Reginald “Reggie” Destin, assistant vice president of Talent Acquisition, spent half of his professional life – more than 22 years – serving his country as a member of the United States Air Force, specializing in recruitment. He has spent the last two decades continuing a career of service, working with HCA Healthcare. Reggie sees first-hand the parallels between the military and healthcare fields.

“The goal is that no one’s left behind, right? You know the military motto, ‘No man left behind.’ We want to do the same thing at HCA Healthcare – no veteran left behind,” says Reggie.

HCA Healthcare meets community needs and clinical demands by employing and leveraging the skills of military veterans like Reggie in healthcare careers. The Military Times has recognized HCA Healthcare for five consecutive years as a Best for Vets employer. The recognition highlights our efforts to recruit, retain and support current and former service members, their spouses and caregivers.

Reggie embodies the notion that members of our armed forces are a valued resource not only during their active duty, but also when they enter the civilian workforce. After leaving his post as a master sergeant at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio in 2004, he was quickly hired for Talent Acquisition with
HCA Healthcare’s Methodist Healthcare System. Reggie was attracted to the scale of the company and the opportunity to work at any HCA Healthcare facility in the country.

With 186 hospitals and more than 2,400 sites of care across the U.S. and the United Kingdom, the variety of location options reminded Reggie of the military. He has since moved to corporate headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee, and stays with HCA Healthcare because of how he and other veterans are supported. It’s a smart move, he explains, because veterans often make excellent employees.

“We bring that strong determination and ability to focus on the need at hand. It’s about doing what we can for the country to save lives,” says Reggie.

“Coming to HCA Healthcare, it’s all about that – saving lives. Especially being in recruitment, we hire people who save lives. It’s so important to me to be a part of a company that does that.”

“The mission of Methodist Healthcare System is ‘Serving Humanity to Honor God.’ That was important to me,” he says. “At HCA Healthcare, above all else, we’re committed to the care and improvement of human life. That’s huge for me.”

Since the inception of HCA Healthcare’s Military Affairs in 2012, the enterprise has hired more than 65,000 veterans, military spouses and colleagues currently serving in the National Guard and Reserves.

The strategic program is committed to supporting military-affiliated colleagues, patients, and business partners of HCA Healthcare, says Jonathan “Jon” Snider, MSHQS, director, DEI workplace programs and engagement, overseeing the Military Affairs program.

“Both the U.S. military and HCA Healthcare are mission-centric organizations. So everything that we do supports a centralized mission,” says Jon.

“Our servicemen and women are coming from a culture where they’ve put mission first and put the mission before even themselves and their family. Our colleagues here continue that mission-first culture and putting the patients and their families even before themselves.”

“We all felt this call to serve, and when folks transition out of the military, they’re still looking for a way to serve,” Jon adds. “Here at HCA Healthcare, you can continue to serve in multiple capacities, whether that’s at the patient’s bedside, delivering direct patient care, or in a support-type function such as leading one of our service lines or being an accountant, in marketing or an HR professional.”

HCA Healthcare’s Military Affairs office was reenergized in May 2022, when Jon took the reins. A U.S. Army veteran who served for seven years, Jon first joined HCA Healthcare in late 2016 as a senior continuing medical education coordinator before advancing to a curriculum manager role in the graduate medical education service line. Like Reggie, he is an example of the opportunities afforded to veterans at HCA Healthcare.

“The thing I’m most proud of, since I’ve been in this role is the transformation of the overall culture or the integration of our military talent into the culture of HCA Healthcare, really highlighting the value that our veterans and military spouses bring to this organization, ensuring that we remember that two of our three founders at HCA Healthcare were veterans themselves,” he says.

HCA Healthcare founder Dr. Thomas F. Frist, Sr., was an officer in the Army Air Corps during World War II, while his son, Dr. Thomas F. Frist, Jr., served in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War.

“A lot of the values that they acquired during their own military service have been pillars and continue to be values that we hold here within the organization,” he says. “It’s just making sure that all colleagues remember our history and the value that our military service members bring to this organization.”

Military Affairs also aims to meet the needs of military spouses. The importance of accommodating spouses was clear to Reggie from the early stages of his Talent Acquisition career.

