One Year Later: Health First Rises to Meet Brevard’s Changing Healthcare Needs

unexpected closure of Orlando Health Rockledge Hospital required unprecedented teamwork and community partnership

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – A rip current cascaded across the healthcare landscape of Brevard County on April 23, 2025, when the community’s second-largest hospital, Orlando Health Rockledge, closed to the public.

Where exactly do thousands of patients go when a hospital and its emergency department close? Further, where do expectant moms deliver their babies?

When first responders arrive to render care to a patient in distress, there is suddenly one fewer hospital available to transport that patient to – often with the critical “golden hour” required to stabilize and deliver lifesaving care.

Listening to the Health First hospital division president recall the period leading up to and the months after the closure, the word “experience” comes up often.

“Serving our community and our patients in their time of need lies at the heart of everything we do as caregivers. This closure was nothing we could have ever imagined or anticipated before early 2025. When Orlando Health purchased the two Brevard hospitals, I believe most in our community anticipated that they would improve the facilities and stabilize care upon their arrival,” said Mullowney.

“The closure required an incredible amount of teamwork, planning, and pivoting by Health First, county agencies, municipalities, employers, health plans, and families who depend on receiving their care with a specific provider or hospital. We are so incredibly thankful for the immediate and unyielding partnership and collaboration with our closest partners – including EMS and first responder agencies, Coastal Health Systems, Space Coast Health Foundation, Brevard Health Alliance, Parrish Medical Center, the Department of Health, and our local and state government leaders. The way our Emergency Department has handled this daily surge, particularly our Brevard Physician Associate physicians, has been nothing short of inspirational,” Mullowney continued.

As Brevard County’s largest healthcare system, Health First operates its four hospitals at near-capacity every single day.

And while healthcare organizations can plan for and simulate temporary closures of hospital facilities (think of a temporary evacuation during a coastal hurricane warning, where patients must be relocated to nearby facilities), those plans come nowhere near mirroring the effects of a permanent closure of hundreds of beds.

According to Mullowney, Health First’s system and four hospitals absorbed an enormous surge in patient volume even before Rockledge officially closed its doors for good.

• Health First’s four hospital ERs experienced a nearly 12 percent increase in visits since the Rockledge closure. However, Cape Canaveral Hospital and Viera Hospital have absorbed the brunt of those additional visits:

• • – Cape Canaveral has experienced a 28.74% increase (+7,739) in volume

  • – Viera Hospital has experienced a 20.92% increase (+6,110) in volume

• Health First has also experienced a significant increase in labor and deliveries since the Rockledge closure.

• • – Health First Holmes Regional Medical Center experienced a 9.38% increase (+ 278) in births.

  • – Health First Viera Hospital experienced a huge 20.67% increase (+149) in births over just the past year.

• Performing and processing more than 2 million individual additional labs – including blood, specimen, and tissue samples – for a total of over 9 million tests each year in Brevard County across all 17 Health First labs.

• Since expanding its First Flight air ambulance fleet in 2025, the new Titusville-based team has responded to over 500 emergency calls. Both air ambulance crews have responded to over 1,300 emergency calls this past year, logging over 30,000 loaded-patient air miles. First Flight now operates out of two strategic bases of operations: one in Melbourne at the Melbourne Orlando International Airport.

“We had weeks to develop a response plan to the crisis. In turn, we quickly absorbed most of the Orlando Health Rockledge volume. This led to a less-than-satisfactory experience for many of our patients and their loved ones, resulting in much longer wait times and delays in scheduling surgeries, physician visits, procedures, or labs. Our patients have expressed challenges finding parking. We know there have been many instances in which emergency department patients spent more time in hallways than in private exam or procedure rooms. It certainly is not the experience we’d ever imagine or wish for our patients, but the Rockledge closure certainly put us all in uncharted territory where our primary focus and objective became providing safe, timely, triaged quality medical care,” said Mullowney.

“Those longer wait times and other hurdles for patients became a byproduct of that wave. In a perfect world, we could just quickly expand buildings and rooms, offerings, quickly hire staff, and train additional personnel. Our main priority during this unprecedented influx has been meeting the immediate care needs, which we’ve done very well.”

According to Corey Alvarez, MD, lead ED medical director for Health First emergency departments and medical director of the Viera Hospital Emergency Department, the Rockledge closure created many learning, process, and facility-improvement opportunities that had to be addressed quickly.

