How HCA's break-room redesign got nurses back to actual breaks

TAMPA, Fla. —

When HCA Healthcare set out to figure out why the average documented “break” on its medical-surgical units was running closer to 12 minutes than the contractual 30, the project did not start with policy. It started with a stopwatch.

A pilot at four Florida hospitals tracked, minute by minute, the friction that pulled nurses back onto the floor — call lights, charge-nurse pages, the layout of the break room itself.