Myrtle Beach, SC — Grand Strand Medical Center, as a part of HCA Healthcare, today announced that it has received a 2026 Patient Safety Excellence Award from Healthgrades for its commitment to safe, patient-centered care. This recognition is given to the top 10% of hospitals nationwide for patient safety.
“We are honored to receive the 2026 Patient Safety Excellence Award, which reflects our team’s deep commitment to providing safe, high-quality care,” said Dr. George Helmrich, chief medical officer at Grand Strand Medical Center. “Every day, our physicians, nurses and colleagues work together to create a culture of safety focused on delivering the best possible outcomes for the patients and families we serve.”
Patient Safety Excellence Awards are based exclusively on patient outcomes. Healthgrades evaluated risk-adjusted complication and mortality rates from approximately 4,500 hospitals nationwide to determine this year’s list.
HCA Healthcare supports a culture in which patient safety is embedded in everyday care delivery. For more than a decade, the organization has operated a federally listed Patient Safety Organization (PSO) that partners with hospitals to strengthen clinical processes, advance evidence-based safety practices and facilitate enterprise-wide learning. Insights gained across facilities are systematically shared to promote consistency, advance adoption of proven practices and enhance the reliability of care across the organization.
In 2024, HCA Healthcare added to this work through a structured implementation of the National Action Plan to Advance Patient Safety. Multidisciplinary teams of hospital leaders, physicians and frontline clinicians completed facility-level assessments of safety culture and patient safety systems and used that data to align local improvement efforts with enterprise goals, reinforce capability and sustain progress toward key safety priorities.
HCA Healthcare has a long history of advancing patient safety through collaboration with leading public and private institutions. Through research initiatives like REDUCE MRSA, ABATE, Swap Out, CLUSTER and INSPIRE the organization continues to contribute to evidence-based practices that advance infection prevention and strengthen the safety and reliability of care for patients.