Shuttered Rockledge Hospital leaves community without its emergency department
By Joe Mario Pedersen
April 23, 2025 at 10:36 AM EDT
Andrea Hardeman Brown remembers being 18 years old and getting her first hospital job at Rockledge Hospital.
“It was large enough to be efficient for high acuity patients, but it was small enough to still have the feel of a community hospital where everybody knew your name,” Brown said.
Brown, now 43, works as a clinical liaison for Kindred Hospital in Melbourne, though up until recently, her work brought her into Rockledge Hospital.
"Effective at 12:01 am, April 23, 2025, Rockledge Hospital and its Emergency Room were closed," according to Orlando Health's website.
Brown says the loss of the hospital leaves a void sure to be felt throughout all of Brevard for the foreseeable future.
"I want to make mention of the absolute devastation that the closing of the hospital is going to cause the community of Rockledge, Cocoa, and Port St John," Brown said. "If you have a heart attack. Seconds count, minutes count. We're not going to be able to get an ambulance out there (quickly.)"
It’s a sentiment echoed by Jim Wilson, deputy fire chief for the Rockledge Fire Department.
“I've been working since 1982, and this is the single biggest challenge that I've faced,” Wilson said. “There's no training manual on how to adapt and overcome when you lose your local receiving facility.”
RFD and the Brevard County Fire Rescue have been training together using systems to exchange patient information quickly when RFD is first on a scene and BCFR arrives for emergency transport. It’s all been prep for Rockledge’s closure, which Orlando Health announced in February.
Orlando Health purchased Rockledge Hospital – as well as the hospitals formerly known as Sebastian River Medical Center and Melbourne Regional Medical Center – last October from Steward Health Care after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
“These acquisitions offer a new day in healthcare for residents of these communities,” said Ohme Entin, SVP, Orlando Health East Region, in an October press release announcing the acquisition. “History has shown that when Orlando Health expands into new communities, the quality of healthcare increases and the communities benefit.”
Closing Rockledge
“Prior to acquiring Rockledge Hospital, (Orlando Health) was aware that years of neglect had left the facility in such poor condition that it did not meet the system’s standards for patient care environments,” said Orlando Health on a webpage published this year titled “Rockledge Hospital Prepares to Close.”
The hospital chain said it purchased the hospital to avoid the facility’s immediate closure following Steward’s bankruptcy.
“Following in-depth inspections that could only occur after acquisition, it was determined that the cost to repair and renovate Rockledge Hospital far exceeds the cost of a new, state-of-the-art hospital,” Orlando Health said.
According to a 2024 assessment by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, Rockledge “failed to ensure ongoing preventative maintenance to ensure patient care equipment remained in safe operating conditions.” The report also notes that multiple rooms were closed due to maintenance concerns and that the bathrooms and AC units were not working.
Black mold climbs downward on the basement wall under the Orlando Health Rockledge Hospital emergency department. Orlando Health listed black mold as one of the many health concerns why the healthcare system decided to shut down Rockledge Hospital, after 84 years of serving the community. (970x1297, AR: 0.7478797224363917)
Last week, Orlando Health released images from inside the hospital depicting black mold covering basement walls, structural issues, and corroded sanitation lines. None of the photos released showed patient rooms or staff working stations.
Still, the news to close the 84-year-old hospital was not received well by local leaders.
“It's a betrayal to the community,” said Rockledge Mayor Thomas Price. “It was very crucial when 60 to 70,000 people were depending on that facility for their hospital and their emergency room.”
Rockledge is a town of 30,000, but its emergency department was also used by the neighboring Cocoa Beach, Price said. He added that following the Steward’s mistreatment of the property, the community was overjoyed when Orlando Health announced it was buying Rockledge.
“We were very excited about Orlando Health and, because of their reputation and their presence in Central Florida, already in the Orlando area, and we thought it was going to be a really great thing for our city,” Price said.
A sanitary sewer line is corroding under Orlando Health's Rockledge Hospital. According to Orlando Health, several lines under the hospital were corroding. (969x1299, AR: 0.745958429561201)
Price said he learned of the closure an hour before the news was made public.
“We had no idea,” the Mayor said.
According to Price, the city asked Orlando Health to consider staying open until a facility could be built nearby to absorb patients. He said the case he made was simple.
“You guys want to close it, but let's put this thing out a year to two years down the road, so we can be ready for what else we're going to do. We got to have a plan, guys, and we've got to have an emergency room.”
Orlando Health stated in a press release that the construction of another facility could take years, “which is longer than our experts feel Rockledge Hospital can realistically remain open.”
