued support of the American Red Cross through a $500,000 donation to the organization’s Annual Disaster Giving Program (ADGP). This is HCA Healthcare’s fifth year participating in the annual giving program, which helps provide funding for strong infrastructure, trained volunteers, innovative technology and critical resources necessary to respond to a disaster.
Each year, the Red Cross responds to more than 60,000 disasters of all sizes. This pre-investment in disaster relief helps Red Cross workers, 90 percent of which are volunteers, have the infrastructure, resources and technology to provide care and comfort to those in need. As an Annual Disaster Giving Program member and a leading healthcare provider, HCA Healthcare also works alongside the Red Cross to respond in real-time, including coordinating supplies and resources, supporting shelters and matching patients with community shelters when discharged from the hospital.
“With 182 hospitals, we realize the need to support communities in their darkest hours,” said Sam Hazen, chief executive officer at HCA Healthcare. “We are proud to strengthen our commitment to supporting communities through our ongoing work with the Red Cross and by participating in their Annual Disaster Giving Program.”
HCA Healthcare is well-versed at responding to a disaster. The Company’s Enterprise Emergency Operations Center (EEOC), a multi-disciplinary incident response team of nearly 200 leaders, regularly works with experts across the HCA Healthcare enterprise to provide resources and coordinate responses during a crisis. Last year when Hurricane Ian made landfall on the west coast of Florida, the EEOC quickly responded and transferred more than 185 patients within 16 hours, averaging one patient every five minutes. In the days after, HCA Healthcare set up on-site mini-marts with critical household goods, fuel stations, showers and laundry services for colleagues. HCA Healthcare has also contributed to and uses the Red Cross RC View, an advanced geographic information system (GIS) and data visualization tool that provides emergency response teams with a shared disaster response capability.
“We count on ADGP members like HCA Healthcare because they understand the importance of being prepared before a disaster strikes so we can respond immediately,” said Anne McKeough, chief development officer at the American Red Cross. “We're extremely grateful for HCA Healthcare’s donation, which will help ensure we can continue to build our capacity and resources ahead of time, keep up with the pace of frequent disasters and assist people in their darkest hours.”
HCA Healthcare has provided more than $6 million in financial support to the Red Cross for disaster relief efforts over the last seven years, including Hurricane Harvey in 2017, hurricanes Florence and Michael in 2018, the Texas winter storms in 2021 and the tornadoes in Kentucky that same year. In 2022, HCA Healthcare gave $258,000 to the Red Cross through direct donations and colleague matching to aid in Hurricane Ian relief efforts in Florida, and $100,000 during historic flooding in Kentucky.
In addition to investing in disaster preparation, HCA Healthcare established the HCA Healthcare Hope Fund to support colleagues in disasters. The HCA Healthcare Hope Fund is an employee-run, employee-supported 501(c)(3) charity that provides financial aid and resources to employees after an extended illness, injury, disaster or other special situations. In 2022, the HCA Healthcare Hope Fund provided $12 million in grants that helped more than 4,400 HCA Healthcare colleagues and families.
For more information on the American Red Cross, visit redcross.org.
About HCA Healthcare
Nashville-based HCA Healthcare is one of the nation’s leading providers of healthcare services comprising 182 hospitals and approximately 2,300 ambulatory sites of care, including surgery centers, freestanding ERs, urgent care centers, and physician clinics, in 20 states and the United Kingdom. With its founding in 1968, HCA Healthcare created a new model for hospital care in the United States, using combined resources to strengthen hospitals, deliver patient-focused care and improve the practice of medicine. HCA Healthcare has conducted a number of clinical studies, including one that demonstrated that full-term delivery is healthier than early elective delivery of babies and another that identified a clinical protocol that can reduce bloodstream infections in ICU patients by 44%. HCA Healthcare is a learning health system that uses its more than 37 million annual patient encounters to advance science, improve patient care and save lives.
All references to “Company,” “HCA” and “HCA Healthcare” as used throughout this document refer to HCA Healthcare, Inc. and its affiliates.