And, he notes, while the situation has been a challenge for everyone across the community, he and his fellow physicians, nurses, and associates are uplifted by the many positive comments from patients and their loved ones.

“Healthcare works best when physicians, nurses, administrators, and support staff all move in the same direction. Patients are telling you what they need. The answers are right there if you’re willing to listen. Even during our busiest periods, patients still took the time to write thank-you letters. That means something. Someone remembering your name during one of the worst moments of their life — that’s meaningful. And by the same token, every negative comment is also an opportunity for improvement,” said Alvarez.

“My job isn’t to judge patients. My job is to understand their situation and figure out how we can do better next time. We never left this community. When the other hospital closed, we stayed and adapted. You abandoned not only patients, but people’s jobs and livelihoods. We took those people in and kept moving forward. The community will always tell you what it needs – you just have to listen,” continued Alvarez, who is also past-president of the Viera Hospital medical staff.

Although the Rockledge closure caught everyone by surprise. Health First had been working on campus development plans for each of the 4 hospitals.

Additionally, our Human Resources team worked quickly to hire many qualified Rockledge associates.

“As Orlando Health Rockledge Hospital closed, hundreds of those employees were displaced – at least temporarily. The Health First talent acquisition teams kicked efforts into overtime and pulled out every stop to recruit, hire, and train additional personnel across the system. Since April 2025, Health First has grown by 636 people, a 6.61% increase over the last year. Additionally, we’ve added 269 new nurses to our organization – a 10.74% increase over the last year,” said Jeff Jurinak, Health First’s vice president of HR workforce solutions.

“Our organization has been laser-focused on continuing to identify and invite talent to Brevard and Health First to continue providing the needed health care support for our rapidly growing community,” Jurinak continued.

Health First has made tremendous gains in many additional projects that have been fast-tracked to help respond to a growing Brevard community.

As Mullowney explains, healthcare systems are always looking toward tomorrow, and Health First used the Rockledge challenge as a catalyst to expedite ambitious plans.

“One thing we must do well as leaders in healthcare is forecast, project, and plan for the future. We must balance fiscal responsibility with patient needs by offering the right services, facilities, personnel, and programs at the right time and in the right place. We feel very strongly that many of our plans for growth and expansion are aligned with the future growth of Brevard County,” said Mullowney.

Befitting its Space Coast roots since December 2025, Health First has launched plans and programs at almost rocket-like speed to meet the current and future needs of the community, including the previously mentioned First Flight expansion, as well as several other expansions:

FREESTANDING ER SCHEDULED TO OPEN DEC. ’26 or JAN. ‘27

In January 2026, Health First and City of Rockledge officials celebrated the groundbreaking of Brevard County’s first freestanding emergency room, marking a major expansion of access to local emergency care.

The new facility, located at 3300 S. Fiske Blvd. in Rockledge, is part of Health First’s accelerated plan announced in May 2025 to build two freestanding emergency rooms across Brevard County.

The initiative aims to ensure residents continue to have reliable, 24/7 emergency services close to home as the region’s population grows.

The Rockledge freestanding ER, now on track for opening in January 2027 (possibly Dec. ’26), will feature a modern 12-bed emergency department spanning approximately 13,500 square feet.

It will include a fully equipped lab and imaging services such as CT, X-ray, ultrasound, along with a three-bay low-acuity treatment area, a dedicated triage room, and a two-bay ambulance entrance.

Viera Hospital Expansion (internally and externally):

In September, Health First announced Board approval to begin development of a master plan for an ambitious tower expansion at Viera Hospital.

Once finalized, that expansion is expected to guide the hospital’s next phase of growth with the goal of doubling licensed capacity to 214 beds and enhancing access to emergency, surgical, and cardiac care for the growing Central Brevard community.

Health First Viera Hospital will now look to develop a plan to add the following to its current campus:

• 64 new inpatient beds

• 2 operating rooms

• 1 cardiac catheterization lab

• Doubled emergency department capacity

• 10-bed Clinical Decision Unit (CDU)

• Expanded imaging and support areas

• Shelled space for up to 32 additional inpatient beds, two operating rooms, one catheterization lab, and support space

In December 2025, the Health First Board of Directors authorized plans to create a state-of-the-art Orthopedics & Spine Institute and Same-Day Surgical Center, which, pending final approval, will be located on the Viera Hospital Medical Campus.