Orlando Health Rockledge Hospital was officially closed on Wednesday, April 23. The Rockledge Hospital had operated under several different companies for the last 84 years. Orlando Health bought the hospital in 2024, but announced that it was closing the facility in February, shocking the community. Orlando Health cited issues with structural damage and black mold. (969x1294, AR: 0.7488408037094282)
Following the news of the closure, Orlando Health stated there were plans to build a new facility, and that over the next four years it would be spending an excess of $750 million on a new hospital, freestanding emergency departments (north, central, and southern Brevard), as well as physician offices. Orlando Health has yet to say where in Brevard County the hospital will be.
For now, the community faces more immediate problems, such as longer ambulance rides to the closest neighboring hospital.
Challenges in Rockledge’s wake
In emergency situations, EMS was able to transport patients via ambulance from any point in Rockledge to the hospital in about eight minutes, Wilson said. The national standard is about nine minutes.
Now, the closest Brevard hospitals to Rockledge Hospital are in Cape Canaveral and Melbourne, ranging from 8.5 to 21 miles away. Wilson says transport times will double or even triple.
“Is it ideal that instead of a patient going five minutes to an emergency room, they now go 20 minutes? No, that's not ideal,” Wilson said.
A temporary air conditioning unit was set up in the Orlando Health Rockledge Hospital. (970x1297, AR: 0.7478797224363917)
While longer transport times are concerning, Wilson is also thinking about “wall time,” or the time it takes the emergency room staff to take the patient away from the rescue or ambulance and put that rescue ambulance back into service.
“That's one factor we cannot control,” he said.”It's going to end up trickling down into potential delays in response times to scenes.”
Wilson said BCFR began bolstering its own ambulance fleet earlier this month after partnering with Coastal Ambulance System to provide non-life-threatening patient transportation to area hospitals. Coastal is a private, non-profit ambulance provider.
But the concerns don’t end with fear over longer transport and call response times, said Lee Revere, a professor and chair of Health Services Research, Management, and Policy at the University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions.
“It also basically drives physicians out of the community that may have practiced at that hospital, then you kind of have a tripling effect.”
Orlando Health Rockledge Hospital's emergency department has served the Rockledge community for 84 years. The facility shut down Wednesday morning. (4000x3000, AR: 1.3333333333333333)
Revere said the loss of a central hub for primary care physicians and specialists would mean people have less access to preventative care and that it will likely exacerbate illnesses.
“Heart disease or diabetes patients; they need to see these specialists, or at least primary care routinely,” Revere said.
According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, there were 283 clinicians, including primary care physicians and specialty doctors, associated with Rockledge.
Traveling further, even if it’s 30 minutes or 40 minutes, could lead to fewer routine appointments, she said.
“That has a domino effect, where now you're more chronic, you're more severe, you're in more need of emergency medical services,” Revere said. “It's not good for the individual, and it's expensive treatment. As people get more severe, and aren't preventing some of these more acute illnesses from getting really high-level.”
And then there are the surrounding hospitals that are forced to pick up the slack in Rockledge’s absence.
According to the city, Rockledge Hospital received 8,000 patients via ambulance transport a year.
What’s also concerning to Andrea Hardeman Brown is that Rockledge was one of the larger ICUs in the area with 24 beds. As a clinical liaison, she works with multiple hospital ICUs in the Brevard area.
A healthcare practitioner walks out of Orlando Health Rockledge Hospital outpatient clinic during the final month of the hospital's operations. (4000x3000, AR: 1.3333333333333333)
“( Rockledge) was the largest ICU that I handled. I handle Cape Canaveral Hospital, which has 11 beds, Parish Medical Center, which has 12 beds I cover the Viera Hospital that has 20 beds,” she said. “We are losing 24 Intensive Care Unit beds. That is insane. Where are those patients going to go?”
The First Health Network, which operates several hospitals out of Brevard, said it is prepared to step up while there is a void in Rockledge. The hospital network also announced its plans to accelerate the construction of a freestanding emergency department, its planning at the corner of Fiske Blvd. and Roy Wall Blvd. in Rockledge – about eight minutes south of the Rockledge Hospital.
“We’ve been planning to grow our emergency care network, and the timing could not be more critical for us to accelerate our plans. Our neighbors can count on us to step up and deliver the right care, in the right place, at the right time,” said Health First President and CEO Terry Forde in a press release.
The announcement did not give an exact date for the project's completion.
For now, Deputy Fire Chief Wilson is focused on keeping his team focused on saving lives. What has him concerned, however, is hurricane season.
“There have been times at Cape Canaveral hospital when we had a Category one or a Category two (storm) off the coast, and possibly coming into Brevard. It's a low-lying area, and that hospital had to be evacuated. And they were always evacuated to the Rockledge Hospital,” he said. “By any measure, we’re trying to adapt and to overcome in this enormously challenging time.”
