Health First Viera Hospital and Cape Canaveral Hospital Earn Prestigious National Awards
By Space Coast Daily // March 16, 2026
The designation places Viera Hospital in the top 10 percent of general acute care hospitals nationwide.
Viera Hospital is one of only 10 hospitals in Florida to earn a 5-Star CMS rating, and Cape Canaveral Hospital is one of only 21 in Florida on the Newsweek ranking.
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA — Health First’s Viera Hospital and Cape Canaveral Hospital have earned spots on prestigious top hospital rankings – including Forbes and Newsweek – positioning the two Brevard County hospitals among the best in the nation.
For the second straight year, Viera Hospital has earned 5-Star recognition on the inaugural 2026 Forbes Top Hospitals list.
Health First’s Viera Hospital is one of only 10 Florida Hospitals (out of nearly 350) to earn highly coveted CMS 5-Star recognition for 2026 – and one of only 5 Central Florida hospitals to earn the distinction this year.
The designation places Viera Hospital in the top 10 percent of general acute care hospitals nationwide.
From an initial pool of approximately 5,400 hospitals, only about 2,600 met the inclusion criteria, with the 5-Star category reserved for those ranking in the 91st to 100th percentile.
“These national rankings and recognition are powerful reflections of our collective commitment to clinical excellence, compassionate care, and exceptional patient experience. Every associate, physician, and provider played a role in achieving these distinctions,” said Health First President and CEO Terry Forde.
“Congratulations to our Viera and Cape Canaveral Hospital colleagues on these outstanding achievements – and the exceptional level of dedication, professionalism and teamwork that help define what care should feel like for our patients and community,” Forde continued.
The Forbes Top Hospitals ratings are based on validated, objective measures of healthcare quality and are designed to help patients make informed decisions about their care while providing hospital leaders with meaningful benchmarks.
The methodology focuses on patient outcomes, best practices, value, and patient experience, with adjustments for the demographics and socioeconomic characteristics of the communities served.
Hospitals were evaluated using healthcare measures vetted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, with analytics provided by healthcare data firm Inovalon.
Cape Canaveral Hospital again earned a spot as one of Newsweek’s World’s Best Hospitals 2026 – marking an incredible sixth consecutive year earning this global recognition.
Cape Canaveral Hospital was one of only 21 hospitals in the state of Florida to land on this year’s list – and one of only three in Central Florida.
This honor also highlights our leadership in Infection Prevention at Health First—a testament to our ongoing commitment to patient safety and clinical excellence.
Newsweek’s World’s Best Hospitals rankings span 32 countries and are based on a rigorous evaluation that includes hospital quality metrics, recommendations from medical experts, patient survey results, and the Statista PROMs (Patient Reported Outcome Measures) Implementation Survey.
