Pros
HCA does pay well based on my knowledge of similar jobs in the market. The people that I work closely with are bright, talented, and committed to the success of the whole team. There are pockets of sanity. I actually believe that most employees, including staff and management, truly believe in the pursuit of HCA's mission to provide quality care to patients. At previous jobs, I was unable to really believe that “mission statements” were more than HR-driven platitudes.
Cons
Everything that I dislike about large companies seems to be magnified at HCA. The bureaucracy, favoritism, kissing and covering of ass, and “because that's the way it is” answers are directly in your face more than I would have thought. This seems to be an inescapable truth at any company with more than a handful of managers that manage managers, but the level of it has really surprised me. It is difficult in this environment to find a way to contribute individually. Ideas that challenge the status quo are met with, at best, indifference. Sometimes, the reaction is outright hostility. In spite of a lot of talk about process and planning, projects are often managed to unreasonable deadlines that were determined well before any actual scope of work was determined. Project managers behave as if we were all in possession of crystal balls that are able to foretell every bump in the road. Expectations are rarely adjusted to reflect reality.