‘Renewed and Refreshed’ – New Health First Medical Offices Target Convenience, Aim to Delight
By Space Coast Daily // June 15, 2024
features primary care and gastroenterology practices
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Spacious exam rooms, powered patient chairs, cool color palette strike design high notes.
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – Call it Extreme Makeover: Doctors’ Office Edition. Since Health First’s 1810 Eldron Blvd., Palm Bay, office debuted in 2022, Health First Medical Group’s new and renovated practice spaces have featured more spacious exam rooms with wide bench seats for family, wide sliding wood doors, and motorized patient exam chairs with removable arm rests that recline fully. The color palette, too, is made up of neutral whites with light blues and greens.
On June 4, Health First hosted a ribbon cutting for its newest office at Rockledge Square. The 14,000-square-foot facility at 1846 U.S. Highway 1 houses a Primary Care practice, with providers Lamar Wedderburn, DO, and Amy Cannon, APRN, and a Gastroenterology practice with Xiaosong Song, MD, and Mark Hughes, MD.
It’s a small thing, they said, but the spacious exam rooms and wide bench seats invite accompanying family into the exam space, which can be a comfort for the patient and enrich the dialogue in search of a diagnosis and care plan.
“Getting a complete medical history is more likely. The patient might not remember everything relevant to the question that I’m asking,” said Dr. Wedderburn.
“There’s a better quality of care when we have more of the story,” Cannon said.
Meanwhile, the exam chair is accommodating for patients and providers.
“I have patients in their 80s and 90s who I have had to lift onto and down from the table. Now, I step here” he said, pointing to foot pedals, “and raise them up or lower them.”
“For women’s care, we’ve got warmers in the stirrups,” Cannon said, “and we can dim the lights for people who come in with migraines.”
Since the beginning of the year, Health First has celebrated the opening of two other doctors’ office locations, at 216 E. Eau Gallie Blvd. and at 2329 Medico Lane, Ste. 101, both in Melbourne. These locations boast the same advancements and design features.
The primary aim is to bring services closer to where patients live and work, a factor that research shows improves health in any community. The new, 14,000-square-foot facility in the Rockledge Square development features state-of-the-art radiology equipment and on-site laboratory services, adding ease and convenience to patients’ experiences.
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“By bringing primary care, radiology, and gastroenterology services together under one roof here, we are not only expanding our healthcare offerings but also improving the overall well-being of our Central Brevard residents,” said Dr. Mario Ruberte, Medical Director for Health First Medical Group.
But besides convenience, the design elements aim for a subtler sense of relief. It’s all in pursuit of the wellness proposition Health First has made with Brevard County, says Angela Coggeshall, HFMG’s Vice President for Operations.
“We need you to have access to healthcare services to be well, but we want you to have natural light, to experience a calming color palette, to feel relaxed in a spacious room. We want you to feel renewed and refreshed – that’s the experience we’re after.”
Visit HF.org/news to keep up on the latest at Health First.
