Choosing an orthopedic surgeon in Davidson County means weighing subspecialty fellowship credentials, American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery (ABOS) Diplomate status, hospital privileges, and the surgical technology a practice has standardized on. The three Nashville groups profiled below each carry fellowship-trained physicians across the joint replacement, spine, sports, hand, and foot and ankle subspecialties, and each holds a long record at the Midtown medical corridor where most Nashville hospital systems concentrate.
This guide reviews how each group is structured, what subspecialties the surgeons hold fellowship training in, and where the offices sit in relation to TriStar Centennial Medical Center and Ascension Saint Thomas Midtown.
Quick Comparison #
| Firm | Credentials | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Tennessee Orthopaedic Alliance | Founded 1926, sixty-six orthopedic surgeons across twelve clinic sites, ABOS Diplomates with fellowship training in declared subspecialties. | Joint replacement, spine, hand, foot and ankle, sports, shoulder, pediatric orthopaedics, interventional pain, trauma, in-house imaging and PT. |
| Elite Sports Medicine + Orthopedics | Thirteen board-certified orthopedic physicians with every surgeon on staff holding a completed orthopedic subspecialty fellowship. | Sports medicine, foot and ankle, hand and upper extremity, joint replacement, spine, ACL reconstruction, rotator cuff repair, arthroscopy. |
| Hughston Clinic Orthopaedics | Nashville branch of Hughston Clinic system founded by Dr. Jack Hughston, ABOS-certified surgeons including Drs. Burleson and Cornelius. | Robotic-assisted spine surgery, sacroiliac joint fusion, cervical and lumbar disc replacement, arthroscopic shoulder and knee, joint replacement. |
1. Tennessee Orthopaedic Alliance #
Founded in 1926, Tennessee Orthopaedic Alliance (TOA) is the longest-running orthopedic group in Middle Tennessee and the largest by surgeon headcount, with sixty-six orthopedic surgeons distributed across twelve clinic sites. The Nashville Midtown office at 2004 Hayes Street, Suite 700 anchors the practice next to Ascension Saint Thomas Midtown Hospital, with a second urban site at 8 City Boulevard in the ONEC1TY medical campus on West End.
Subspecialty roster across eleven disciplines #
TOA’s physician roster spans joint replacement, spine, hand, wrist and elbow, foot and ankle, sports medicine, shoulder, pediatric orthopaedics, hip, interventional pain management, interventional spine, and trauma. Each subspecialty division pairs board-certified orthopedic surgeons with fellowship training in their declared focus area, a structure that aligns with American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) practice-organization guidance for multi-specialty groups. Patients who present at a Midtown intake clinic with mixed knee and lumbar complaints, for instance, can be referred internally between sports and spine without leaving the TOA network.
Hundred-year continuity in Middle Tennessee #
The 1926 founding date predates the modern ABOS certification process by several years and places the practice among the oldest continuously operated orthopedic groups in the Southeast. Long-tenured groups of this kind typically carry deeper institutional protocols for AAOS Total Joint Registry data submission and for the AHRQ Patient Safety Indicator tracking that governs hospital privilege renewal. The clinic also operates physical therapy, hand therapy, MRI, CT imaging, and urgent care suites in-house, which reduces handoffs between diagnosis and conservative care.
Midtown and ONEC1TY hospital access #
The Hayes Street suite shares a campus pedway with Ascension Saint Thomas Midtown, while the ONEC1TY site sits near TriStar Centennial Medical Center on West End. The group’s central booking line is (615) 284-5800 for the Midtown clinic and (615) 329-6600 for the ONEC1TY clinic, with a single network number at (855) 633-3862 for cross-site scheduling.
2. Elite Sports Medicine + Orthopedics #
Elite Sports Medicine + Orthopedics carries thirteen board-certified orthopedic physicians across Nashville and Franklin offices, with every surgeon on staff holding a completed orthopedic subspecialty fellowship. Founding physician Dr. Burton Elrod trained at the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopedic Clinic sports medicine fellowship in Inglewood, California, the program that originated the modern professional-team sports medicine model.
Fellowship-trained roster in five subspecialties #
The Elite roster covers sports medicine, foot and ankle, hand and upper extremity, joint replacement, and spine. Foot and ankle surgeon Dr. Jeffrey Willers completed the OrthoCarolina Foot and Ankle Institute fellowship in Charlotte, North Carolina, and hand and upper extremity surgeon Dr. Thomas Dovan completed the Washington University Medical Center hand, shoulder, and upper extremity fellowship in St. Louis, Missouri. Each fellowship is one of the recognized post-residency programs feeding into ABOS subspecialty Certificate of Added Qualification (CAQ) pathways in sports medicine and surgery of the hand.
Midtown sports medicine focus #
The Midtown clinic at 2004 Hayes Street, Suite 200 sits in the same Plaza I medical building as Ascension Saint Thomas Midtown, which gives Elite surgeons immediate operating-room access for ACL reconstruction, rotator cuff repair, and arthroscopic procedures that account for the majority of the practice’s volume. The clinic phone is (615) 324-1600.
Two-year fellowship requirement for every surgeon #
The group’s published staffing policy requires that every operating surgeon on the roster has completed a fellowship in an orthopedic subspecialty. The clinic publishes the fellowship institution and city for each surgeon on its physician roster, which is the level of disclosure recommended by AAOS for patient-facing physician profiles.
