Orlando Health South Lake Hospital Celebrates 75 Years of Serving the Community

Clermont, FL (April 14, 2022) – Today, Orlando Health South Lake Hospital celebrated 75 years of serving Clermont and South Lake County by creating a time capsule. Physicians, nurses and team members filled the time capsule with photos, memories about Orlando Health South Lake and letters to the next generation of healthcare workers to honor the hospital’s rich history and celebrate its longstanding commitment to meet the healthcare needs of the community.  

What is known today as Orlando Health South Lake was first an idea birthed in 1938 by a group of young women from the Clermont area who saw a great need for a hospital to meet emergency healthcare needs. Three-quarters of a century later, what was once a small, 9-bed hospital in a rural community is now a 150-acre health, education and wellness campus trusted to provide the best healthcare possible while also promoting healthy lifestyles among the residents of South Lake County. 

“What sets the hospital apart is our longstanding dedication to this community,” said Lance Sewell, Orlando Health South Lake Hospital president. “Over the course of 75 years, we have grown and strived to ensure that every resident who calls South Lake County home can receive the highest quality, necessary care to live healthier lives. We’re proud to say that we have never wavered in this commitment and look forward to continuing this legacy for the next 75 years to come.” 

The first hospital in Central Florida to have a piped-in oxygen system, Orlando Health South Lake has been named a leader among Central Florida hospitals several times since its doors first opened. The hospital’s most recent accomplishments include its sixth consecutive national recognition for patient safety by the Leapfrog Group in addition to being named a Fortune/IBM Watson Health 100 Top Hospital with the added recognition of being an Everest Award winner for excellent clinical outcomes among all medium community hospitals in the country.  

In alignment with Orlando Health South Lake’s commitment to meet the growing healthcare needs of South Lake County, the hospital marked the beginning of a major expansion project in September 2021. The completed project will increase Orlando Health South Lake’s bed count by 95 beds, expand the volume of women’s services that are currently provided and provide those who call Clermont and its surrounding areas home with more access to various services in their own community. 

About Orlando Health

Orlando Health, headquartered in Orlando, Florida, is a not-for-profit healthcare organization with $7.6 billion of assets under management that serves the southeastern United States. 

Founded more than 100 years ago, the healthcare system is recognized around the world for its pediatric and adult Level One Trauma program as well as the only state-accredited Level Two Adult Trauma Center in the St. Petersburg region. It is the home of the nation’s largest neonatal intensive care unit under one roof, the only system in the southeast to offer open fetal surgery to repair the most severe forms of spina bifida, the site of an Olympic athlete training facility and operator of one of the largest and highest performing clinically integrated networks in the region. Orlando Health has pioneered life-changing medical research and its Graduate Medical Education program hosts more than 350 residents and fellows. The 3,200-bed system includes 16 wholly-owned hospitals and emergency departments; rehabilitation services, cancer and heart institutes, imaging and laboratory services, wound care centers, physician offices for adults and pediatrics, skilled nursing facilities, an in-patient behavioral health facility, home healthcare services in partnership with LHC Group, and urgent care centers in partnership with FastMed Urgent Care. Nearly 4,500 physicians, representing more than 90 medical specialties and subspecialties have privileges across the Orlando Health system, which employs more than 23,000 team members. In FY21, Orlando Health served nearly 160,000 inpatients and nearly 3.6 million outpatients. During that same time period, Orlando Health provided approximately $648 million in total value to the communities it serves in the form of charity care, community benefit programs and services, community building activities and more. Additional information can be found at http://www.orlandohealth.com, or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @orlandohealth.