“I retired in San Antonio, and it’s a huge military community. We had Fort Sam Houston, Lackland Air Force Base and Randolph Air Force Base,” he says. “We had tons of military in that area, but it’s also a huge healthcare community. We were able to do a lot of work hiring military veterans and their spouses, because a lot of spouses are healthcare professionals.”

“As these military members move to town, we want to be able to attract their spouses and help them find jobs, which helps us even more,” he adds. “They may only be there for three to four years, but that’s going to help us from a clinical perspective.”

HCA Healthcare’s Military Affairs and Talent Acquisition departments strengthened their partnership in 2022 by identifying a “military liaison” within each of the enterprise’s 15 divisions.

“It helped catapult our hiring, having someone there that Jon could depend on and support his team’s efforts,” says Reggie.

Those efforts led to a 12% increase in veteran hiring in 2023. And based on trends dating to Labor Day 2024, HCA Healthcare is on track to hire more than 4,800 veterans this year.

Last September, HCA Healthcare added to its Military Affairs/Talent Acquisition arsenal by hiring three military talent sourcers — Brenden Lata, Jamie Blackshear and Rikke Kalkstein — to work alongside the 15 military liaisons and bolster veteran recruitment efforts.

“The military talent sourcers are going to be the ones to take a more proactive approach to helping our military talent candidates find job opportunities within HCA Healthcare,” says Jon. “They’re going to be the advocates for our military spouses and veterans.”

Talent sourcers will help hiring managers see the value that candidates bring, not only to this organization, but to their team. Each talent sourcer will manage the military talent pool for their specific group — Atlantic, National and American — and act as lead advocate for open positions.

“They’re going to be the ones who are going to be leveraging our military liaisons across the enterprise to help get talent in front of hiring managers,” Jon says.

Since April 2022, HCA Healthcare has established more than 125 local Colleague Network chapters that are engaged in meaningful programming across the enterprise to ensure that veterans, and all employees, have the opportunity to thrive once hired. These networks serve as affinity groups to provide opportunities for colleagues to convene around shared commonalities or experiences and create space to discuss issues of importance.

The Veterans Colleague Network connects and supports veterans, active military members and their families. HCA Healthcare strives to provide development and promotion opportunities that honor the unique strengths our military colleagues bring to the organization.

In 2023, volunteers with HCA Healthcare’s Veteran Colleague Network collectively logged more than 2,000 service hours. Today, the network is on track to double that number of hours.

In May 2023, volunteers from the Veterans Colleague Network gathered at the annual CreatiVets golf tournament fundraiser in Old Hickory, TN. Yorelis “Jojo” Navas, a Florida resident and full-time caregiver for a quadriplegic veteran who suffered his injuries in combat, was in attendance to assist her patient.

Inspired by HCA Healthcare’s commitment to veterans, Jojo sought employment with HCA Florida Lake Monroe Hospital when she returned home. She was hired as a patient care technician with the hospital’s ICU Stepdown department in August, 2023.

“It was just knowing that HCA Healthcare plays a big part in helping the veterans’ community, because I think we owe the world to them,” says Jojo, a 45-year-old mother of two. “They serve our country to protect other people and they do it selflessly. I wanted to do the same, to provide care for our community.”

Returning to the golf tournament in 2024, Jojo was presented with an
HCA Healthcare challenge coin by Jonathan “Jon” Snider, program manager of Military Affairs, welcoming her to HCA Healthcare’s military community.

“The success of our military affairs programming is not solely built upon the impact of our hiring efforts, but also our activation in our communities,” says Jon. “It’s about showing up for our community partners that support the military community and continuing our commitment to ‘never shall I leave a fallen comrade.’”

Jojo says her Lake Monroe Hospital patients come from all walks of life, but she makes a special effort to connect with veterans.

“We do have a large veteran community, and I try to build a rapport with them, and let them know that I’m thankful for all they did,” says Jojo, who plans to pursue her nursing degree at Galen School of Nursing in Clearwater. “I take their service very seriously and very personally because, thanks to them, we have the freedoms we have.”