Health First partners with Crane Creek Surgery Center
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.
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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.
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 reopen 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.
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.
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 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 Crane Creek Surgery 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 orthopaedic 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.”
This story will be updated.
Dave Berman is business editor at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Berman at [email protected]. Twitter: @bydaveberman.
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