How HCA Healthcare’s HR team mobilized to support 10,000 North Carolina colleagues after Hurricane Helene

As we reflect on Hurricane Helene one year later, we recognize not only the scale of our organization’s response, but also the unwavering commitment of our colleagues to care for their communities – even in the face of personal hardship. In honor of HR Professionals Day, celebrated annually on September 26, we’re spotlighting the many ways our Human Resources Group (HRG) stepped up to support our colleagues in the aftermath of the storm.

When Hurricane Helene made landfall on September 26, 2024, it brought catastrophic flooding, tornadoes and widespread devastation to communities across Florida, Georgia and North Carolina. HCA Healthcare’s Enterprise Emergency Operations Center (EEOC) in Nashville, Tennessee, was activated days before the storm made landfall to help facilities in multiple divisions begin preparing for its impact. This team’s coordinated preparation and response efforts in times of disasters ensure that both patient care and colleague well-being remain a top priority.

In the days after the storm, hundreds of HCA Healthcare colleagues, including nurses, physicians, behavioral health specialists, therapy dog teams, engineers, technologists, operations support and more, volunteered to travel into the hardest hit areas to provide support and relief. Essentials such as gasoline, tanker trucks of potable water and generators were sent not only to keep our hospitals running, but to support hotels that were providing temporary housing for displaced colleagues.

While Hurricane Helene left a destructive trail across the southeastern U.S., the devastation in North Carolina presented unique challenges that prompted a focused response. Among the response efforts, our HRG team launched a colleague outreach task force to personally connect with the more than 10,000 HCA Healthcare colleagues in Western North Carolina. With communication lines down and entire regions cut off, 300 HRG professionals stepped in to make calls, send texts and offer lifelines – sharing critical information about resources such as housing, food, fuel and the HCA Healthcare Hope Fund.

The HRG outreach task played a vital role in supporting our Mission Health colleagues in North Carolina, ensuring that our teams were supported, safe and equipped to continue providing essential patient care when it was needed most. Their compassion and persistence made certain that no colleague was left behind.

Hurricane Helene outreach task force led by Texas HR colleague

Gaby De La Rosa joined the HCA Healthcare family in 2015 as a human resources coordinator at affiliate hospital Methodist Hospital Stone Oak in San Antonio. Over the past ten years, she has grown her career surrounded by colleagues who believed in her, and today she serves as vice president of HR at the very hospital where her journey began.

In September 2024, Gaby – like many of us – was moved by the devastation Hurricane Helene left behind in North Carolina and felt compelled to help. Witnessing the challenges her fellow HCA Healthcare colleagues were facing, she stepped up to lead a task force dedicated to reaching out to every colleague in the region. The goal: to ensure their safety and to connect them with critical resources, as many lost everything in the storm.

Below, Gaby reflects on what it was like to lead this outreach effort, one year after the storm’s impact.

Gaby:

I first learned about the devastation from Hurricane Helene in Asheville, North Carolina through social media. When I arrived at work that morning in San Antonio, my team and I immediately began discussing the impact the storm had on our sister facilities within HCA Healthcare – particularly those at Mission Health in Western North Carolina. As the day unfolded, the extent of the damage became increasingly clear.

HR leaders soon recognized that there were thousands of HCA Healthcare colleagues that were unreachable due to phone and internet outages, which led to the creation of a colleague outreach task force. In turn, I was asked to be a leader of this team, which I accepted as my way of lending a hand all the way from Texas. 

Throughout the entire effort, our top priority was reaching as many colleagues as possible. It was difficult going to sleep knowing there were still individuals unaccounted for who might still need support. Some days began as early as 6 a.m., and my last volunteer would often log off around 10 or 11 p.m. Even after officially ending the day, if a call or text came in from a colleague we hadn’t yet spoken to, we would immediately respond and update our records. The sense of urgency and commitment never faded.

The conversations were incredibly difficult, as many team members had lost everything. It was heartbreaking to hear that some had lost their homes, all of their belongings and in some cases, even family members. In these conversations with our colleagues, we made sure to also share the resources they had available to support them during this difficult time, including the HCA Healthcare Hope Fund, mini marts filled with essential supplies, mobile shower units and gas for their cars. Their reactions were often filled with surprise and deep gratitude.

