HFMA honors Frist family - HFMA News - Healthcare Financial Management Association - Brief Article

Healthcare Financial Management, August, 2002

HFMA presented its Board of Directors Award to Thomas F. Frist, Sr., MD, Thomas F. Frist, Jr., MD, and Sen. Bill Frist, MD (R-Tenn.), at the Association's 2002 Annual National Institute in Seattle, Washington. The award is given to individuals who have made unusually significant contributions to the healthcare financial management profession.

The Frist Family generally is credited with the development and significant growth of the investor-owned sector of the healthcare delivery system.

Dr. Frist, Sr., who died in 1988, was a well-respected cardiologist, businessman, and philanthropist. With his son and the late Jack C. Massey, he helped found the Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), one of the nation's leading providers of healthcare services. HCA's vision is to use economies of scale and efficient management to build hospitals in small towns and rural areas that will significantly enhance the areas' quality of patient care. In its first two years of operations, the corporation created an 11-hospital chain. Today, HCA oversees more than 200 hospitals and 70 outpatient surgery centers.

Dr. Frist, Jr., who accepted the award on his family's behalf, began his hospital administrative career shortly after his service as a military flight surgeon. In addition to cofounding HCA in 1977, Dr. Frist, Jr., became HCA's president and subsequently its chairman, president, and CEO. He also is chairman of the board of the Frist Foundation, the largest charitable foundation in Nashville, Tennessee.

Sen. Frist has been a vocal advocate of many healthcare issues, including women and children's health issues, biomedical research and screening, and organ donation.