April 18, 2022 Mark Lander ‘After careful consideration I have decided to resign from the position of Health Officer with the Florida Department in Orange County (FDH OC), effective Monday, April 25 at 5 p.m. Ihave accepted a position with Orange County Government. Since my return to work on March 15, my focus has been to continue to articulate and execute a clear vision for the agency -- program by program, area by area, identifying specific tasks, goals and objectives with measurable outcomes for short-term (1 year) and long-term projections (up to 5 years). ‘About my performance as Health Officer in Orange County since my appointment almost three years ago, allow me to summarize: In May 2019, I was given three priorities to focus on immediately: 1) Execute an extensive corrective plan from the last site visit by HRSA; 2) Ensure a successful application for Ryan White Part C — the largest single Part C grant in the Country that helps to provide services to more than 2000 residents affected by HIV; 3) Restore our community’s confidence in the FDH OC and rebuild partnerships across our County. We have achieved end exceeded all of these initial goals. We expanded on the initial corrective plan and have engaged in a multi-year restructuring of all our Ryan-White-funded services. We successfully applied for and were granted a new, competitive Ryan White Part C grant — by HRSA’s account, our best application ever. Finally, our team has restored and enhanced our community partnerships to levels never before seen — in big part due to our response to the COVID-19 Panderic. ‘On the Pandemie Response, I have never seen a team like FDH OC; the tenacity and dedication of our staff was heroic. Not only did they risk their own health to serve, but they did it with a level of love and empathy that couldn’t escape the admiration of our residents and neighbors. 1 might venture to say our response was one of the best in the state ~a national mode! followed by many. FDH OC gave more than 300,000 vaccines at the Orange County Convention Center (OCCC), a place we miss dearly, and which will always be in our hearts.We cannot forget the substantial support in our effort, which we received from the Orange County Fire Department and Emergency Medical Services team; they worked shoulder-to- shoulder alongside us. I will also recognize and commend Mayor Jerry Demings and Mayor Buddy Dyer for their leadership and support; Our commissioners; the Orange County Sheriff's Office; Orlando Intemnational Airport; and Mr. Phill Brown and their Fire Department. I would like to commend FL DOH and you, Mark, for leading headfirst through such a difficult job and in guiding us; Commander Aaron Otis and Erin Hess for their firm support of Orange County and all Florida counties; The Orange County Public Schools System; Dr. Jenkins and the Board of Education; The Orlando Sentinel and all local TV stations and reporters; and finally, the best for last: the people of Orange County and Central Florida for whom, and by whom, we exist as an institution. Beyond our initial charge, we engaged in a complete and ongoing restructuring of our organization looking for synergies and efficiencies. We enhanced the quality of our services and are undergoing the restructuring of the physical space to create a better environment for clients and the workforce. We have made investments in the information technology infrastructure to modernize services and processes and increase client satisfaction. We established and expanded Telehealth services when and where possible for convenience and quality We have successfully applied for resources to provide our clients with peripherals so they can take their vital signs at home while in real-time with telehealth services. We have systematically used data for precision in public health, creating risk indicator indexes to better and more effectively allocate resources, increase our effectiveness and be proactive in the prevention of negative public health outcomes. Our agency has expanded Dental Services out of our mobile unit to Ryan White clients. We successfully requested $300,000 from Orange County to add a new location for prenatal and ‘maternal services. Orange County Board of Commissioners approved a modest fee increase for several Environmental Health services to add additional staff and retain existing employees, all in an effort to provide timely Environmental Health services to an ever-growing County — one of the fastest-growing counties in the nation, ‘We are seeing the results of our more than three-decade work to fight HIV. We successfully established an at-home, self-testing service with a mail-in delivery process. We engaged with our partners at Gilead and large Healthcare Systems to offer routine HIV testing services at our Emergency Rooms which is in the process of reaching full implementation, and I deeply encourage our partners to complete this task to end the HIV Epidemic. Thave served with pleasure and commitment, and will continue to do so in the next chapter Raul.