The Workforce AI Index · Healthcare
HCA Healthcare (HCA)
Hospitals read from facility counts. Read October 1, 2026 from the annual report for the period ending 2025-12-31, filed 2026-02-10. Ranked 10 of the 27 Healthcare companies read so far, by the share within reach now: the sector.
A hospital operator whose filing states its total and its part-time count and counts its facilities, so the two patterns come from 190 hospitals and 152 freestanding centers at typical staffing.
The figures on this page come from the company's own annual report and from BLS staffing patterns for its industries, never from a roster. They are estimates with a stated method. Nothing here says what the company will do: within reach is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
What follows from the reading
Share of working time within reach of AI, on the long-run pace at four in five: 27% now, 35% at the end of 2027, 37% at the end of 2028, 39% at the end of 2030. By the patterns, the work is about 39% desk work, 25% people work and 36% body work. These are the site's industry estimates weighted by the shares below: estimates with a stated method and range, not a forecast of what the company will do. By the same patterns, at the end of 2028 about 61% of the working time stays with people (conversation, in-person and hands-on work), 32% becomes checking a model's work and 4% could be handed over with lighter checks, from the industries' own figures, not the company's roles.
Headcount
320,000 employees as of 2025-12-31 (stated). The filing does not state a U.S. count; its facilities are in 19 states and England.
The filing: “Our workforce consists of approximately 320,000 employees (as of December 31, 2025), including approximately 90,000 part-time and PRN employees (references herein to 'employees' or 'colleagues' refer to employees of our affiliates).”
The workforce as industry patterns
| Pattern | Share | Reason, from the filing |
|---|---|---|
| General Medical and Surgical Hospitals | 95% | By (b): the filing counts 190 hospitals (179 general acute care hospitals with 50,436 licensed beds, seven behavioral and four rehabilitation hospitals) against 152 freestanding centers; at typical hospital staffing the hospitals carry nearly all of the 320,000, so the general hospital pattern takes 95%. |
| Outpatient Care Centers | 5% | By (b): the filing counts 121 freestanding ambulatory surgery centers and 31 freestanding endoscopy centers, which at typical staffing of a few dozen each are about five percent of the workforce, read into the outpatient care pattern. |
What the filing says about the workforce: About 90,000 of 320,000 employees are part-time or PRN; the filing refers to employees of its affiliates. It names nursing and physician shortages and its Galen College of Nursing and graduate medical education as responses.
Companies read with the same leading pattern
Other companies whose largest staffing pattern is also General Medical and Surgical Hospitals, largest first, each read from its own annual report. Within reach now and at the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Universal Health Services, Inc. (UHS, 101,500 employees)25% now, 35% by 2028
- Tenet Healthcare Corporation (THC, 99,000 employees)28% now, 38% by 2028
- Community Health Systems, Inc. (CYH, 57,000 employees)28% now, 38% by 2028
What the filing says about AI
40 sentences in the filing name AI. AI appears as a technology risk (initiatives related to interoperability and AI 'involve risks that may adversely affect our operations'), in a Medicare pilot in which CMS vendors use AI for coverage review, and in the company's own and third-party software 'utilizing machine learning/AI' within its network to improve care; the human capital section does not mention it.
- “Our strategy is organized around a framework that seeks to drive sustained growth by delivering operational excellence, attracting exceptional physicians and other health care professionals, developing comprehensive services, creating greater access and coordinating higher quality care for patients. 3 To achieve these objectives, we align our efforts around the following growth agenda: grow our...”
- “Health care technology initiatives, particularly those related to sharing patient data and interoperability and AI, involve risks that may adversely affect our operations.”
- “Under the WISeR model, CMS will contract with technology vendors tasked with using enhanced technologies, including AI, to address compliance with Medicare coverage criteria for selected items and services, which are generally lower acuity procedures, under traditional fee-for-service Medicare.”
- “For example, we deploy third-party software programs, and in some instances develop our own software programs, utilizing machine learning/AI, including for use within our network to improve care.”
- “The legal framework for AI (particularly in patient care) is rapidly developing and uncertain.”
