As an emergency room physician, Dr. Girgis Fahmy has worked diligently to make patients’ visits to South Florida Baptist Hospital as diligent, thorough and as expedient as possible.
At the same time, Fahmy has made it a practice to take time to listen to patients’ concerns in a comforting bedside manner.
That combination of care and compassion led Fahmy to being selected as South Florida Baptist Hospital’s (SFBH) “Physician of the Year” as an Emergency Room Physician.
Fahmy, 28, is one of about 250 doctors and about 800 medical and administrative staff at SFBH, 301 N. Alexander St., which began serving the Plant City area in 1953.
Fahmy said SFBH was holding daily celebrations of physicians in anticipation of “Doctors Day” March 30. He said he was finishing an overnight shift when Dr. Brooke Shepard, medical director and chief medical officer, was coming in for her morning shift and presented the award — a plaque, a monetary gift and a photo of him in the new Emergency Department when it opens up in May — to him along with “some nice words from the staff that was there overnight.”
“It was incredibly humbling and very gratifying. I truly love my job, the incredible staff at SFBH, and love the interactions I have with patients- so to see that I was valued as much as I value them meant the world to me,” said Fahmy.
Shepard said Fahmy is a “talented and skilled Emergency Medicine physician who takes extraordinary care of his patients.” She said he’s a medical doctor who spends extra time explaining care to patients, family members and to the nurses.
“He brings a calm reassuring demeanor to what can sometimes be a hectic situation for patients and their loved ones,” she said via email. “He always has a big smile on his face and is a joy to be around.
Fahmy was born in Egypt but he moved with his family to Oldsmar when he was 4 years old. His parents and older brother live in Safety Harbor and his sister lives in Orlando. He lived with his family in Safety Harbor for more than 15 years but now resides in downtown Tampa.
Fahmy is the first member of his family to become a doctor. He said he knew at a young age he wanted to help people in some capacity, but it wasn’t until he had mentors growing up in high school and college who were involved in medicine that made him aspire to get into medicine professionally.
“A big reason for why I came back to the area after my medical training was to be closer to my family,” he said.
A 2013 graduate of Palm Harbor University High School, Fahmy’s path to the point of the SFBH acknowledgment began as a pizza delivery driver.
Fahmy’s path to a career in medicine started at the University of South Florida, Tampa, where he received his Bachelor of Science degree in biomedical science in 2016. From there, he finished his residency in emergency medicine at Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta in 2023.
Fahmy recently finished his medical training at Grady Hospital, Atlanta, where he learned how to be an ER doctor. His first time to practice independently was at SFBH, where he began in Aug. 2023.
Fahmy has an active Florida state medical license through 2025 and held a Georgia state license through 2023.
As for his future in medicine and at SFBH, Fahmy said he’s still “a young doctor and there is always more medicine to learn.” He said he wants to grow professionally and “have as much of a positive impact on the local Plant City community as possible.”
Outside of SFBH and the emergency room, Fahmy said he enjoys playing basketball, saltwater fishing and watching National Football League football, especially the Buccaneers. He said if he wasn’t in medicine, he’d like to have been a professional basketball player.