Photo courtesy of TOC.With orthopedic providers across Florida seeing more procedures shifting to the outpatient setting, the Tallahassee Orthopedic Clinic (TOC) is poised to embrace this change with expanded services and new leadership.
In early February, TOC officially announced the opening of its Spine and Joint Surgery Center, along with the appointment of its longtime CFO, Kelby Tardi, as the organization’s new CEO.
TOC has long been a major player in the region, with 35 physicians, 10 regional offices and over 284,000 annual patient visits, according to the company. The new center is a joint venture between TOC and HCA Healthcare (NYSE: HCA).
Nashville-based HCA Healthcare manages a network of hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers across the country.
Photo courtesy of TOC.
“We knew that we didn’t have enough room for our doctors to do surgery, and we even had some constraints in the hospital,” Tardi told Ambulatory Surgery Center News. “Part of our value-based initiative, we certainly wanted to provide a service that was unique for patients, that would allow them to go home.”
Located in Tallahassee, the new ASC took 14 months to build, though planning took over three years.
“Many of the surgeries for orthopedics are going to be outpatient anyway, and so it was just important that we have that capability,” Tardi said. “It was kind of natural. We were already doing some in our existing surgery center anyway, some spine and total joints, but we had so much more that we were doing across a multitude of facilities that we wanted to try and consolidate those.”
Spine and total joint replacements, once squarely within the realm of hospital-based operating rooms, have increasingly migrated to the ASC setting. Tardi said she sees the shift as part of a broader health care evolution that will benefit both payers and patients.
“Cost is a big one, both for patients and for the insurance companies, as well as I think patients are needing these surgeries at younger and younger ages sometimes,” she said. “People are more active than they used to be. …They’re healthier, and they can tolerate having surgery in one of these surgery center settings, rather than having to go to the hospital.”
Advanced surgical suites and technology
Key technology at the new surgery center includes two robots for total joints, Mako and Rosa, as well as the O-arm navigation system for spine procedures, a feature that is still uncommon in many standalone surgery centers, Tardi said.
“We’re actually one of the only surgery center facilities that has O-arm navigation for spine surgery,” she said. “And so that is something that our spine surgeons have used in a hospital setting before. You know, those things that allow for … smaller incisions, faster healing, greater precision. And so that was really important to have that in this new center.”
Beyond technology, the facility was designed with the patient experience in mind, Tardi added.
“We do have the ability in the center to have overnight stays,” Tardi said. “If they need to stay overnight, they’ve got private suites that their family members can stay with them in as well.”
A deep history with TOC
While officially stepping into her CEO role in 2025, Tardi is hardly a newcomer to TOC’s leadership team.
“I started at TOC 25 years ago,” she said. “I was a CPA prior to that in public accounting, and had worked partly with TOC during that time as well, and then ended up joining TOC.”
As CFO, Tardi guided the organization’s financial strategy and played a pivotal part in significant capital projects, including a 40,000-square-foot office building that opened four years ago. Over the years, her responsibilities expanded well beyond finance.
“I’ve been able to be involved in a lot of initiatives,” Tardi said. “So, it was just kind of a natural progression.”
Future endeavors include opening a new clinic in Panama City Beach within the next year, which will offer specialties in sports medicine, total joint and pain management, alongside an urgent care service.
“We have 10 offices across the panhandle, and those communities are important to us,” she said. “We hire people in those communities, and we’re involved in those communities.”
