HCA Healthcare Surpasses 100,000 Pounds of Collected Medication in Year Seven of Annual “Crush the Crisis”

NASHVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA), one of the nation’s leading healthcare providers, today announced that it collected 19,846 pounds, approximately 13.6 million doses, of unused or expired medications during its seventh annual “Crush the Crisis” national prescription drug take back day. In total, the organization has now collected more than 108,500 pounds of medication since launching “Crush the Crisis” as an enterprise initiative in 2019.

“I am incredibly proud of our organization in this milestone year,” said Dr. Randy Fagin, senior vice president and chief quality officer at HCA Healthcare. “At our core, we are people taking care of people, and our annual Crush the Crisis take back day is a powerful reflection of that commitment. I am grateful to all of our colleagues and local law enforcement partners for helping us to create healthier tomorrows for our communities.”

HCA Healthcare facilities across all 15 of the Company’s U.S. divisions partnered with local law enforcement to help community members safely and anonymously dispose of unused or expired medication. The events were held in alignment with the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) National Prescription Drug Take Back Day, which collected 571,054 pounds of medication.

HCA Healthcare facilities that helped collect the largest amount of medication during this year’s event include:

• HCA HealthONE Aurora in Aurora, Colorado with 1,768 pounds
• Medical City McKinney in McKinney, Texas with 644 pounds
• Rapides Regional Medical Center in Alexandria, Louisiana with 502 pounds
• Methodist Hospital | Northeast in Live Oak, Texas with 458 pounds
• CJW Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia with 453 pounds

Drawing on data from its approximately 44 million annual patient encounters, HCA Healthcare uses the science of “big data” to help reduce prescription drug misuse and transform pain management, with initiatives in surgical, emergency and other care settings, including:

• Enhanced Surgical Recovery (ESR): a multi-modal approach to pain management using pre-, intra- and post-operative interventions to optimize outcomes. HCA Healthcare’s ESR programs have demonstrated significant improvements in surgical recovery and patient satisfaction, including decreases in opioid usage.
• Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances (EPCS): aims to stem increasing rates of opioid-related addiction, misuse, diversion and death by making it more difficult for medication-seekers to doctor-shop and alter prescriptions. Physicians have access to aggregated electronic health records, providing data that will allow them to prescribe opioids judiciously.

HCA Healthcare also proudly collaborates with and provides clinical insight to the National Academy of Medicine’s (NAM) Action Collaborative on Combatting Substance Use and Opioid Crises.

About HCA Healthcare
Nashville-based HCA Healthcare is one of the nation’s leading providers of healthcare services comprising 191 hospitals and approximately 2,500 ambulatory sites of care, including surgery centers, freestanding ERs, urgent care centers, and physician clinics, in 20 states and the United Kingdom. With its founding in 1968, HCA Healthcare created a new model for hospital care in the United States, using combined resources to strengthen hospitals, deliver patient-focused care and improve the practice of medicine. HCA Healthcare has conducted a number of clinical studies, including one that demonstrated that full-term delivery is healthier than early elective delivery of babies and another that identified a clinical protocol that can reduce bloodstream infections in ICU patients by 44%. HCA Healthcare is a learning health system that uses its approximately 44 million annual patient encounters to advance science, improve patient care and save lives.

All references to “Company,” “HCA” and “HCA Healthcare” as used throughout this document refer to HCA Healthcare, Inc. and its affiliates.