Holmes Regional Medical Center
Holmes Regional Medical Center is a not-for-profit hospital in Melbourne, Florida, operated by Health First. It serves Brevard County and has hundreds of beds. It is the county’s only Level II trauma center and Brevard’s only Level II Neonatal ICU. In 2010 it accounted for about 38.8% of the county’s hospital admissions (around 23,250), roughly twice as many as its next largest competitor.
The hospital traces its history to 1928, when Dr. Isaac Hay opened the first local hospital. In the 1930s, land donations and a loan funded building a new hospital, which opened in 1937 on U.S. Route 1. James E. Holmes joined the hospital’s Board in 1953 and led it for 25 years. In 1956 the city granted 10 acres at the current site on Hickory Street. The hospital expanded several times: to 101 beds in 1962; to 331 beds after the 1969 north wing addition; and, in 1983, a further expansion adding 206 beds at a cost of $43 million. In 1978 the hospital was renamed Holmes Regional Medical Center in honor of Holmes. In 1986 the hospital started the region’s only complete cardiovascular program. In 2004 Money magazine named it one of America’s top hospitals for Intervention Cardiology and Stroke Care. In 2011, 55.1% of admissions came through the emergency department, the lowest in Brevard County and below the state average due to different admission practices. In the year ending June 2010 there were 899 hospitalizations for angioplasty.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 11:55 (CET).