Day in the Life with Dr. Toni McLaurin, Chief of Orthopedics at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue
Our bones and joints keep us upright and allow us to do things like walk, dance, and complete sometimes unbelievable feats of agility. Just watch any physical sport like football, ice-skating, track-and-field, basketball, parkour, the list goes on. Sometimes our bones, joints, ligaments and cartilage require the services of an orthopedic surgeon because of an accident, sport injury, or making moves for that TikTok challenge.
In our latest Day in the Life, we feature Dr. Toni McLaurin, orthopedic surgeon, Chief of Orthopedics and president of the medical board at NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue. Dr. McLaurin has been at Bellevue Hospital for 23 years and chief of orthopedics since 2015. She is also professor of orthopedic surgery at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and part of the Trauma Division of NYU Langone Orthopedics.
Rounding
Today’s wisdom shaping a new generation. Dr. McLaurin meets with residents at 7 a.m. to review post-operative orthopedic cases, cases that came into the emergency department overnight as well as upcoming surgical cases. These rounds are very important to the residents as it is a safe space to receive guidance and learn best practices.
To aid discussion, residents present imaging of the patients’ skeletal anatomy which allows Dr. McLaurin to accurately see and share knowledge and insight. These lively discussions also challenge residents’ knowledge and are a very effective way to receive recommendations they can immediately put into practice.
Not the hot seat. Rounding discussions are a place to exchange knowledge and build expertise. While discussions are serious, Dr. McLaurin finds ways to lighten the moment with some professional levity.
“Being a mentor to residents forces me to stay current. I cannot instruct them if they present information to me that they recently heard about, read about or saw someone else do, and I am like “this is how I was doing it back in 1998”, so that’s the benefit for me, being involved in education. I learn from the residents, and I am forced to stay current, and in exchange for that, I impart my experience to them. I am able to steer them away from certain pitfalls that can make them feel like they’re struggling, and we can discuss what happens when these pitfalls occur without having them actually do it.” Dr. Toni McLaurin
From mentorship to practice
Dr. McLaurin is a national leader in orthopedics and one of the few Black women in senior leadership roles in orthopedic surgery in the country. Depending on the day of the week, she sees patients in clinic, performs surgery, trains residents, and sometimes does public speaking.
While surgeries require serious precision and skill, it can sometimes get a little messy. In addition to donning necessary personal protective equipment, Dr. McLaurin and the surgical team must also wear surgical booties to protect against excess water overflow during surgical irrigation.
“Some of the other surgical specialties joke pejoratively referring to orthopedic surgeons as the carpenters of surgery, but it doesn’t bother me. I am actually okay with that. I joke that we are the carpenters of medicine. We are literally in the operating room with drills and mallets and screwdrivers and we’re putting people back together.” Dr. Toni McLaurin
“I always liked fixing things; I like working with my hands. It was pretty clear to me early on in medical school that I was going to be a surgeon.” Dr. Toni McLaurin
“The minute I get into the operating room, my sole focus becomes that patient under the drapes that nobody can see, and sometimes people in the room might forget that there’s actually a live person under there and my focus is, “I need to do the best possible thing I can to make this right for this person.” Dr. Toni McLaurin
“When you’re in a teaching situation, sometimes the best thing to do is to let the residents help out with the surgical case, but other times there are parts of the surgery that you can’t possibly teach somebody at that level. Our residents are at different levels of experience and for some, it’s okay to allow them hands-on experience in a case, while for others, it’s best if they just observe. So, in these situations you have to figure out a way to let go of some of the control but keep control over the entire situation at the same time and this becomes a learned skill. Over time, you also learn the capabilities of the person you’re working with which allows me to determine what level they’re at.“ Dr. Toni McLaurin
Fracture Clinic
Dr. McLaurin sees patients at Bellevue Hospital’s Fracture Clinic, where some days there are more than 100 scheduled patients.
As Chief of Orthopedics at Bellevue Hospital, Dr. McLaurin meets with staff to discuss the clinic day ahead.
“The fracture clinic works a little different than the others in that we must have availability all the time. Nobody plans to break a bone, and we can’t just give them the next available date; we have to fix it as soon as possible—so our clinic is always massively overbooked. We are open to anybody in need of orthopedic care and if you don’t have insurance that’s not an impediment to care.” Dr. Toni McLaurin
“We get a lot of patients who had injuries in their home country but never had access to orthopedic care and these are more chronic problems—they were just living with them—and then they get here and realize, “I can actually get this taken care of!” and that’s the reconstructive work that I like to do.” Dr. Toni McLaurin
The patient said that she prayed to God to send someone who could help her, and she feels blessed that God sent Dr. McLaurin.
“I believe that if you have a problem, you should be able to get it treated and that’s why I like working here…because that’s basically what we do. People come in when they have a problem and we treat them. This is especially true in the last few years with migrants coming to the United States needing treatment for the injuries they sustained getting here. We get a lot of follow-up from people who fell off the border wall when they were crossing and initially got treated in El Paso, Texas or San Diego, California and a lot of them come to New York because they might have family here and we end up managing their care.” Dr. Toni McLaurin
“The reason I work at Bellevue Hospital is my belief that everyone should be entitled to good health care. It shouldn’t matter what kind of job you have, what kind of insurance you’re able to get or if your company only offers the worse possible insurance plan that none of the good doctors sign up for because it doesn’t pay well.
We congratulate Dr. McLaurin for receiving the 2026 J. Robert Gladden Orthopaedic Society (JRGOS) Claudia Lynn Thomas, MD Award which honors an orthopedic surgeon whose career reflects the enduring legacy of Dr. Claudia Thomas— the first African American woman to become an orthopedic surgeon in the United States and the first to be certified by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery. This award celebrates leaders who carry forward Dr. Thomas’ spirit of tenacity, resilience, and commitment to excellence, advancing the path she forged for future generations.
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