Health First partners with AdventHealth Centra Care to deliver urgent care across Brevard County

September 27, 2019 — Health First has signed a letter of intent with AdventHealth Centra Care to partner with Health First to provide urgent care in Brevard County. The joint venture is expected to be finalized later this year and begin serving customers in Spring 2020.

The joint venture is not a purchase but a collaboration between Health First and AdventHealth Centra Care.

As Brevard’s community health care system, Health First strives to deliver the highest-quality, most compassionate care to customers — in a cost-effective way to meet the needs of every patient. This joint venture allows Health First to expand its urgent care capabilities with an industry leader who is already a partner. Earlier this year, AdventHealth signed a partnership agreement with Health First to create a super-regional health care organization in central Florida.

AdventHealth Centra Care has been delivering care for decades, with more than 30 locations across Central Florida. Centra Care is a proven leader in urgent care within their markets, so this is a perfect opportunity to align resources in a way that better serves Brevard County. Centra Care’s board-certified physicians provide adult and pediatric care seven days a week, with some centers open until midnight. Centra Care is the affordable alternative to the emergency room for urgent conditions like broken bones, infections, allergies, stomach problems and pediatric concerns.

Centra Care is not only a facility for urgent care, but one helping customers with their wellness needs — something that Health First has been focusing on increasingly in the past several months. Walk-in clinics offer preventive services like flu shots, X-rays, EKGs and physical exams.

“For more than 80 years Health First’s focus on wellness and health has improved the lives of our friends, families, and neighbors,” said Frank Letherby, CEO of Health First Community Health Services. “The collaboration between Health First and Centra Care will allow us to expand our capabilities while continuing to provide our community with the highest quality care they deserve, when and where they want it.”

“AdventHealth Centra Care has been a trusted leader in urgent care and occupational medicine for almost 40 years,” said Dr. Scott Brady, president and CEO of Centra Care. “We are excited to bring excellent and convenient care to the residents of Brevard County.”

About Health First
Founded in 1995, Health First is Brevard County's not-for-profit, community healthcare system. The fully integrated delivery network (IDN) includes health insurance plans, hospitals, a multi-specialty medical group, and outpatient and wellness services. As a locally owned, not-for-profit organization, Health First is committed to investing in our community. In 2018, Health First provided more than $171 million in community support. To learn more about Health First and how we're giving back to our community, please visit HFgivesback.org.

About AdventHealth

Founded in 1908 by pioneering Seventh-day Adventists who believed in whole-person health — healing the body, mind and spirit — AdventHealth has grown into one of the largest nonprofit hospitals in the country, caring for more than two million patient visits per year in metro Orlando alone. AdventHealth operates nearly 50 hospitals and hundreds of care centers in nearly a dozen states, making it one of the largest faith-based health-care systems in the United States.

AdventHealth’s Central Florida Division encompasses 16 hospitals in the six counties in and surrounding metro Orlando: Orange, Seminole, Osceola, Lake, Volusia and Flagler. The Central Florida Division’s care network also includes more than 30 CentraCare urgent-care centers; dozens of sports-rehab and imaging centers; and hundreds of physicians, ranging from primary care to a full spectrum of specialties.

AdventHealth Orlando, the division’s flagship campus, serves both as a community hospital and as a major tertiary referral hospital for the region, much of the Southeast, the Caribbean and Latin America.

AdventHealth Orlando is a designated statutory teaching hospital and trains physicians from around the world on the newest technology and procedures. The system provides a wide range of health services, including many nationally and internationally recognized programs in cardiology, cancer, women’s medicine, neuroscience, diabetes, orthopedics, pediatrics, transplant and advanced surgical programs.

The AdventHealth Research Institute has more than 250 investigators and more than 500 clinical trials in progress. AdventHealth Orlando is also home to the Translational Research Institute for Metabolism and Diabetes and the Nicholson Center for Surgical Advancement.