3. Hughston Clinic Orthopaedics #
Hughston Clinic Orthopaedics carries the Nashville branch of the Hughston system, the orthopedic group founded in Columbus, Georgia by Dr. Jack Hughston and known for the eponymous Hughston Society sports medicine research network. The Nashville offices sit at 394 Harding Place, Suite 200 in South Nashville and at 2400 Patterson Street near TriStar Centennial Medical Center.
Robotic spine and arthroscopic shoulder focus #
Spine surgeon Dr. John Burleson at the Nashville site performs robotic-assisted spine surgery, major deformity correction, minimally invasive fusion, sacroiliac joint fusion, cervical and lumbar disc replacement, and minimally invasive decompression. Sports and joint surgeon Dr. Jonathan Cornelius performs arthroscopic reconstruction of the shoulder and knee, hip, knee, and shoulder replacement, minimally invasive partial joint replacement, orthopaedic trauma, and general orthopaedic procedures. The pairing covers the two largest orthopedic surgical-volume categories in the Hughston Nashville caseload.
TriStar Centennial campus integration #
The Patterson Street office is part of the TriStar Centennial Medical Center campus, which gives Hughston surgeons direct hospital operating-room privileges for inpatient joint replacement and spinal fusion procedures. The Harding Place site serves the Brentwood and Berry Hill corridor, with outpatient arthroscopy and steroid injection workflows handled at the South Nashville suite.
Hughston Society research lineage #
The Nashville clinic is part of the broader Hughston Clinic network whose Columbus, Georgia campus runs the Hughston Orthopaedic Trauma Service Fellowship and the Hughston Foundation Athletic Training Program. While the postgraduate fellowships are based in Georgia and Alabama, the Nashville branch surgeons participate in the Hughston system’s research and continuing-education program. Hughston Clinic Orthopaedics Nashville can be reached at (615) 342-0200 for the Harding Place office.
How to choose between the three #
Patients weighing the three Nashville groups can use four reference points. First, ABOS Diplomate status and Maintenance of Certification (MOC) records are searchable on the ABOS public directory, and each surgeon profile on the three websites lists certification status. Second, AAOS Fellow status is searchable on the AAOS public roster. Third, subspecialty CAQ certificates exist for sports medicine and for surgery of the hand, and patients seeking those subspecialties can confirm CAQ holders on the ABOS directory. Fourth, the Tennessee Department of Health licenses the ambulatory surgery centers attached to each group, and license status is searchable on the state licensure portal.
For robotic joint replacement, patients should ask which platform the group has standardized on. Stryker Mako, Zimmer Biomet ROSA, and DePuy Synthes Velys are the three major robotic-assisted joint replacement systems in the United States, and each platform is paired with a specific implant family. The choice of platform constrains which implant the surgeon will install, so platform selection is a meaningful question at the consultation stage.
Patients can also reference the AAOS Total Joint Registry for benchmarked outcomes at the practice and surgeon level, and the AHRQ Patient Safety Indicators for hospital-level surgical complication rates at the hospital where the procedure will be performed. Both data sources are publicly available.
Reference Notes #
ABOS Diplomate status and Maintenance of Certification records are maintained by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery. AAOS Fellow status is maintained by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Subspecialty CAQ certificates in sports medicine and surgery of the hand are co-administered by ABOS. Stryker Mako, Zimmer Biomet ROSA, and DePuy Synthes Velys are the three major robotic-assisted joint replacement platforms. The AAOS Total Joint Registry tracks practice-level and surgeon-level outcomes. The AHRQ Patient Safety Indicators track hospital-level surgical safety. The Tennessee Department of Health licenses ambulatory surgery centers in the state.
Selection Methodology #
The three practices above were narrowed from the wider Nashville orthopedic surgery field using these filters: minimum tenure on Nashville-area patient care, verifiable American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery Diplomate status on file, named practice brand carrying a working street address on the practice’s own website, and a published service scope that maps to patient need without scope-of-practice overreach. National rollups, mid-level-only practices without published physician supervision, and offices without verifiable street addresses were excluded.
Frequently Asked Questions #
Q: How do I verify a Nashville orthopedic surgery practitioner holds the right credentials?
A: Use the American Board of Medical Specialties Certification Matters lookup at certificationmatters.org, the ABOS public Diplomate and Maintenance of Certification directory, and the Tennessee Department of Health practitioner profile at health.tn.gov.
Q: What sets these three apart from the broader Nashville orthopedic surgery field?
A: Subspecialty fellowship is the practical filter that matters most in orthopedics, because a sports-medicine knee is a different surgical day than a hand-and-wrist case or a total joint. Each surgeon above completed an ABMS-recognized orthopedic residency and declared a fellowship lane on the published roster. Past that, the differentiation runs through hospital privilege chain (which trauma center or surgery center the case actually rolls into), patient-reported outcome publication (return to sport, range of motion, complication rate at one year), and how the practice handles non-operative escalation before recommending a procedure.
Q: Are any of the three practices paid placements?
A: No. The three profiles above are editorial selections drawn from publicly verifiable sources. No practice sponsored placement.
Q: How should I prepare for a first appointment?
A: Confirm in-network status with your insurer, bring photo ID, a list of current medications, and any prior MRI or x-ray imaging on disc, and request the practice’s published new-patient intake forms in advance to streamline the first visit.
Editorial Note #
This guide was published on 2026-05-11 and reflects research current as of that date. Verify licenses, phone numbers, and current business status before engaging any firm.