“It was large enough to be efficient for high acuity patients, but it was small enough to still have the feel of a community hospital where everybody knew your name,” Brown said.
Brown, now 43, works as a clinical liaison for Kindred Hospital in Melbourne, though up until recently, her work brought her into Rockledge Hospital.
"Effective at 12:01 am, April 23, 2025, Rockledge Hospital and its Emergency Room were closed," according to Orlando Health's website.
Brown says the loss of the hospital leaves a void sure to be felt throughout all of Brevard for the foreseeable future.
"I want to make mention of the absolute devastation that the closing of the hospital is going to cause the community of Rockledge, Cocoa, and Port St John," Brown said. "If you have a heart attack. Seconds count, minutes count. We're not going to be able to get an ambulance out there (quickly.)"
It’s a sentiment echoed by Jim Wilson, deputy fire chief for the Rockledge Fire Department.
“I've been working since 1982, and this is the single biggest challenge that I've faced,” Wilson said. “There's no training manual on how to adapt and overcome when you lose your local receiving facility.”
RFD and the Brevard County Fire Rescue have been training together using systems to exchange patient information quickly when RFD is first on a scene and BCFR arrives for emergency transport. It’s all been prep for Rockledge’s closure, which Orlando Health announced in February.
Orlando Health purchased Rockledge Hospital – as well as the hospitals formerly known as Sebastian River Medical Center and Melbourne Regional Medical Center – last October from Steward Health Care after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
“These acquisitions offer a new day in healthcare for residents of these communities,” said Ohme Entin, SVP, Orlando Health East Region, in an October press release announcing the acquisition. “History has shown that when Orlando Health expands into new communities, the quality of healthcare increases and the communities benefit.”
Closing Rockledge
“Prior to acquiring Rockledge Hospital, (Orlando Health) was aware that years of neglect had left the facility in such poor condition that it did not meet the system’s standards for patient care environments,” said Orlando Health on a webpage published this year titled “Rockledge Hospital Prepares to Close.”
The hospital chain said it purchased the hospital to avoid the facility’s immediate closure following Steward’s bankruptcy.
“Following in-depth inspections that could only occur after acquisition, it was determined that the cost to repair and renovate Rockledge Hospital far exceeds the cost of a new, state-of-the-art hospital,” Orlando Health said.
According to a 2024 assessment by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, Rockledge “failed to ensure ongoing preventative maintenance to ensure patient care equipment remained in safe operating conditions.” The report also notes that multiple rooms were closed due to maintenance concerns and that the bathrooms and AC units were not working.
Black mold climbs downward on the basement wall under the Orlando Health Rockledge Hospital emergency department. Orlando Health listed black mold as one of the many health concerns why the healthcare system decided to shut down Rockledge Hospital, after 84 years of serving the community. (970x1297, AR: 0.7478797224363917)
Last week, Orlando Health released images from inside the hospital depicting black mold covering basement walls, structural issues, and corroded sanitation lines. None of the photos released showed patient rooms or staff working stations.
Still, the news to close the 84-year-old hospital was not received well by local leaders.
“It's a betrayal to the community,” said Rockledge Mayor Thomas Price. “It was very crucial when 60 to 70,000 people were depending on that facility for their hospital and their emergency room.”
Rockledge is a town of 30,000, but its emergency department was also used by the neighboring Cocoa Beach, Price said. He added that following the Steward’s mistreatment of the property, the community was overjoyed when Orlando Health announced it was buying Rockledge.
“We were very excited about Orlando Health and, because of their reputation and their presence in Central Florida, already in the Orlando area, and we thought it was going to be a really great thing for our city,” Price said.
A sanitary sewer line is corroding under Orlando Health's Rockledge Hospital. According to Orlando Health, several lines under the hospital were corroding. (969x1299, AR: 0.745958429561201)
Price said he learned of the closure an hour before the news was made public.
“We had no idea,” the Mayor said.
According to Price, the city asked Orlando Health to consider staying open until a facility could be built nearby to absorb patients. He said the case he made was simple.
“You guys want to close it, but let's put this thing out a year to two years down the road, so we can be ready for what else we're going to do. We got to have a plan, guys, and we've got to have an emergency room.”
Orlando Health stated in a press release that the construction of another facility could take years, “which is longer than our experts feel Rockledge Hospital can realistically remain open.”
