Health First, Operator Solutions Announce Strategic Partnership for Specialized Trauma Response, Critical Care

ABOVE VIDEO: Health First, Operator Solutions Announce Strategic Partnership for Specialized Trauma Response, Critical Care

BREVARD COUNTY • MELBOURNE, FLORIDA — Officials with Health First and Operator Solutions Tuesday gathered to formalize and celebrate a strategic partnership heralding a new era of specialized trauma response and critical care.

The new endeavor will serve as the standard in tactical and austere medical intervention by combining the medical expertise and resources of Brevard’s largest healthcare network – including its Level II Trauma Center within Health First’s Holmes Regional Medical Center – and Operator Solutions’ unique team of retired and active Air Force special operators, physicians and former NASA astronauts equipped with advanced rescue, recovery and specialized operator support solutions.

Together, the partnership will aim to enhance readiness, improve life-saving response capabilities, and deliver advanced medical treatment options in critical, high-risk environments – anywhere in the world.

According to Dr. Victor Vargas, Health First Hospital Division chief medical officer, Brevard County’s unique environment – with commercial spaceflight, maritime activity, including one of the world’s busiest cruise ports and coastal weather risks – requires intentional coordination between field response and hospital care.

The collaboration, he said, acknowledges the many dangerous realities that exist – and opens the opportunity for teams at Health First and Operator Solutions to prepare for them proactively.

“I represent two exceptional organizations — serving as Chief Medical Officer for Health First’s Hospital Division and medical director Operator Solutions. And as someone who has worked in both military rescue environments and hospital-based trauma care — I have seen firsthand the impact of alignment.

Health First’s trauma and emergency teams are built to manage complex, high-acuity cases every day. We have advanced trauma surgeons, emergency physicians, critical care specialists, flight crews, and operating room teams prepared for rapid activation. Our responsibility is definitive care — taking a critically injured or ill patient and delivering the highest standard of treatment available,” said Vargas, who is also a retired Air Force pararescue flight surgeon.

“Operator Solutions works in environments where hospitals cannot – maritime settings, aerospace recovery, and in austere and high-risk conditions. Their teams bring operational precision and advanced field capability. The most vulnerable moment for a critically injured patient is often the transition — from field to aircraft, from aircraft to trauma bay, from rescue environment to surgical suite. This partnership is designed to strengthen that transition. When teams train together, communication improves. When communication improves, care improves. And when care improves, outcomes improve,” Vagas continued.

Operator Solutions co-founder and CEO Brandon Daugherty said the combination of medical skill, knowledge, and resources available at Health First immediately factored into his team’s consideration when the opportunity to incorporate medical training and the ability to provide hospital-level care in the harshest of environments, into its program.

“At Operator Solutions, we pride ourselves on building capabilities that have never been created before. We helped pioneer commercial astronaut rescue — something that simply did not previously exist. Our DNA may be rescue but because of our access to the space economy and some of the most talented minds in our nation, we are able to see problems that others don’t see…. and we have solutions that others could not dream of.

“We operate where the map ends. And when we see a gap in capability, we don’t wait for someone else to solve it — we build it. Our long-term vision is to build a nationwide, cutting-edge search and rescue network – a network that brings high-level providers directly to the point of injury — the ‘X.,” said Daugherty.

In the future, Daugherty said, that may look like:

– Tandem parachuting specialists into remote environments.
– Deploying advanced trauma capability offshore.
– Rapid integration during natural disasters and mass casualty events.
– Moving critical patients from austere environments to higher level facilities.

“To do that responsibly, you need credibility. You need clinical excellence. You need a system that trains every day at the highest level,” said Daugherty.

“Health First is that system. They are not just a hospital network, but a forward-thinking organization that understands preparation – not reaction. With Health First, we have its exceptional credibility and infrastructure and top-notch medical care providers across their health network and trauma system – we’re now aligned with a strong and supportive hospital network in this area. Operator Solutions brings a level of technical and tactical skills that, quite frankly, really are not available anywhere else in the world. The partnership just makes sense – Health First is very visionary, and they operate through the lens and with the goal of creating better experiences and outcomes for its patients. And so, how can we expand and grow together? Our objectives have been aligned since day one – revolving around lifesaving care,” Daugherty continued.

This truly is a partnership unlike any other across the United States – something that only could happen here on the Florida space coast.

Daugherty and Operator Solutions’ collaboration really began with Health First in large part due to a relationship and ties with Dr. Vargas.

“He knew everybody here – and we, of course, knew Health First as the major healthcare network here on the Space Coast. We had a client come to us and said, ‘Hey, we’d like to work under your umbrella, and we really want to focus on trauma medicine – and we really need an area to practice.’ At the same time, our U.S. Air Force pararescue teams were sharing with us how they’d really like to get medical rotations going on the military side. I reached out to Health First to discuss interest, resources, and opportunities. From there, we started working with physician leaders in emergency and trauma physicians Larissa Dudley and Dr. Scott Zenoni and Dr. Vargas, working ideas through at the tactical level. We had many engaging and productive events here with Health First leaders. Once they spent some time with us and saw everything were doing, it just made perfect sense for these two teams – both focused on saving lives, but in very different ways and environments – to work together,” said Daugherty.

“Today is not simply about coming together to sign an agreement – it’s about alignment, bringing together two organizations with different strengths… and a shared responsibility to this community. At Health First, we exist to improve the health and wellness of the communities we serve. That mission doesn’t begin at the hospital door – and it doesn’t end there either. It calls us to think bigger; plan further ahead; and to prepare for what we hope never happens,” said Health First President and CEO Terry Forde.

“Operator Solutions brings a different — but equally important — capability. They operate where conditions are complex. Where environments are unpredictable, and where rescue and medicine intersect in aerospace, maritime and disaster settings. They are built to respond, to extract and to operate in high-risk environments. When you look at our strengths side by side, the alignment is obvious – field expertise, hospital expertise. When those capabilities are connected — before an emergency ever happens — something powerful occurs. Transitions become smoother, communication becomes clearer and outcomes improve. This partnership creates a framework for exactly that,” Forde continued.

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