In November, Tallahassee (Fla.) Orthopedic Clinic broke ground on a new ASC, the 17,000-square-foot Spine and Joint Replacement Surgical Center of Excellence.
The new center aims to be a "relief valve" for hospitals, moving orthopedic procedures of all kinds into the outpatient setting.
Michael Boblitz, CEO of TOC, told Becker's about the new ASC, its capabilities and the practice's plan for the future.
Mr. Michael Boblitz: This year TOC celebrates our 50th Birthday. Our team now includes over 100 providers caring for 270,000 patients with locations across South Georgia and North Florida. When I joined TOC a few years ago, I spent a lot of time evaluating the orthopedic and spine industry, our market and our practice. I quickly realized the need to evolve into a full service orthopedic platform to ensure our organization is well positioned for another 50 years of success. Our Vision 2030 Strategic Plan serves as our road map for the future. With the payers now reporting orthopedics as the second highest cost condition, the data becomes crystal clear that investing in a spine and joint replacement surgery center is a must.
The most exciting aspect of the new ASC is having a blank sheet of paper to tailor the design for the industry's best quality and patient experience. Traditional ASCs recover in a small bay with a curtain, and this works well for lower acuity outpatient orthopedics. With many spine surgery patients, and still a good number of joint replacement patients requiring an extended stay up to 23 hours, our new ASC design had to evolve to include private patient rooms with private bathrooms.
Further, the industry's top spine and joint replacement surgeons are trained on the full range of robotic services, and we know that to attract the best surgeons we must have the best facility. To prepare for our new ASC, we have already invested in the Mako and Rosa surgical robots and plan to add the O arm navigation for spine soon. Our new spine and joint replacement surgery center checks all the boxes, and most importantly brings much needed specialization that will lead to innovation, the very best outcomes, and a massive reduction in the overall cost of care.
We already have an ASC that specializes in nothing but orthopedics, but as I always share with our community leaders — orthopedics is not orthopedics, we are a foot and ankle company, a hand company, a joint replacement company, a pediatric orthopedic company, a sports medicine company, a spine company, a pain management company and a trauma company. We specialize to ensure our patients receive the industry's very best outcomes and realize our specialization must evolve into our ASCs as well. The $15 million investment in the 17,000- square-foot joint and spine center is setting the new standard for the industry to follow.