Brevard County's largest health care provider is getting even larger.
Health First Inc. on Tuesday announced a deal to form a joint venture with the Crane Creek Surgery Center in Melbourne.
The new partnership includes The B.A.C.K. Center becoming part of Health First Medical Group.
More: Health First finding high demand, high cost for travel nurses to supplement hospital staffs
More: Health First boosts its minimum wage to $15 an hour, effective Oct. 1
Although agreements have been signed, Health First said work remains to integrate the affected operations. Officials anticipating the operations will be combined in late spring 2022.
Financial terms of the agreement were not announced, nor was how much of an ownership stake Health First will have in the new venture.
Health First operates four hospitals in Brevard County — Cape Canaveral Hospital in Cocoa Beach, Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne, Palm Bay Hospital and Viera Hospital — as well as a multispecialty medical group, health insurance plans, and outpatient and wellness services.
“We have long explored a partnership with Crane Creek Surgery Center and The B.A.C.K. Center, as we share the same goals and dedication to patient care, quality of services and plans for growth," Frank Letherby, Health First's chief executive officer for community health services, said in a statement announcing the deal. "Together, our teams have an opportunity to align resources in a way that better serves and delights our customers, and we look forward to launching this new partnership in spring 2022.”
Health First said that, rather than reopening its Melbourne Same-Day Surgery Center — which previously closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic — Health First and Crane Creek Surgery Center will work to grow surgical services at the Crane Creek location.
Previously, various types of outpatient surgeries had been performed at the Melbourne Same-Day Surgery Center, located at 1035 S. Apollo Blvd., not far from Holmes Regional Medical Center.
The Crane Creek site — located at 2222 S. Harbor City Blvd., just south of downtown Melbourne — has five large operating rooms, with the ability to accommodate future growth.
"Rather than reopen the Melbourne Same-Day Surgery Center, we will work with our new partner to grow surgical services at the Crane Creek location," said Lance Skelly, Health First's system director for public and media relations.
"The move to Crane Creek will give us the opportunity to expand our surgical specialties and practice reach to provide high-quality care for our community," Skelly said.
Health First said the Melbourne Same-Day Surgery Center eventually will be repurposed as part of Health First’s planned "wellness villages" concept. Health First said details of that plan still are under development.
Health First initially announced the wellness villages concept in late 2019, as part of a five-year, $600 million development, in which each wellness village will have different health care concepts, including fitness and medical offices. That plan also includes moving Cape Canaveral Hospital to a site off State Road 520 on Merritt Island.
Letherby said the joint venture with Crane Creek Surgery Center "will allow us to expand our surgical specialties and practice reach."
In commenting on the deal, Dana Clay, administrator of The B.A.C.K. Center, said: "The partners of Crane Creek Surgery Center and The B.A.C.K. Center are extremely excited about our new partnership with Health First. We believe this collaboration will be highly successful, and we are looking forward to the opportunity of continued growth with Health First."
According to information on its website, The B.A.C.K. Center traces its roots to the founding in 1981 of the Brevard Orthopaedic Clinic by Dr. Glenn Bryan.
The focus of the general orthopedic clinic was shifted to specializing in treatment of the neck and spine, with the addition of Dr. Richard Hynes in 1992.
Over the years, multiple physicians and other practitioners joined the practice.
In 2002, the name of the practice was changed to Brevard Orthopaedic Spine and Pain Clinic, doing business as The B.A.C.K. Center. The acronym stands for "Back Authority for Contemporary Knowledge."
Skelly said details on how many Health First associates will work at the Crane Creek Surgery Center location have not yet been determined.
Skelly said the most recent major joint venture involving Health First before this one was announced in September 2019.
At that time, Health First signed a letter of intent with AdventHealth Centra Care to partner with Health First to provide urgent care in Brevard County.
The joint venture was not a purchase, but rather a collaboration between Health First and AdventHealth Centra Care.
They have locations in Cocoa Beach, Malabar, Melbourne and Titusville.
Dave Berman is business editor at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Berman at dberman@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @bydaveberman.
Support local journalism and journalists like me. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Health First partners with Crane Creek Surgery Center
The TV star will strip for the ITV show later this month.
Exit International Switzerland has just legalized a new way to die by assisted suicide. The country’s medical review board has authorized the use of the Sarco Suicide Pod, which is a 3-D-printed portable coffin-like capsule with windows that can be transported to a tranquil place for a person’s final moments of life. Conventional assisted-suicide methods have generally involved a chemical substance. Inventor Philip Nitschke of Exit International told the website SwissInfo.ch that his “death pod”
The latest COVID-19 variant, Omicron, is raising new fears—among policymakers, parents, educators, business owners and, well, just about everyone. Long before the pandemic started, American healthcare was stretched thin. Despite the federal support received by healthcare systems during the pandemic, healthcare facilities are facing catastrophic shortages of resources, ranging from basic medications, to operating room staff, to ability to find cooks for nursing homes.