Headcount by filing year
As reported in each year's annual report, with the filing. A year marked not read had no figure the reading could take from the report's text.
| Period | Employees | Filed | Filing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-12-31 | 320,000 | 2026-02-10 | 10-K |
| 2024-12-31 | 316,000 | 2025-02-14 | 10-K |
| 2023-12-31 | 310,000 | 2024-02-16 | 10-K |
| 2022-12-31 | 294,000 | 2023-02-17 | 10-K |
| 2021-12-31 | 284,000 | 2022-02-18 | 10-K |
| 2020-12-31 | 275,000 | 2021-02-19 | 10-K |
| 2019-12-31 | 280,000 | 2020-02-20 | 10-K |
| 2018-12-31 | 262,000 | 2019-02-21 | 10-K |
| 2017-12-31 | 253,000 | 2018-02-23 | 10-K |
| 2016-12-31 | 241,000 | 2017-02-22 | 10-K |
| 2015-12-31 | 233,000 | 2016-02-26 | 10-K |
| 2014-12-31 | 225,000 | 2015-02-26 | 10-K |
| 2013-12-31 | 215,000 | 2014-02-26 | 10-K |
| 2012-12-31 | 204,000 | 2013-02-27 | 10-K |
| 2011-12-31 | 199,000 | 2012-02-24 | 10-K |
| 2010-12-31 | 194,000 | 2011-02-17 | 10-K |
| 2009-12-31 | 190,000 | 2010-03-01 | 10-K |
| 2008-12-31 | 191,000 | 2009-03-04 | 10-K |
| 2007-12-31 | 186,000 | 2008-03-28 | 10-K |
| 2006-12-31 | 186,000 | 2007-03-27 | 10-K |
| 2005-12-31 | 191,100 | 2006-03-14 | 10-K |
| 2004-12-31 | 191,400 | 2005-03-11 | 10-K |
| 2003-12-31 | 188,000 | 2004-03-12 | 10-K |
| 2002-12-31 | 178,000 | 2003-03-28 | 10-K |
| 2001-12-31 | 174,000 | 2002-04-01 | 10-K405 |
| 2000-12-31 | 164,000 | 2001-03-30 | 10-K |
| 1999-12-31 | 168,000 | 2000-03-30 | 10-K405 |
| 1998-12-31 | 260,000 | 1999-03-30 | 10-K405 |
| 1997-12-31 | 295,000 | 1998-03-31 | 10-K |
| 1995-12-31 | 240,000 | 1996-04-01 | 10-K |
| 1994-12-31 | 157,000 | 1995-03-31 | 10-K |
| 1993-12-31 | 131,600 | 1994-03-31 | 10-K |
Limits of this reading
- The split between hospitals and freestanding centers rests on facility counts (b), not on stated headcounts.
- The U.S. share is not stated.
Source: the company's annual report on EDGAR, accession 0001193125-26-044769, the filing. Read by Claude Fable 5.1 under rubric version 1, by the method. A company can write to info@stratussc.com to have its reading checked against its filing.
Questions about this company
- How much of HCA Healthcare's working time is within reach of AI?
- An estimated 27% now and 37% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five, from the workforce HCA Healthcare's own annual report describes and BLS staffing patterns for its industries, never from a roster. It is an estimate with a stated method. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings, and it says nothing about what the company will do.
- How many people does HCA Healthcare employ?
- 320,000 as of December 31, 2025, as its annual report for the period ending December 31, 2025 states.
- What kinds of work make up HCA Healthcare's workforce?
- Read from its annual report as a blend of 2 industry staffing patterns, the largest General Medical and Surgical Hospitals; by those patterns the work is about 39% desk work, 25% people work and 36% body work. Each share has a one-sentence reason on this page that can be checked against the filing.
- What does HCA Healthcare's annual report say about AI?
- 40 sentences in the filing name AI. They are counted and quoted on this page, never judged: a count says how much a filing talks about AI, not what the company does with it.
- How is this estimated?
- Claude Fable 5.1 read the annual report under the Index's written rubric (version 1) on October 1, 2026: the stated headcount, the share in the U.S. when stated, and the workforce as a blend of industry staffing patterns. The estimates are the site's industry estimates weighted by those shares, from O*NET tasks with estimated lengths and METR's measurements of how long a task AI models can finish. A company can write to info@stratussc.com to have its reading checked against its filing.
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A small card with the share of working time within reach now and at the end of 2027, 2028 and 2030, the date and a link back. Free under CC BY 4.0; the card carries the credit.