HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA), one of the nation’s leading healthcare providers, today announced that is has been recognized for the 13^th time by Ethisphere, a global leader in defining and advancing standards of ethical business practices, as one of the 2023 World’s Most Ethical Companies. HCA Healthcare is one of only four honorees in the Healthcare Providers category this year.

“It is an honor to again be named as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies,” said Sam Hazen, chief executive officer of HCA Healthcare. “We believe in doing what is right for our patients and colleagues and take great pride in being a positive influence in the many communities we serve.”

In 2022, HCA Healthcare and the HCA Healthcare Foundation donated more than $44 million to community organizations across the country, and HCA Healthcare colleagues logged more than 143,800 hours spent volunteering. In 2022, the HCA Healthcare Foundation continued to support the Healthier Tomorrow Fund, a community impact fund focused on addressing high-priority community needs and advancing health equity. Since its launch in 2021, the Fund has committed more than $18.3 million in communities where HCA Healthcare has a presence, and granted awards to 51 nonprofit partners including the American Heart Association, Girl Scouts of the USA and Educate Texas. In addition, HCA Healthcare provided uncompensated care in 2022 at an estimated cost of approximately $3.5 billion.

HCA Healthcare is committed to providing equitable access to high-quality care for patients and fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace for its colleagues.

• As part of that commitment, HCA Healthcare formed the Health Equity Council in January 2021 and the Patient Advisory Group in 2022 to help identify and address health disparities within and outside of HCA Healthcare hospitals, as well as to develop strategies that advance health equity.
• In 2022, the company was recognized with the Best for Vets award for the third consecutive year from Military Times and as a military-friendly employer by VIQTORY for the 12th consecutive year.
• HCA Healthcare was also recognized as one of the “Best Places to Work for Disability Inclusion,” receiving a top score of 100 on the 2022 Disability Equality Index®, a comprehensive tool for measuring disability workplace inclusion.
• HCA Healthcare and its facilities are members of Practice Greenhealth, which seeks to provide sustainable healthcare solutions. Since 2002, HCA Healthcare has received 171 Practice Greenhealth awards.
• The company has also announced approximately $6.8 million towards its $10 million commitment over three years to support Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) to strengthen the diversity of the company and invest in the next generation of healthcare leaders.

HCA Healthcare continued its work to combat the nation’s opioid crisis last year. In October 2022, the company hosted its fourth annual “Crush the Crisis” national opioid take back day, in conjunction with the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) National Prescription Drug Take Back Day, during which 19,423 pounds of unused or expired medications were collected at more than 100 collection sites across 17 states. Furthermore, HCA Healthcare has worked with the National Academy of Medicine’s (NAM) Action Collaborative on Countering the U.S. Opioid Epidemic. HCA Healthcare has given $750,000 to the Collaborative to support the development of safer pain management protocols and reversal of the opioid crisis. Last year, the company also announced its enterprise-wide adopted Enhanced Surgical Recovery (ESR) program, which uses an individualized, multimodal pain management approach, only using opioids on an as-needed basis and instead using non-opioid pain relievers and other pain management techniques. The ESR protocol has resulted in an up to 44% decrease in opioid usage for some surgeries.

“Receiving this award for the 13^th time would not be possible without the integrity and dedication of the approximately 294,000 HCA Healthcare colleagues across the country and in the UK,” said Kathi Whalen, senior vice president and chief ethics and compliance officer at HCA Healthcare. “We are proud to share this recognition with them, as we collectively strive to foster a positive work environment and maintain trust with our patients and communities.”

HCA Healthcare supports its colleagues through essential access to financial and wellness resources. In 2022, The HCA Healthcare Hope Fund, a colleague-run, colleague-supported 501(c)(3) charity, provided $12 million in assistance through 4,427 grants to HCA Healthcare colleagues and families faced with financial hardships. The company also provides access to programs such as Nurse Care, a free and confidential mental health program for the needs of HCA Healthcare hospital-based nurses and Optum Wellbeing, which provides colleagues and their families with up to eight free counseling sessions per topic, per year.

“Ethics matters. Organizations that commit to business integrity through robust programs and practices not only elevate standards and expectations for all, but also have better long-term performance,” said Erica Salmon Byrne, chief executive officer of Ethisphere. “We continue to be inspired by the World’s Most Ethical Companies honorees and their dedication to making real impact for their stakeholders and displaying exemplary values-based leadership. Congratulations to HCA Healthcare for earning a place in the World’s Most Ethical Companies community.”

Grounded in Ethisphere’s proprietary Ethics Quotient®, the World’s Most Ethical Companies assessment process includes more than 200 questions on culture, environmental and social practices, ethics and compliance activities, governance, diversity, and initiatives that support a strong value chain. The process serves as an operating framework to capture and codify the leading practices of organizations across industries and around the globe.

In 2023, 135 honorees were recognized spanning 19 countries and 46 industries. The full list of the 2023 World’s Most Ethical Companies can be found at https://worldsmostethicalcompanies.com/honorees.

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. Please click here to connect with HCA Healthcare on social media.

About Ethisphere

Ethisphere is the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices that fuel corporate character, marketplace trust, and business success. Ethisphere has deep expertise in measuring and defining core ethics standards using data-driven insights that help companies enhance corporate character. Ethisphere honors superior achievement through its World’s Most Ethical Companies® recognition program, provides a community of industry experts with the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA), and showcases trends and best practices in ethics with Ethisphere Magazine. Ethisphere also helps to advance business performance through data-driven assessments, guidance, and benchmarking against its unparalleled data: the Culture Quotient dataset focused on ethical culture and featuring the responses of 2+ million employees around the world; and the Ethics Quotient dataset, featuring 200+ data points highlighting the ethics, compliance, social, and governance practices of the World’s Most Ethical Companies. For more information, visit https://ethisphere.com.

All references to “Company,” “HCA” and “HCA Healthcare” as used throughout this document refer to HCA Healthcare, Inc. and its affiliates.

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