Peggy Hunt, brand ambassador and cardiovascular quality coordinator with HCA Florida Orange Park Hospital outside Jacksonville, Fla., building wheelchairs with Tom Ryder, Personal Energy Transportation volunteer, at the Penney Retirement Community.
Nearly 2,000 Hospital Colleagues Joined in Giving Back
March 30, 2023 — HCA Florida Healthcare, the state’s leading network of hospitals and healthcare facilities, showed up for communities across the state throughout its second statewide community service week, held March 6-12, 2023. Across HCA Florida Healthcare’s 570 facilities, nearly 2,000 volunteers showed up at 64 community partner organizations to recognize the first anniversary of the HCA Florida Healthcare brand and to donate both time and money to important causes.
HCA Florida Healthcare showed up in a big way to support Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida. Colleagues from across the Central Florida area volunteered to help sort food to be distributed throughout Central Florida food banks.
“There’s no better way to celebrate the first anniversary of the HCA Florida Healthcare brand and what it looks like when we show up together than a statewide week of service,” said Joe Flynn, AVP of community engagement for HCA Healthcare and president of the HCA Healthcare Hope Fund. “As Florida’s leading healthcare network, we exist to give people healthier tomorrows, and this coordinated effort is another step toward fulfilling that mission.”
We Show Up for Our Communities week by the numbers:
- 1,913 HCA Florida Healthcare volunteers
- 64 community partner organizations
- 32,600 meals served
- 58 trash bags of litter collected from communities
- 35,000 pounds of food sorted
- 110 books donated for children
- 375 lives aided through blood/platelet donation
“We are truly a volunteer-led organization, and they (HCA Florida Healthcare volunteers) are essential to completing our mission,” said Deandra Bolden, senior volunteer coordinator, Metropolitan Ministries in Tampa, Florida.
Chris Seng-Sanchez, director of Rehabilitation Services at HCA Florida Raulerson Hospital, helped us deliver produce items to Okeechobee residents through the Treasure Coast Food Bank mobile food pantry.
Showing Up for Florida Communities
HCA Florida Healthcare colleagues supported their communities in a variety of ways:
- “I chose to volunteer during HCA Florida Healthcare’s We Show Up for Our Communities week to be a part of something bigger than myself and give back to a community that has been there for me throughout the years. Taking the time to volunteer is the least I can do to help support those in need,” said Anita Sanders, case manager at HCA Florida Lake City Hospital in Lake City, Florida.
- “It feels good to serve the community and to be part of something so amazing. Being able to help provide an affordable home to someone is awesome,” said Raven Moore, Graduate Medical Education program coordinator at HCA Florida Brandon Hospital in Brandon, Florida.
- “I gave blood today because I think it is very important to give back to the community. I previously worked for an HCA Healthcare hospital in Colorado and just started here at HCA Florida St. Lucie Hospital. I love working for HCA Healthcare, and I think it’s a great organization. When I saw that we were having this event at HCA Florida St. Lucie Hospital, I was pretty impressed. It’s a nice thing for us to do,” said Becky Landry, lead mammography technician at HCA Florida St. Lucie Hospital in Port St. Lucie, Florida.
- “The Jacksonville Youth Crisis Center told us we provided their largest donation in their center’s history. It warmed our hearts to know we made that big of an impact, from refreshing their entire yard to providing them with $2,000 worth of household and kitchen goods. I’m proud to have been a part of such a meaningful activity with our peers doing the same selfless acts across the state,” said Heather Ferro, Heart Center ECHO supervisor at HCA Florida Memorial Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida.
HCA Florida Brandon Hospital GME Coordinators Raven Moore and Israel “Tony” Marmolejos work with Contractor Dale Munsell to build one of 32 trusses for a Habitat for Humanity Plant City home that HCA Florida Healthcare volunteers constructed during the second statewide We Show Up for Our Communities Week.
Making Healthcare More Accessible to Floridians
In March 2022, HCA Florida Healthcare united its hospitals, physician practices and freestanding emergency rooms across the state to create a connected and collaborative healthcare experience for patients and their families. This purpose-driven brand aims to make it simpler and easier for patients to access the high-quality care they need by:
- Making it easier to understand where to receive care. New names of hospitals and physician practices reflect extensive consumer research into what patients are looking for when they seek medical care and what terms are most understood. In many cases, new names also more accurately reflect a facility’s location and communities served;
- Bringing hospitals and physician practices together in a unified website that offers an enhanced experience with personalized content, advanced geolocation and improved physician search functionality;
- Standardizing uniforms by role to make it easier for patients and their families to understand physician and colleague responsibilities and functions in a care setting; and
- Introducing new statewide services to improve access to care, including a Consult-a-Nurse phone number. By calling the free 24/7 line, (844) 70-NURSE (6-8773), consumers will speak with nurses who are ready to provide quick, convenient expert advice and support.
About HCA Florida Healthcare
HCA Florida Healthcare, a part of HCA Healthcare, is a family of more than 570 affiliated sites of care, including hospitals, physician practices and freestanding emergency rooms. United as a statewide network in 2021, HCA Florida Healthcare includes approximately 11,000 experienced doctors and 77,000 colleagues working together to deliver advanced, collaborative care to more than 7.4 million patients each year. HCA Florida Healthcare is committed to improving more lives in more ways and giving back to the communities it serves. The network provided nearly $836.6 million in uncompensated care and invested significantly in innovative technologies and facilities across Florida, including the new $360 million state-of-the-art, multi-specialty HCA Florida University Hospital in Davie, Fla. A strong advocate for the next generation of healthcare professionals, HCA Florida Healthcare is also a major supporter of university-based healthcare programs and residencies and fellowships throughout the Sunshine State. For more information, please visit HCAFloridaHealthcare.com.