The Institute and Same-Day Surgical Center underscores Health First’s significant strengths as a nationally recognized center for Orthopedics and Spine excellence, and the facility, which is in the initial design stages, would greatly expand access to care for one of the fastest-growing communities in Florida.

Planned expansions in Palm Bay (hospital and freestanding ER):

In May 2025, Health First announced an ambitious $230 million, five-floor patient-tower expansion at Palm Bay Hospital.

The schematic design phase will begin this August, and construction is slated to begin in Summer 2026.  The new tower is projected to significantly increase the current hospital’s capacity and throughput and is scheduled for completion in 2028.

This necessary investment provides our community with:

• 60 new inpatient beds, significantly easing current capacity challenges.

• Upgraded sterile processing department.

• Two shelled floors to support future growth – potentially adding up to 60 additional beds.

• Enhanced access and patient experience through improved navigation and facility design.

• Relocating and doubling the number of operating rooms, cath labs, and pre-op/recovery space.

• Improved hospital campus navigation and additional visitor/associate parking.

Located on Malabar Road, Palm Bay Hospital currently features 120 beds, over 200 highly skilled physicians, and offers more than 40 medical specialties. In 2024, the 27-bed emergency department treated over 53,000 emergency cases.

Palm Bay Hospital was originally built in 1992 as a 60-bed micro-hospital. While Health First has expanded the campus over the years, the facility was never designed to handle the level of growth that Brevard County and Palm Bay have experienced over the last decade.

New Cape Canaveral Hospital:

In March, almost two years to the date since Health First broke ground on the new Cape Canaveral replacement hospital in Merritt Island, officials celebrated the last official steel beam being prepared for installation within the Medical Office Building (MOB).

The new hospital and adjoining MOB are on track to be completed in early 2027 and officially open to the public in the second quarter of 2027.

The new 268,000-square-foot Cape Canaveral Hospital will include:

• 120 private inpatient beds.

• 25 emergency department treatment rooms, which doubles the current capacity.

• 6 operating rooms. 

ADDITIONAL INITIATIVES:

Additional initiatives and improvements that have been fast-tracked or completed since the closure of Orlando Health Rockledge include:

Holmes Regional Medical Center:

• Renovated SICU (22 ICU Beds) – Completed

• Renovated A6 East (24 Beds) – Completed

• Operationalize C2 (10 ICU Beds) – Completed

• Operationalize Holding Unit (15 Beds) – Complete

• Renovated A6 West (36 Beds) – Completed

Viera Hospital:

• Holding Unit area to ED minor treatment (10 bays) – Complete

• Renovated observation unit (8 Beds) – Complete

• Cath lab upgrade EP lab upgrade – Complete

• Expanded endoscopy suites (3 Suites)- Complete

• Expanded OR suites (2 ORs) – Complete

• 5th floor inpatient bed expansion (20 Beds) – Underway; July 2026

Cape Canaveral Hospital:

• Storage area to ED minor treatment (8 bays) – Complete

• 6th floor (renovated former L&D unit) (17 med/tele beds)- Complete

• 2nd floor (expanded catheterization lab recovery) – Complete

• Annex (8 transition beds for ICU) – Complete

Palm Bay Hospital:

• 2nd floor inpatient bed expansion (18 beds) – Complete

• 2nd floor inpatient dialysis expansion (4bays) – Complete

• 1st floor emergency department Fast Track (8 bays) – Complete

• 1st floor CT scanner expansion (2 CTs) – Summer 2026

As Mullowney would explain, the closure of Rockledge Hospital created a scenario that challenged everyone – from physicians and nurses to first responders, community supporters, patients, and their loved ones.

However, the challenge opened new opportunities to grow.

“Every challenge that presents itself in life also brings with it an opportunity, and the same could certainly be said here on the Space Coast and at Health First. I am incredibly proud of the ingenuity, skill, dedication, patience, and drive of our physicians and nurses, associates, leaders, and stakeholders across our county at every level for meeting this challenge,” said Mullowney.  

“We’re especially thankful for our patients and their loved ones for the support and understanding they have shown during these very challenging months that have tested the resolve of so many. While the ‘customer experience’ may not have met our standard in some cases, our ability to provide compassionate, cutting-edge medical care has never been compromised. The challenge has strengthened us and serves as a reminder to always keep our patients front and center of all we do.”

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