HCA Updates C-Suite Reporting Structure

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Dive Brief:

• Nashville-based HCA Healthcare is shaking up its executive reporting structure.
• Starting April 1, HCA’s three operating groups — the American, National and Atlantic groups — will report to COO Jon Foster. Previously, the groups had been reporting directly to CEO Sam Hazen. Chief information officer Chad Wasserman and senior vice president of care transformation and innovation, Mike Schlosser, will now report to Hazen, according to the Tuesday announcement.
• Michael McAlevey, HCA’s chief legal officer, has also been promoted to chief legal and administrative officer, effective immediately. He will oversee marketing and corporate affairs, government relations, development, ethics and compliance, and information security.

Dive Insight:

The Tuesday announcement marks another C-suite shakeup at HCA. In 2022, the operator added a third operating group, the Atlantic division, to oversee the performance of hospitals and facilities in West Florida, East Florida, North Florida, South Atlantic and Mid America divisions.

Under the new structure, chief financial officer Mike Marks will begin to oversee all divisions that currently report to the CFO except information technology, effective May 1. HCA said the decision to have Marks helm the divisions came from a desire to integrate revenue cycle operations. 

Having the CEO close to the innovation and technology teams is expected to “enhance focus” on how HCA uses data-driven insights and technology-supported tools to transform care, according to the release. 

Throughout 2023, Hazen identified technology as a focal point for the company. 

“We believe we have opportunities to improve care processes, eliminate a lot of the variation that exists today in our company, create better quality, and at the same time, more efficiencies. Artificial intelligence, we believe, will play a huge part in that,” Hazen said on the company’s second quarter earnings call in August.

The provider has recently been experimenting with using generative AI in its workflows. For example, HCA partnered with Google beginning in April to test Med-PaLM 2 at its UCF Lake Nona Hospital in Orlando.

Foster is expected to help the operating divisions with planning and operational support — particularly as HCA expands across its portfolio.

During the company’s investor day in November, HCA executives said they were targeting a 29% market share in healthcare services by the end of the decade, up from its current market share of 27%.

Much of that growth will center around expanding HCA’s outpatient presence. The health system added over 100 freestanding emergency departments in the last decade and has another 51 facilities under development, Richard Hammett, president of HCA’s Atlantic Group, said during an investor day in November.

Since then, HCA has announced plans to buy 11 more freestanding emergency centers in Texas.