We are committed to making significant contributions in Emergency Medicine through a positive impact on the lives of our residents, fellows, students, faculty/staff, patients, and the broader community via excellence in patient care, education, and research.

In April 2024, USF Emergency Medicine became an independent Department of Emergency Medicine at the Morsani College of Medicine, mirroring our longstanding hospital side status as a Department and demonstrating our leading status as an academic medical center. Prior to this, the Division of Emergency Medicine had been an academic unit within the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine since 2003. In addition, the University of South Florida is now part of the prestigious American Association of Universities and is a top-ranked public institute. As our division grows into a department and our University continues to gain preeminent status, our faculty have become national experts, leading emergency medicine by providing high-quality clinical care and innovating new approaches to health care delivery through research and implementation science.

Tampa General Hospital is the main USF partner in a large, expanding and cohesive academic healthcare system that provides care to millions of people in the West Gulf Coast Region of Florida. Our department provides medical direction of the main TGH ED, as well as two free-standing facilities in the area. While the majority of EM training will occur at TGH, the footprint of the EM program has expanded to include prehospital/EMS care delivery in the City of Tampa, as well as Pinellas County, Florida Poison Control, faculty collaborations with the VA, CAMLS (our simulation center), and Tampa Bay Street Medicine/IDEA Exchange.

In addition, through formal programs and faculty networks, interdisciplinary opportunities exist across the USF campus in the Colleges of Arts and Sciences (Anthropology), Business, and Public Health. As a mature academic healthcare system, USF offers exposure across almost all medical specialties. 

Mission

USF Health Emergency Medicine is committed to improving the lives of our patients through excellence in clinical care, education, and research. We ensure that all residents have the opportunity to enhance their knowledge and skills in an environment that allows them to reach their full potential. Our faculty are dedicated to advancing the specialty of EM through their innovation, scholarly work and dissemination. Our Department is committed to faculty development to ensure that the future of our specialty always offers more than the present. 

Our History and Continued Commitment to Excellence

Our program was established in 2003 through the work of David Orban, MD, Tampa General Hospital, the University of South Florida and TEAMHealth. Kelly O’Keefe, MD was named program director and we have grown rapidly since that time. Our maturation has allowed the addition of fellowships in ultrasound, EMS, critical care, administration as well as over 50 faculty members with specialization in simulation, research, medical education, toxicology, disaster medicine, ultrasonography, EMS, sport medicine and pediatrics. The 3 year residency program has 30 residents and is located at Tampa General Hospital, a Level 1 urban tertiary care and regional burn center with over 120,000 visits per year and over 1,000 beds with 60% of all hospital admissions coming through the emergency department doors. The ED opened in 2007 and is a beautiful (and busy!) facility with mostly private rooms with specialties and imaging available 24 hours a day. Nearby in downtown Tampa, we have our state of the art simulation center (CAMLS) for advanced case based and procedural training. We have a curriculum that values resident feedback and trains our residents to become excellent physicians with careers in community emergency medicine, emergency administration and academic practice through a emphasis on leadership, teaching and business of EM training bolstered by exceptional didactics, research, and international opportunities. There is a strong focus on critical care from day one and by the end of resident training, we have created competent and confident physicians ready to take care of any patient.

Important Milestones

• 1985 Designation of TGH as a Level 1 Trauma Center
• 1985 Designation of TGH as a State Burn Center
• 1987 Designation of TGH as a State Poison Control Center
• 1988 Aeromed Helicopter LifeFlight program based at TGH is inaugurated
• 1996 USF and TGH establish the Emergency Medical Care Center
• 2000 USF Establishes a full academic Division of Emergency Medicine 
• 2002 State Designation as a Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Center
• 2003 First Class of USF Emergency Medicine Residency
• 2005 Founding of the Emergency Medicine Administrative Fellowship by Dr. Orban
• 2007 USF EM Residency expands to 10 residents per year
• 2007 Founding of the USF EMS Fellowship by Dr. Catherine Carrubba
• 2008 Designation as a STEMI Receiving Center
• 2010 Designation as a Primary Stroke Center
• 2010 Founding of the Ultrasound Fellowship by Dr. Charlotte Derr 
• 2012 Founding of the USF EMS Fellowship by Dr. Catherine Carrubba
• 2013 Founding of the USF EM Division of Research by Dr. Jason Wilson
• 2015 Dr. Jason Wilson named Director of TGH Office of Clinical Research
• 2015 Founding of the USF Critical Care Medicine Fellowship
• 2016 Opening of the TGH Brandon Healthplex – Freestanding ED. Dr. Reginald Saint-Hillaire named Medical Director of the Freestanding ED
• 2017 Dr. Charlotte Derr named EM Residency Program Director
• 2019 Dr. Justin Arnold named medical director of Florida Poison Control
• 2020 Founding of the USF EM Simulation Fellowship by Dr. Ryan McKenna
• 2022 Dr. Jason Wilson named Division Chief of Emergency Medicine
• 2023 Dr. Heather Henderson named Director of Social Emergency Medicine
• 2023 Opening of TGH Kennedy ED - the second freestanding ED
• 2023 Dr. John Kiel named founding Sports Medicine Section Director. Expansion of primary care sports medicine faculty to include three EM sports medicine fellowship trained faculty.
• 2023 Expansion of Toxicology Faculty to include three fellowship trained toxicologists
• 2023 Dr. David Wein becomes first EM Medical Staff Officer, stepping into the role of Secretary, TGH MSO
• 2023 Dr. Jason Wilson elected Chief of Emergency Medicine, Tampa General Hospital
• 2024 Started the first EM Sports Medicine Outpatient Clinic at Morsani College of Medicine
• 2024 Started the first EM BRIDGE Outpatient Clinic at TGH Healthpark Specialty Center
• 2024 USF Emergency Medicine became an independent Department of Emergency Medicine at the Morsani College of Medicine
• 2024 Launch of the Florida Center for EMS in the Department of Emergency Medicine (located at CAMLS) under the leadership of executive director, Bruce Moeller, PhD 

Tampa General (TGH) is an urban, private not-for-profit hospital with over 102,000 adult visits and nearly 20,000 pediatric visits annually.  We are the region’s only level one trauma and burn center and also serve as a major PCI center, transplant center, and stroke center.  TGH is the primary teaching hospital for USF Health Morsani College of Medicine and is the site of our emergency medicine residency training program.  The hospital is located on beautiful Davis Island located in South Tampa.  In addition to our main TGH site, residents have the opportunity to rotate at our affiliated free standing ED, the TGH Brandon Healthplex, if they would like.  For more information click here for a video or download the TGH facts sheet below.

Download the TGH Fact Sheet

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