In June 2026, CEO Sam Hazen sat down with HCA Healthcare’s senior vice president and chief nurse executive, Erica Rossitto, to discuss our organization’s vision for the future, including investments in nursing strategy, leadership development, technology, and growth. They share how HCA Healthcare is preparing our company to meet the evolving healthcare needs of our patients and the communities we serve, while building on our strong foundation: people taking care of people.
ERICA: We have so much opportunity when we look forward, especially with our nursing strategy. Tell us a little bit about how we’re approaching 2026.
SAM: It is an exciting time for our company, and for healthcare in general. HCA Healthcare is incredibly well poised to deal with macro challenges; we’ve done that in the past. What I’m excited about is the agenda of the company. It is more robust and more comprehensive. It’s going to benefit our employees, our physicians, and ultimately our patients in a really positive way. The centerpiece of our digital transformation agenda is to create a better work environment for our nurses, a better work environment for our physicians, a better work environment for our leaders and everyone connected to the process. My strong belief is that a better work environment is ultimately going to help us produce higher quality outcomes.
ERICA: That is exciting. After 26 years with the company, I really appreciate what I’m seeing in the chair I sit in now — the thoughtfulness in building us up so that we can accelerate and we’re not starting from scratch. But I also recognize that it is going to require us to lead differently. What advice would you have for our leadership teams?
SAM: It is a moment, not only for our colleagues to benefit from the change, but for our leaders to embrace what it takes to get to the other side, including myself. We are investing in leadership development as significantly as we are in other initiatives. I am so confident in our leadership across this company; I speak to it all the time. It’s cultural in our company to be high performers, and that’s because we have great leaders. I think the ultimate responsibility for leadership is to put their teams, in my case, the organization, in a position to succeed in achieving our mission.
ERICA: I think that’s what sets us apart from our competitors – the investment right now in helping make the work environment better, bringing technology to the forefront, the possibilities are endless.
SAM: What we want to do is harvest the best processes that we see and carry those to more of our hospitals. We think that technology will give us insights and give us the capability to move quicker. But make no mistake about it, we are people taking care of people. We will always be people taking care of people. What we see is an opportunity to augment that. Our facilities are growing; our networks are growing. We’re creating more convenience, more capacity, and more service offerings. As we grow, we’re going to learn more and we’re going to be able to apply those learnings to even better care, more efficient care, more transparent care, and help our organization achieve our mission.
ERICA: Is there anything else you want to leave our colleagues with as they think about the rest of this year and even into the next?
SAM: I think, over the next few years, it’s going to be the most exciting time in our company’s history because we’re fundamentally changing the delivery of care at scale, and no one else has that opportunity. But our people are what make a difference. It’s a commitment that they make individually. We’re making a commitment as a leadership team and an organization to support them, and I think it’s going to make a tremendous difference. So, I want to say thank you.
