A fine choice if you're making a sign identifying a freeway exit.
Your problem is not so much your dubious choices in type face, it's far more the ghastly layout with words disjointedly floating here and there coupled with the unremarkable if not downright boring color choices.
perhaps you missed the customers requests of "clean, simple, and clinical"
also, the visual hierarchy of text is as the customer has requested with Spine & Disc being the most prominent. The box surrounding the text, I feel, ties the smaller text in with the rest of the logo making it feel more unified. the tic-tac-toe you reference is a 3X3 grid meant to represent the 33 human vertebrae. As always, I appreciate everyones input, but constructive criticism is much better received than strings of negative adjectives with no suggestions.