Orlando Health Rockledge Hospital was officially closed on Wednesday, April 23. The Rockledge Hospital had operated under several different companies for the last 84 years. Orlando Health bought the hospital in 2024, but announced that it was closing the facility in February, shocking the community. Orlando Health cited issues with structural damage and black mold. (969x1294, AR: 0.7488408037094282)
Following the news of the closure, Orlando Health stated there were plans to build a new facility, and that over the next four years it would be spending an excess of $750 million on a new hospital, freestanding emergency departments (north, central, and southern Brevard), as well as physician offices. Orlando Health has yet to say where in Brevard County the hospital will be.
For now, the community faces more immediate problems, such as longer ambulance rides to the closest neighboring hospital.
Challenges in Rockledge’s wake
In emergency situations, EMS was able to transport patients via ambulance from any point in Rockledge to the hospital in about eight minutes, Wilson said. The national standard is about nine minutes.
Now, the closest Brevard hospitals to Rockledge Hospital are in Cape Canaveral and Melbourne, ranging from 8.5 to 21 miles away. Wilson says transport times will double or even triple.
“Is it ideal that instead of a patient going five minutes to an emergency room, they now go 20 minutes? No, that's not ideal,” Wilson said.
A temporary air conditioning unit was set up in the Orlando Health Rockledge Hospital. (970x1297, AR: 0.7478797224363917)
While longer transport times are concerning, Wilson is also thinking about “wall time,” or the time it takes the emergency room staff to take the patient away from the rescue or ambulance and put that rescue ambulance back into service.
“That's one factor we cannot control,” he said.”It's going to end up trickling down into potential delays in response times to scenes.”
Wilson said BCFR began bolstering its own ambulance fleet earlier this month after partnering with Coastal Ambulance System to provide non-life-threatening patient transportation to area hospitals. Coastal is a private, non-profit ambulance provider.
But the concerns don’t end with fear over longer transport and call response times, said Lee Revere, a professor and chair of Health Services Research, Management, and Policy at the University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions.
“It also basically drives physicians out of the community that may have practiced at that hospital, then you kind of have a tripling effect.”
Orlando Health Rockledge Hospital's emergency department has served the Rockledge community for 84 years. The facility shut down Wednesday morning. (4000x3000, AR: 1.3333333333333333)
Revere said the loss of a central hub for primary care physicians and specialists would mean people have less access to preventative care and that it will likely exacerbate illnesses.
“Heart disease or diabetes patients; they need to see these specialists, or at least primary care routinely,” Revere said.
According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, there were 283 clinicians, including primary care physicians and specialty doctors, associated with Rockledge.
Traveling further, even if it’s 30 minutes or 40 minutes, could lead to fewer routine appointments, she said.
“That has a domino effect, where now you're more chronic, you're more severe, you're in more need of emergency medical services,” Revere said. “It's not good for the individual, and it's expensive treatment. As people get more severe, and aren't preventing some of these more acute illnesses from getting really high-level.”
And then there are the surrounding hospitals that are forced to pick up the slack in Rockledge’s absence.
According to the city, Rockledge Hospital received 8,000 patients via ambulance transport a year.
What’s also concerning to Andrea Hardeman Brown is that Rockledge was one of the larger ICUs in the area with 24 beds. As a clinical liaison, she works with multiple hospital ICUs in the Brevard area.
A healthcare practitioner walks out of Orlando Health Rockledge Hospital outpatient clinic during the final month of the hospital's operations. (4000x3000, AR: 1.3333333333333333)
“( Rockledge) was the largest ICU that I handled. I handle Cape Canaveral Hospital, which has 11 beds, Parish Medical Center, which has 12 beds I cover the Viera Hospital that has 20 beds,” she said. “We are losing 24 Intensive Care Unit beds. That is insane. Where are those patients going to go?”
The First Health Network, which operates several hospitals out of Brevard, said it is prepared to step up while there is a void in Rockledge. The hospital network also announced its plans to accelerate the construction of a freestanding emergency department, its planning at the corner of Fiske Blvd. and Roy Wall Blvd. in Rockledge – about eight minutes south of the Rockledge Hospital.
“We’ve been planning to grow our emergency care network, and the timing could not be more critical for us to accelerate our plans. Our neighbors can count on us to step up and deliver the right care, in the right place, at the right time,” said Health First President and CEO Terry Forde in a press release.
The announcement did not give an exact date for the project's completion.
For now, Deputy Fire Chief Wilson is focused on keeping his team focused on saving lives. What has him concerned, however, is hurricane season.
“There have been times at Cape Canaveral hospital when we had a Category one or a Category two (storm) off the coast, and possibly coming into Brevard. It's a low-lying area, and that hospital had to be evacuated. And they were always evacuated to the Rockledge Hospital,” he said. “By any measure, we’re trying to adapt and to overcome in this enormously challenging time.”