Stephens County welcomes back a local orthopedic surgeon.
Thursday, the Toccoa-Stephens County Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the opening of Dr. James Fordyce’s new office in Toccoa.
Dr. Fordyce is a board-certified orthopedic surgeon who previously had an office in Toccoa, but then left to work for a hospital-owned practice in Georgia.
Stephens County Hospital Administrator Ed Gambrell said the hospital is happy to have Dr. Fordyce back in Toccoa practicing for the hospital.
“He really wanted to come back and work in Toccoa, but he did not want to own his practice (with) the hassles of billing and staffing and everything,” said Gambrell. “Many hospitals around the country own doctor practices so we were now of a mindset that might be a good thing for Stephens County and it might get us a good physician back here too, so I talked to the hospital board and they were agreeable to it. To make a long story short, it happened.”
According to Gambrell, Dr. Fordyce opened his practice on January 2 and has stayed busy over the last month.
Gambrell went on to say that the hospital hopes that in the future, it can expand its hospital-owned practices.
As for Dr. Fordyce, he said he is happy to be back in Toccoa and practicing locally.
Dr. Fordyce’s office is located at 218 Falls Road in downtown Toccoa. The phone number to make an appointment is 706-297-7877.