I remember one Mission Health colleague I talked with that needed help with tree removal after one had fallen on her home due to the storm. When I told her we would send a service to assist, she asked if she could pay for installments because she didn’t have the funds at the moment because she had other priorities due to the storm. When I explained that the cost would be fully covered by HCA Healthcare, she paused and said, “Oh my gosh, are you serious?” I confirmed, and she responded, “Thank you so much. I wasn’t sure how we were going to pay for everything. THANK YOU!” Moments like these reminded us of the real impact our support could have and why it mattered so deeply.

I am incredibly grateful to all of the HR colleagues who showed up to serve our people. Many of them continued to manage their regular responsibilities while also dedicating time to this outreach task force. What stood out most was the genuine care every volunteer brought. We celebrated each time we heard back from someone we had been trying to reach. We also shared tears when difficult updates came in.

North Carolina colleagues feel the power of our We Show Up® motto

As vice president of HR for HCA Healthcare’s North Carolina Division, Jorie Matijevich experienced Hurricane Helene from inside Mission Hospital in Asheville. Throughout the storm’s destruction, she and her team remained focused on supporting patient care and colleagues. Below, she reflects on the challenges of trying to reach loved ones and team members during the crisis, the impact of the colleague outreach task force and how she felt HCA Healthcare’s manta of We Show Up® shined through even in the darkest moments.

Jorie:

Hurricane Helene was not like anything I had experienced before. I was at Mission Hospital with my team when the storm hit our community. We were so focused on what was happening inside the hospital that, at first, we didn’t realize the gravity of the situation outside. Because phone lines were down, information on the extent of the damage was coming in sporadically. I also could not reach my family to confirm they were safe for about 24 hours. We were very lucky though. While we lost water and power at our home, we had no major damage and my family was safe.

Many of them could not reach their own families or confirm their homes were still standing, but I remember so many of them saying how grateful they were to be at the hospital and safe. Our job was to make sure they had food and places to rest, and to just be there alongside them for support. We were all going through it together – we were a true team.

While I was able to connect with some of my team members early on, there were some colleagues that I had trouble reaching due to telephone and internet service outages. For example, I knew the community of one of my HR managers was devasted by the storm, and I was scared for him and his family. It was three full days after the height of the storm when he was finally able to call me through a satellite phone that HCA Healthcare delivered to their facility via helicopter. We both cried for the first five minutes of the conversation, but they were happy tears as I was finally able to say that my team was safe.

Knowing that HR colleagues from across the country stepped up to personally contact all our colleagues in North Carolina was incredible. I was relieved beyond measure to know that I had that support so I could focus on those in the hospital. I will always remember when we finally received word that we had contacted every colleague in North Carolina. When I turned to my chief nursing officer and was able to tell her, she cried. We cried. It was a powerful moment that we could not have had without the help and support of HCA Healthcare and my HRG colleagues from around the country.

If I could tell the colleagues involved in the outreach taskforce something I would say: thank you. Thank you for treating my colleagues like your own. Thank you for being the first voice they heard after the storm. Thank you for listening and hearing stories of fear and destruction. My team and I will forever be grateful for you. I will never be able to thank everyone for their time and efforts, but I will ensure that my team and I pay it forward every chance we get. It was, to us, a defining moment. But to our organization, it was just part of our ‘We Show Up’ culture.

This past year since Hurricane Helene has been a long road. In some ways, it feels like forever since the storm; in other ways, it feels like yesterday. You can still drive though areas that were devasted by the hurricane, but now you see more signs of hope than sadness. This community, like our hospital, has only strengthened in the aftermath, and I am proud to call Asheville my home. I am also proud to work for HCA Healthcare because we show up for our patients, our communities and each other – no matter what.

When she lost everything, Michele found strength in caring for others

Michele Jackson, a case management assistant at HCA Healthcare’s Mission Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, was one of the many colleagues personally contacted by the outreach task force following Hurricane Helene. Amid the devastation she and her family endured, the call she received from an HR team member became a lifeline – and the foundation of a meaningful friendship.

Below, Michele shares her experience during and after the storm and why returning to care for her patients was not only a source of strength, but a reflection of the compassion and resilience she’s brought her role for more than 26 years.