Your practice at Ochsner Children's in Lafayette will offer the perfect blend of outpatient consultation, procedures, and limited inpatient work. You'll lead a dedicated pediatric gastroenterology clinic with the flexibility to customize your schedule to optimize the balance between clinic and procedures. This thoughtfully structured schedule allows you to maintain continuity of care while developing procedural expertise and avoiding the fragmentation common in larger academic settings.
In clinic, you'll evaluate and manage patients with a diverse range of gastrointestinal conditions—from functional disorders like irritable bowel syndrome to more complex cases requiring ongoing management. Your patient population will span from infants to adolescents, providing the clinical variety that keeps practice engaging. With the previous gastroenterologist maintaining a fully booked schedule, you can expect to be busy from the start with appointment slots filled several months in advance.
You'll enjoy a consistent Monday–Friday work schedule with administrative time built into Friday afternoons—no clinic patients scheduled during this time. This protected administrative time allows you to complete documentation, follow up on test results, and prepare for the coming week without cutting into your personal time. The well-equipped GI laboratory is conveniently located within the same facility as your clinic, eliminating travel time between sites and maximizing your clinical efficiency.
Your role extends beyond the outpatient setting to include manageable inpatient consultations at Ochsner Lafayette General Medical Center. You'll provide guidance to the pediatric unit and NICU teams when gastrointestinal expertise is needed, with a very manageable inpatient volume through the small pediatric unit and pediatric ED. This collaborative approach ensures comprehensive care for hospitalized children and allows you to follow patients from admission through discharge and subsequent outpatient follow-up.
The call schedule is structured to provide excellent work-life balance, with you taking call for one week per month onsite, while the New Orleans team covers the other three weeks remotely. This reasonable call burden is fully built into your base compensation, eliminating concerns about unpredictable income fluctuations. The low after-hours burden makes this an exceptionally family-friendly opportunity.
Your expertise will also be valued in multidisciplinary care. You'll collaborate closely with pediatric speech therapists on feeding evaluations and have the opportunity to establish specialized clinics for complex conditions like inflammatory bowel disease or celiac disease, depending on your interests. The Ochsner network also provides access to dedicated pediatric anesthesiologists who are comfortable with pediatric endoscopy, ensuring your procedures can be performed safely and efficiently.
This position offers what many subspecialists seek but rarely find: the ability to practice comprehensive pediatric gastroenterology with autonomy, adequate resources, and manageable call. Unlike high-volume academic centers where productivity demands can compromise patient care, or isolated community practices lacking subspecialty support, Ochsner Lafayette provides the infrastructure of a major health system with the personal touch of community practice. You'll have time to thoroughly evaluate each patient, build meaningful relationships with families, and truly influence outcomes through longitudinal care. The balance of outpatient work, procedures, and inpatient consultation creates professional variety without overwhelming call burden, allowing you to maintain the work-life integration that sustains career satisfaction and prevents burnout.