HCA Healthcare is consistently recognized as a leader in patient safety and delivering high-quality care. In 2024, 93 HCA Healthcare hospitals were recognized with the Healthgrades Patient Safety Excellence Award, and 54 hospitals were recognized in the Top 250 hospitals on Healthgrades’ “Best Hospitals” list.

These accolades are achieved by leading the way in research, continuing to innovate and always striving to put patient-centered care above all else.

Healthcare is an ever-changing field, with new treatments and technologies always evolving to improve patient outcomes.
HCA Healthcare took the lead in one very new technology this past spring, when HCA HealthONE Presbyterian St. Luke’s became the first facility within the HCA Healthcare system — and only the eighth in the country — to offer an innovative, noninvasive treatment for patients with liver tumors.

The procedure, called histotripsy, uses a collection of high-powered sonar beams to target and eradicate tumors. Eric Liu, MD, a surgeon affiliated with HCA HealthONE Presbyterian St. Luke’s, specializes in neuroendocrine cancer. He has been following advances with this treatment, which has been examined and refined for over 25 years.

“I watched as they continued to improve the procedure, and saw that this could be an amazing tool for my patients,” Dr. Liu says. “I began building relationships with the researchers and scientists so I could learn more about it. At the same time, I talked with my colleagues at HCA Healthcare, presenting the benefits of this treatment and pushing to be an early adopter.”

The new histotripsy procedure improves patient care in a number of important quality measures, including:

Reduced risk of complications. By eliminating the need for surgical incisions, the risks of infection and other complications are significantly lower.

Precision targeting to spare surrounding healthy tissue. Histotripsy enables surgeons to accurately target only tumor cells.

Reduced recovery time. Without undergoing surgery, patients can return to daily activities more quickly.

A safer alternative for more patients. The enhanced safety profile of histotripsy allows this to be an option for patients who might not be candidates for surgery due to other health concerns.

“As a surgeon, I’m always looking for ways to improve the care we provide, whether that’s enhanced quality of life, reduced risk of infections, reducing the amount of antibiotics we have to use, or providing patients with different treatment options,” Dr. Liu says. “It’s exciting to be able to add this to our toolbox of ways we can improve quality.”

Collaboration across disciplines, facilities and industry leaders also plays a key role in enhancing quality measures and improving patient care. For Dr. Liu, working with doctors, researchers and other hospitals currently using the new histotripsy technology will enable him to continue to learn ways to improve outcomes and expand the program. The same philosophy applies across HCA Healthcare.

“Our ability to see the care being provided at all our hospitals, benchmark it and communicate with each other, allows everyone to benefit,” says Michael Cuffe, MD, executive vice president and chief clinical officer, HCA Healthcare. “If one hospital has an issue they’re trying to improve, there’s a good chance someone out there already has a policy or process in place, and being able to share those best practices helps raise the level of care across the board.”

For example, HCA Healthcare has created an obstetrics playbook to improve mother and baby outcomes. The resource guide provides best practices around:

• How emergency departments can be better prepared for pregnant mothers, as well as their new babies
• The resources that should be provided in obstetrics units
• When it’s appropriate to hire obstetric hospitalists, and how many
• Escalation pathways to improve outcomes for mother and baby
• “Our mother-baby outcomes at HCA Healthcare are strong,” Dr. Cuffe says. “By taking time to understand the infrastructure and best practices that lead to those outcomes, and putting it together into this playbook, we have a tool we can provide hospitals that they can choose to adopt and improve outcomes on a local basis.”

Trauma programs are another area where hospitals can access a wealth of resources. An internal website offers everything from guidelines to stand-up plans and a proposed organization for strategic operations.

“Not every hospital has a trauma program, but when they do set one up, there’s a process in place that can be followed,” Dr. Cuffe says.

All new trauma centers are not only accredited, they are also rigorously tested by HCA Healthcare.

“We follow the trauma centers closely, and they all collaborate and do research together,” Dr. Cuffe says. “In a way, our trauma programs together act as one, which only helps improve the quality of care provided at each individual location.”

Technology, treatments, policies and procedures are all important parts of healthcare, but nothing can be accomplished without human interaction and an exchange of knowledge. Doctors, nurses, support staff and every single colleague within the HCA Healthcare system play a pivotal role in providing quality healthcare to all patients. Providing resources for continuing education as well as disseminating new findings quickly and efficiently is another area where HCA Healthcare capitalizes on scale.

“If you consider an independent hospital, it might be hard to find the budget to put together a training program for a medical assistant or other clinical education,” Dr. Cuffe says. “But at HCA Healthcare, we’ve developed training and clinical education that can be accessed and used throughout the system.”

Sharing best practices for patient care is a key element of enhancing knowledge to improve quality outcomes. For example, during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, doctors found patients had better outcomes when they were lying on their belly instead of on their back.
HCA Healthcare put together educational programs about how to execute prone ventilation for in-services and other training.

“Unlike unaffiliated hospitals that each have to test and learn in isolation, we have deliberate ways of communicating with each other that help spread information quickly,” Dr. Cuffe says.

Quality care encompasses a wide range of metrics, from reduced infection rates to good communication with patients. Sharing best practices and learning from others throughout HCA Healthcare ensures that the local care given in each community is the best possible care, and by extension it elevates the overall system.

“If you’re a small community hospital within HCA Healthcare, you’re not just a hospital of one,” Dr. Cuffe says. “You’re a part of a [family] – with all the resources and best practices of a large healthcare system at your disposal.”