Orlando Health has been staying busy in 2020! Many of our residents and faculty attended Emergency Medicine Days in January to advocate for pressing issues in emergency medicine. In February, some senior residents and faculty headed north to Greenville, SC for the SAEM southeastern regional conference. Dr. Mitch Barneck won best resident presentation for his “Outcomes of Immediate vs. Early Antibiotics in Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock: A Meta-Analysis.” We are also incredibly proud of our residents and faculty who presented at CORD in March: congratulations to Drs. Jay Ladde, Susan Miller, Erich Heine, Anne Shaughnessy and Carrie Chapman. You all rock!

Also in March, we celebrated the memory of Dr. Salvatore Silvestri with our 3rd annual Sal Silvestri Memorial Wiffle Ball Game. With residents, faculty, staff and alumni in attendance, we had the opportunity to honor the great Sal with some bonding time and a healthy dose of competition. The game reminds us every year to continue striving to “live like Sal.” We hope to always continue his legacy, which can be found in the close-knit family values of our program that extend far beyond the walls of our ED.

The medical community continues to prepare and brace for COVID-19 seeping into our hospital systems, and Orlando Health is no exception. While implementing CDC and Health Department guidelines and travel screenings, we have also diverted COVID patient rule outs to certain areas of our ER with negative pressure rooms and implemented strict PPE and work up protocols. A high risk triage area has also been set up in the ambulance bay in preparation for higher volumes of COVID patients.

Our EHR rollout for EPIC continues to move forward, with current plans to go live at ORMC this upcoming academic year. Our downtown medical campus will also be expanding, with plans to break ground on the $250 million Orlando Health Jewett Orthopedic Hospital this spring. Upgrades continue in the ED, with some fresh renovations to the trauma bay having recently been completed.

Our senior residents have begun passing their leadership roles to the next generation, most recently with the election of our new and fearless Chief Residents. Congratulations to Drs. Keegan Mullins, Olivia Munizza and Justin Kittredge!

Finally, all of us at ORMC are so excited to welcome our 18 new residents to the family. We had a phenomenal group of applicants this interview season from all over the country! Amidst all the excitement of new family members, we also face the bittersweet reality of our current seniors moving on. You will be dearly missed; may you continually strive to #livelikeSal. ■