Last year, the company also announced its enterprise-wide adopted Enhanced Surgical Recovery (ESR) program, which uses an individualized, multimodal pain management approach, only using opioids on an as-needed basis and instead using non-opioid pain relievers and other pain management techniques. The ESR protocol has resulted in an up to 44% decrease in opioid usage for some surgeries. "Receiving this award for the 13 th time would not be possible without the integrity and dedication of the approximately 294,000 HCA Healthcare colleagues across the country and in the UK," said Kathi Whalen, senior vice president and chief ethics and compliance officer at HCA Healthcare.