HCA Healthcare Presents 2026 Awards of Distinction
HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA), one of the nation’s leading healthcare providers, today presented its annual HCA
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HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA), one of the nation’s leading healthcare providers, today presented its annual HCA Healthcare Awards of Distinction at a ceremony in Nashville, Tennessee. The HCA Healthcare Awards of Distinction, which include the Frist Humanitarian Award and the Excellence in Nursing Award, are the highest honors HCA Healthcare bestows on colleagues, nurses, physicians and volunteers, recognizing individuals who exemplify the organization’s culture and values.
The Frist Humanitarian Award recognizes the highest achievements in serving others, and the HCA Healthcare Excellence in Nursing Award recognizes extraordinary accomplishments in the field of nursing. This year, HCA Healthcare introduced the Sammie Mosier Leadership Award as a new category of the Excellence in Nursing Award, honoring the life and legacy of the organization’s former chief nurse executive.
“The HCA Healthcare Awards of Distinction recognize remarkable individuals whose dedication, compassion and service make a difference for our patients, colleagues and communities,” said Sam Hazen, chief executive officer of HCA Healthcare. “This year’s recipients represent the very best of our organization and the values that guide how we care for and serve others.”
Frist Humanitarian Award Recipients
The Frist Humanitarian Award, created in 1971 and named in honor of Dr. Thomas F. Frist, Sr. (1910-1998), recognizes those within the organization whose work and lives embody the humanitarian principles upon which HCA Healthcare was founded.
Frist Humanitarian Award employee and volunteer recipients receive a $10,000 cash gift and a $10,000 gift to a charity of their choice, while the physician recipient receives a $20,000 gift to the charity of their choice.
Recipients of the 2026 Frist Humanitarian Award are Scott Beske, RN, from Medical City Arlington in Arlington, Texas; Narendra C. Singh, MD, from Rio Grande Regional Hospital in McAllen, Texas; and Brendan R. O’Brien, a volunteer at Portsmouth Regional Hospital in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
“The Frist Humanitarian Award honors colleagues, physicians and volunteers whose compassion and service extend far beyond their everyday responsibilities,” said Jen Berres, senior vice president and chief human resources officer of HCA Healthcare. “This year’s recipients demonstrate the honesty, integrity, fairness and kindness that are at the heart of this award and our mission.”
Scott Beske, RN, is a rapid response nurse at Medical City Arlington and U.S. Army veteran with 31 years of nursing service, including 14 years with the hospital. While at the hospital, Beske helped create Medical City Arlington’s rapid response team role, has led education and mock codes and developed tools to support nursing teams across the hospital. Known for his calm presence and clinical judgment, Beske has helped patients, families and colleagues through some of their most vulnerable moments. His service extends beyond the hospital, including providing care and resources at the Arlington Shelter and participating in a healthcare mission trip to Honduras.
For more than two decades, Narendra C. Singh, MD, has traveled regularly from his home in Toronto, Canada, to South Texas to care for children in the Rio Grande Valley, helping establish pediatric intensivist services and strengthen critical care in a medically underserved community. Dr. Singh is also founder and president of Giving Health to Kids, a charitable organization advancing neonatal and maternal care in Guyana through clinical training, equipment, partnerships and sustainable healthcare infrastructure. His career reflects an enduring commitment to compassionate care, education, service and expanding access for vulnerable populations.
Since 2022, Brendan R. O’Brien has dedicated more than 1,500 volunteer hours at Portsmouth Regional Hospital, most notably in the Intensive Care Unit. Known for his compassion, creativity and leadership, he has helped train more than 50 volunteers, offering guidance and mentorship to new team members. O’Brien is also a valued member of the No One Dies Alone program, bringing a calm, comforting presence to patients at the end of life. Beyond patient support, O’Brien serves on the Patient and Family Advisory Council and Quality Learning Teams and volunteers throughout the community.
HCA Healthcare Excellence in Nursing Award Recipients
Every day, HCA Healthcare’s more than 100,000 nurses bring skill, compassion and dedication to caring for patients and communities. Created in 2014, the Excellence in Nursing Award recognizes the central importance of nursing practice to furthering HCA Healthcare’s goal of providing high-quality care to the patients and communities it serves. In 2026, the award includes categories for Professional Mentoring, Compassionate Care and the inaugural Sammie Mosier Leadership Award. Each recipient receives a $10,000 cash gift and a $10,000 donation to the charity of the recipient’s choice.
This year’s recipients are Isaac Martinez, RN, from HCA Houston Healthcare Southeast in Houston, Texas; Zuzana Macis, RN, from Southern Hills Hospital & Medical Center in Las Vegas, Nevada; and Lizette Otero, RN, division chief nurse executive for HCA Healthcare’s TriStar Division in Nashville, Tennessee.
“Our nurses distinguish HCA Healthcare through the high-quality care and compassion they provide to patients every day,” said Erica Rossitto, senior vice president and chief nurse executive of HCA Healthcare. “Isaac, Zuzana and Lizette represent the very best of nursing through their commitment to developing colleagues, caring for patients and advancing the profession.”
Isaac Martinez, RN, received the Excellence in Nursing Award in the Professional Mentoring category. A leader in the Cardiovascular Intermediate Care Unit at HCA Houston Healthcare Southeast, Martinez has spent more than 10 years at the hospital and has precepted approximately 26 nurses. He also helped implement a patient care technician checklist designed to strengthen communication and safety, which contributed to a significant reduction in patient falls.
Zuzana Macis, RN, received the Excellence in Nursing Award in the Compassionate Care category. A nurse at Southern Hills Hospital & Medical Center since 2007, Macis currently serves as a charge nurse in the Emergency Department, where she is known for her calm leadership, clinical expertise and genuine connection with patients in a fast-paced, high-stakes environment. In her nearly 20 years at Southern Hills Hospital & Medical Center, Macis has worked across several units, delivering compassionate care that consistently goes beyond expectations. Her compassion extends beyond the hospital, notably including when she stepped in to help save the life of a woman who went into cardiac arrest at a hockey game.
Established in 2026, the Sammie Mosier Leadership Award honors the life and legacy of HCA Healthcare’s former chief nurse executive, whose nearly 30-year career left an enduring impact on nurses, the practice of nursing and patient care. The award recognizes chief nursing officers who exemplify the qualities Mosier modeled, including uniting people around a shared purpose, leading with integrity, achieving operational excellence, championing nurses and embracing innovation to advance nursing and patient care.
Lizette Otero, RN, received the inaugural Sammie Mosier Leadership Award. With more than 20 years of experience at HCA Healthcare, Otero recently became the division chief nurse executive for HCA Healthcare’s TriStar Division after serving as chief nursing officer at HCA Florida Kendall Hospital. At Kendall, she led a cultural and operational transformation focused on people, processes and performance, and under her leadership the hospital achieved 93% employee engagement. Otero’s more than two-decade nursing career reflects a steadfast commitment to clinical excellence, innovation, mentorship and service.
About HCA Healthcare
Nashville-based HCA Healthcare is one of the nation’s leading providers of healthcare services comprising 190 hospitals and approximately 2,600 ambulatory sites of care, including surgery centers, freestanding ERs, urgent care centers, and physician clinics, in 19 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 47 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.
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