Brevard County boasts 11 hospitals. There are also over 70 Space Coast assisted-living facilities. Health First, the area’s largest health care system, owns four hospitals: Holmes Regional Medical Center, Palm Bay Hospital, Cape Canaveral Hospital and Viera Hospital, which opened in 2011.
Combined, the Health First hospitals have 868 patient beds. The majority — 514 — are at Holmes Regional Medical Center. It’s the site of the only state-accredited Level II trauma center in Brevard and Indian River counties.
Health First is strengthened by its partnership with AdventHealth, which allows it access to technology and infrastructure-improvement funds. Health First is building a new facility in Palm Bay that will serve as a prototype.
The new facility will have chairs that automatically register and electronically record patients’ weight and vitals. Health First patients can check in at a kiosk, and virtual visits and online appointment-setting will also be offered.
Patient-care technology is also a priority for Steward Health — the largest private for-profit health care network in the U.S. — along with cost-saving, preventative wellness.
Steward renamed its Brevard hospitals Rockledge Regional Medical Center and Melbourne Regional Medical Center after purchasing Wuesthoff Health System in 2017.
With a partnership forged in 2014 with the Mayo Clinic Care Network, Titusville’s Parrish Medical Center uses digital technology to maintain high-quality care. An independent community hospital that’s been serving patients for 60 years, it earned the nation’s first Integrated Care Certification from the Joint Commission and earned an A for patient safety last spring from the non-profit watchdog Leapfrog Group.