Medfast Urgent Care Centers Mobilize to Fill Void Left By Shuttered Rockledge Hospital

MedFast is uniquely positioned to provide a critical component of needed care

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – Upon hearing that Orlando Health planned to close its newly purchased Rockledge Medical Center, a force of community healthcare organizations mobilized to fill in the huge void left by the absence of the medical facility.

Cocoa and Rockledge residents had depended on the hospital since 1941, when a $12,500 gift from the heirs of Eugene Wuesthoff sparked community collaboration, which generated matching contributions from 500 Rockledge community residents who “stepped up” so that a hospital could be built.

The community has again “stepped up” as the well-regarded 298-bed hospital shuts its doors permanently on April 22.  A collaborative group of health providers, organized by the Space Coast Health Foundation, is developing a plan to immediately address medical needs in Central Brevard after Orlando Health’s Rockledge Hospital closes.

Elective surgeries and other inpatient services have already ended, and emergency services will no longer transport patients to the hospital effective April 7.

Losing Rockledge Hospital is a major blow. According to Orlando Dominguez, assistant chief of emergency medical services operations for Brevard County Fire Rescue, Rockledge Hospital was the second busiest in the county, particularly in emergency care.

“They saw 8,100 patients last year via EMS alone,” he said. “That number does not count the patients who came in by themselves.”

Community partners addressing the immediate need to secure a network of care include the MedFast Urgent Care Centers, Brevard Health Alliance, Health First, Orlando Health, Parrish Medical Center, the Space Coast Health Centers, the Florida Department of Health – Brevard, Brevard County Fire Rescue, and Coastal Health Systems of Brevard.

Also collaborating in these talks are leaders from the cities of Rockledge and Cocoa, Brevard County Commissioner Katie Delaney, Florida House Majority Leader Tyler Sirois, and Florida Representative Debbie Mayfield.

“This is a good example of collaborative, outside-the-box thinking we need as the healthcare landscape in Brevard County changes,” said Johnette Gindling, president and CEO of the Space Coast Health Foundation.

While the situation remains fluid as partners fine-tune future roles, major components of the plan are already in place to solve the healthcare crisis.

“We have been meeting weekly to meet these needs,” said Aimee Larkin, president and CEO of MedFast Urgent Care Centers. “MedFast has stepped up to take the urgent care patients.”

MedFast is uniquely positioned to provide a critical component of needed care. MedFast’s Rockledge office at 1400 Rockledge Blvd. is already located steps away from Rockledge Hospital. The largest and fastest-growing urgent care practice in Brevard, MedFast offers a network of 18 offices throughout the county.

The total will rise next month when MedFast opens a large new practice in West Melbourne, followed closely by another in the Lake Washington area.

“We’re looking at more locations to come, too,” Larkin said.

MedFast provides rapid, affordable help with minor emergencies, illnesses, and accidents, from a smashed finger to foreign bodies in the eyes. Open from 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week, except on Thanksgiving and Christmas, MedFast offices also offer patients the convenience of walking in when they need help, as no appointments are necessary. Utilizing this available service can save the patient both time and money.

“One way the community can help is by choosing the right provider for the situation,” Gindling said.

Dominguez, too, is a proponent of the proper utilization of critical emergency services and of the important role urgent care facilities play with non-emergency patients. EMS services are often overloaded by calls from patients who would be better served at an urgent care practice such as MedFast.

“Fifty percent of the calls we get do not really need emergency care or transport,” Dominguez said.

Hospital emergency rooms, as well as emergency medical services, are created to handle serious and complex medical incidents, not for treating itchy eyeballs, ingrown toenails, and boils, all issues that, believe it or not, Dominguez’s EMS units have responded to in the past.

For non-emergency services such as these, urgent care centers such as MedFast are a better option for both patients and the community.

In the hospital, less critical cases are triaged according to severity, leaving patients with minor emergencies to wait hours as they are pushed to the back of the line if more serious cases present themselves.

In the past, EMS teams would wait with these patients until the hospital could take over, a protocol that compromised response time for true emergencies.

“It was not uncommon to have multiple ambulance units assigned to Rockledge Medical Center to be waiting in the emergency room,” Dominguez said.

When such situations happen, these units are not available to support the very reason for their existence: provide advanced medical help for critical calls such as heart attacks, car accidents and drownings.

Dominguez hopes that raising awareness about the availability and easy accessibility of urgent care centers will direct patients with minor emergencies to those services.

“We want to remind residents and visitors to use 911 for true emergencies, like heart attack, stroke, severe injuries and life-threatening allergic reactions,” he said.

“If it is a non-emergency medical condition, consider going to the nearest urgent care for more efficient treatment. In most cases, the patient will be seen quicker.”

Brevard County Emergency Medical Services has also implemented operational changes to ensure quick response time after the Rockledge Hospital closure. Coastal Ambulance Systems has stepped up to provide transportation for patients with non-life-threatening issues.

“Coastal has agreed to add on additional units,” Dominguez said.

Effective April 7, Brevard County Fire Rescue now responds to calls, assesses the patient’s situation, and, with a physician’s approval, refers non-emergency patients to Coastal for transport to the nearest hospital, such as Viera or Cape Canaveral.

These are patients who live near Orlando Health Rockledge Hospital and have been transported to it in the past from Merritt Island, Cocoa, Rockledge, Port St. John, and Canaveral Groves.

Patients will be fitted with the Pulsara wristband, which tracks their care journey from first medical contact to arrival at the hospital. With the wristband, each new member of the healthcare provider team has access to the same information and can update it in real time, so each new team member can seamlessly pick up where the last one left off.

Other community partners have also offered help. Health First, for example, has added a second emergency transport helicopter and is adding more patient space at Cape Canaveral Hospital and Holmes Regional Medical Center. Orlando Health Melbourne Hospital is also opening additional patient beds, and Brevard Health Alliance is expanding services at its Barton Blvd. office.

“We should be very proud of how quickly and efficiently our community has come together to tackle the problem,” Larkin said.

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