With the rise of Omicron, the continuing circulation of the infectious Delta variant and cases of COVID-19 continuing to rise across the U.S., has masking guidance changed?
People who have previously had Covid or been vaccinated have far less protection against omicron than they do for other variants, according to the first data of its kind.
A new study suggests that a simple test that anyone can take on their own may be able to detect subtle signs of dementia.
The physician tied to the Coast’s anti-vaccine community once had his medical license revoked and said the hospital won’t let him on their premises or on the computer system. Here’s what happened.
Nick Cannon is sharing some heartbreaking news. On Tuesday, the talk show host announced that his youngest son, 5-month-old Zen had passed away of brain cancer.
The giant cannabis-infused edible took over 24 hours to bake and prepare.
Photo Illustration by Kelly Caminero/The Daily Beast/GettyWhen the Supreme Court heard arguments last week for a case that could upend abortion rights nationwide, Mehmet Oz—the TV doctor and accused “quack” turned Republican candidate for Senate in Pennsylvania—suggested he was at peace that the Supreme Court could overturn Roe v. Wade.But only two years earlier, Oz characterized efforts to overturn Roe as a misleading and possibly conspiratorial crusade. Not only was Oz supportive of abortion r
Brian Shelton lived for nearly 50 years with Type 1 diabetes, a chronic disease in which the insulin-making cells in the pancreas are destroyed, forcing a person to be dependent on insulin — delivered via shots or an insulin pump — to stay alive. For Shelton, of Ohio, that meant facing episodes of severe hypoglycemia, where his blood sugar level would drop so low that he would lose consciousness without warning. In one episode, Shelton's blood sugar level dropped after he shoveled snow, causing him to fall, as he describes it, "face-first into the concrete."
Start making your immune system a priority.
Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily BeastA few months ago, a channel popped up in the anti-vaccine recesses of the fringe-friendly social media platform Telegram and began extolling the virtues of the “Niatonin Protocol,” a daily regimen of high doses of niacin, butyric acid, and a few other supplements. (The exact cocktail is situational and ever-shifting.) Through a barrage of anonymous anecdotes and jumbled, supposedly scientific explanations, the group argued this program was a sure
(Reuters) -The Omicron variant of the coronavirus can partially evade the protection from two doses of Pfizer Inc and partner BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine, the research head of a laboratory at the Africa Health Research Institute in South Africa said on Tuesday. Still, the study showed that blood from people who had received two doses of the vaccine and had a prior infection were mostly able to neutralize the variant, suggesting that booster doses of the vaccine could help to fend off infection. Alex Sigal, a professor at the Africa Health Research Institute, said on Twitter there was "a very large drop" in neutralization of the Omicron variant relative to an earlier strain of COVID-19.
"I never knew what an addict was until I almost died," Michelle Heaton wrote on Instagram Monday
Tamp down inflammation this winter with these delicious, in-season foods.
Wanderlust, and the money to fund it, made Alex Stow's decision easy. After working a couple of years in an intensive care unit, he signed up to be a travel nurse, tripling his pay to about $95 an hour by agreeing to help short-staffed hospitals around the country for 13 weeks at a time. "Travel" proved a bit of a misnomer. His current assignment is in Traverse City, Mich., only a few hours from his old full-time job in Lansing – close enough that he still works per diem shifts at his previous h
(Bloomberg) — Former U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was diagnosed with kidney cancer just months after his infamous 2018 firing via tweet by then-President Donald Trump.Most Read from BloombergThe World’s Relentless Demand for Chips Turns Deadly in MalaysiaSand and Soldiers Mix as Troops Move In to Protect Cancun TouristsEven in the Metaverse, Not All Identities Are Created EqualThe $300 Billion Plan to Bring Green Power to China’s MegacitiesMeet the New Climate Refugee in Town: CoyotesT
Republicans' trust in doctors is eroding. It's a symptom of a larger disease.
Constantly feeling tired can be a sign of a serious medical condition. Here are some of the most common causes, plus how to treat fatigue and get your energy back, according to medical doctors and experts.
![Surviving 2nd wave of corona](https://voguewellness.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/How-to-survive-the-2nd-wave-of-corona-2.jpg)
COVID-19
Surviving The 2nd Wave of Corona
‘This too shall pass away’ this famous Persian adage seems to be defeating us again and again in the case of COVID-19. Despite every effort