Dr. John Dudley found exactly what he was looking for in Fort Walton Beach — a Gulf Coast community that reminded him of his Naples hometown before it became a sprawling metropolis, and a healthcare system willing to invest in his vision for comprehensive cardiac care.

• HCA Florida Fort Walton-Destin Hospital celebrated the opening of HCA Florida Fort Walton Beach Cardiology with a ribbon cutting ceremony Nov. 13 at the Emily Odom Institute on Racetrack Road, where Dudley’s practice is now located. The board-certified interventional cardiologist has partnered with HCA to expand specialized heart care in the region.

“My dream for this place is comprehensive cardiac care where someone can go and really feel like they’re being taken care of by a whole team of people,” Dudley said. “Where I can pick up the phone and call while I’m sitting with a patient to coordinate somebody’s care. It goes so far for patients to just know that their doctors are communicating with each other.”

Dudley has practiced in the area for three years. The partnership allows him to focus entirely on patient care while the hospital handles administrative and logistical matters.

• “It’s so freeing as a doctor to just not have to ever worry about that and just see a patient, treat them and know that I did the best thing for them,” Dudley said.

The Naples native and his wife, a fourth-generation fisherman’s daughter from Southwest Florida, specifically chose the Panhandle when looking for a place to raise their family and build a career. After training at Florida State University for medical school, Brown University for residency and fellowship, and Ochsner Health in New Orleans for structural and interventional cardiology, Dudley could have practiced anywhere.

“I really wanted to be a smaller-town cardiologist in a place where I could be a part of the community, and my kids would have a great upbringing,” he said. 

At HCA Florida Fort Walton Beach Cardiology, Dudley provides care ranging from preventive cardiology — helping patients manage blood pressure, cholesterol, diet and exercise — to advanced procedures like treating heart attacks and performing transcatheter aortic valve replacements, known as TAVR, which allows him to replace heart valves through a small hole in the leg rather than open-heart surgery.

• “You want to be on rounds the day after the procedure because they will say, ‘Doc, I felt like I could finally take a deep breath. I’ve been drowning this whole time and I didn’t even know it,'” Dudley said. “It is the most rewarding experience I’ve ever had in my life.”

The new practice operates as part of a coordinated cardiac care network at HCA Florida Fort Walton-Destin Hospital that includes cardiac surgeons Dr. Eric Sandwith and Dr. Jean-Luc Delafontaine, and the hospital’s cardiac rehabilitation program led by Cinthia Hayden.

“I pick up the phone and I can call Cinthia at the rehab and ask if we can get a patient back in after a valve replacement, and she’ll immediately get them back into cardiac rehab if they need it,” Dudley said.

Despite being part of the larger HCA footprint, Dudley said the practice remains nimble. On a recent day, he saw hospital consults in the morning, performed cardiac catheterizations and other procedures, then saw patients in the afternoon at the Racetrack Road office. Between appointments, he returned to the hospital to perform a transesophageal echo and cardiovert a patient back to normal rhythm, then was back at the office seeing patients within 10 minutes.

The quality of care has not gone unnoticed.

Dudley shared that a patient who travels to the University of Oklahoma for cardiac care was recently told he needed a cardiac catheterization. When he asked for a recommendation between Tallahassee and Pensacola, the Oklahoma team recommended Dudley — who happened to already be the patient’s local cardiologist.

“I don’t know them, but obviously we’re doing something right to where we’re getting noticed from the quality care that we’re giving,” Dudley said.

Looking ahead, Dudley sees growing demand for cardiac care in the region and a hospital committed to meeting it.

“The community is showing us that they need cardiac care. We are meeting that need, but the need is growing and it’s going to continue to grow and we need to grow to meet that demand,” he said. “This is a great first step.”