You will join Ochsner Medical Center, the flagship facility of Ochsner Health, the largest nonprofit healthcare system in Louisiana and the broader Gulf South region. This is not simply employment at a community hospital. Ochsner Medical Center represents the clinical, academic, and research hub of a healthcare enterprise that has served Louisiana since 1942, ranking #1 in the state for 12 consecutive years and earning national recognition across multiple specialties including cardiology, oncology, neurosciences, and transplantation.
When Dr. Alton Ochsner and four other physicians opened New Orleans' first multi-specialty group practice in 1942, they envisioned providing people with the highest quality medical care while ensuring patients received personalized and complete care. This founding vision of collaborative, comprehensive medicine established principles that continue shaping Ochsner's culture more than 80 years later: the integration of multiple specialties working toward shared patient outcomes, the combination of clinical excellence with genuine concern for individual patients, and the commitment to advancing medicine through education and innovation.
The system has evolved from that initial five-physician practice into the leading healthcare provider in Louisiana, Mississippi, and across the Gulf South. Ochsner now operates 47 hospitals and more than 370 health and urgent care centers, with 3,484 licensed beds across the network. In 2024, more than 40,000 dedicated team members and 4,900 employed and affiliated physicians cared for 1.6 million people from every state in the nation and 63 countries. This growth trajectory reflects both Louisiana's trust in Ochsner and the system's strategic expansion to serve underserved populations across the region.
When Tenet Healthcare exited the New Orleans market following Hurricane Katrina, Ochsner absorbed three community hospitals (St. Anne, St. Bernard, and St. Charles), demonstrating institutional commitment to maintaining healthcare access during crisis and expanding the safety net for vulnerable populations. This expansion was not opportunistic acquisition but mission-driven service, consistent with Ochsner's founding principles and nonprofit status.
Ochsner Health operates as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, tax-exempt healthcare organization dedicated to serving the communities of Louisiana and the broader Gulf South. The nonprofit structure prioritizes patient care and community benefit over shareholder returns, allowing reinvestment of financial margins into facility improvements, technology acquisition, program development, and mission-driven initiatives that might not generate immediate revenue but address genuine community health needs.
The organization functions as an integrated delivery network, bringing together hospitals, ambulatory care centers, urgent care facilities, physician practices, and specialized institutes under unified clinical and administrative leadership. This integration creates care coordination advantages for patients with complex conditions who require multiple specialties and seamless transitions between inpatient and outpatient settings. For physicians, the integrated structure provides access to resources, expertise, and infrastructure that independent practices or smaller health systems cannot match.
Ochsner is physician-led, with medical staff playing meaningful roles in governance, strategic planning, and operational decision-making. This physician leadership philosophy recognizes that excellent clinical care requires physicians who understand both medicine and healthcare systems to guide institutional priorities. The Department of Anesthesiology under Dr. David Broussard exemplifies this physician-led approach, where decisions about staffing models, schedule structures, and program development incorporate physician input rather than being dictated by administrative imperatives disconnected from clinical reality.
Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans serves as the system's flagship academic medical center, recognized by Magnet designation (2019) and boasting 107 physicians awarded "America's Top Doctor" recognition. The facility provides comprehensive tertiary and quaternary care across virtually all medical and surgical specialties, with particular strength in cardiovascular services, oncology, neurosciences, liver transplantation, and heart transplantation.
The physical campus reflects ongoing investment in infrastructure and technology. Twenty-nine operating rooms on the second floor feature modern design with towers rather than traditional equipment carts, improving workflow efficiency and sterile field maintenance. First-floor surgical suites handle outpatient procedures, maintaining separation between ambulatory and inpatient surgical volumes. The campus includes dedicated units for specific patient populations: the 6th floor Main Hospital houses the 36-bed Medical Surgical Unit, the 10th Floor West Tower contains the 32-bed Surgical Intensive Care Unit (which includes your 10-bed CV-ICU), and the 3rd Floor features the 10-bed Cardiac Intensive Care Unit with an adjacent 16-bed stepdown unit.
24/7 in-house attending-level coverage spans emergency medicine, hospital medicine, critical care, cardiac critical care, and neonatal services. The Emergency Department includes a separate, dedicated 24/7 Pediatric ED with board-certified pediatric emergency medicine physicians, reflecting Ochsner's commitment to specialized pediatric care uncommon outside dedicated children's hospitals. The facility supports a robust graduate medical education environment across anesthesiology residency and multiple fellowship programs, creating constant intellectual stimulation while contributing to the clinical workforce pipeline.
Ochsner's mission is simple and action-oriented: We serve, heal, lead, educate, and innovate. This mission defines the five core functions that guide institutional priorities and individual physician work. You will serve patients who cannot access this level of care elsewhere, heal through expert clinical management, lead by contributing to program development and resident education, educate the next generation of specialists, and innovate through quality improvement initiatives and potentially research contributions.
The vision of "inspiring healthier lives and stronger communities" extends Ochsner's impact beyond individual patient encounters to population health and community well-being. This vision manifests in community benefit programs, school health initiatives, health equity research through the Ochsner-Xavier Institute, and partnerships addressing social determinants of health. As a cardiac critical care physician, your work contributes directly to this vision by caring for patients whose survival depends on the highest level of specialized expertise, training future physicians who will extend this care capacity, and potentially participating in outcomes research that improves cardiac critical care across the broader medical community.
Ochsner's values create the cultural foundation for daily work:
Ochsner's cardiovascular program has earned national rankings and recognition across multiple metrics. The heart program receives "High Performing" designations for heart failure, heart attack, heart bypass surgery, transcatheter aortic valve replacement, abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, and aortic valve surgery. These U.S. News & World Report recognitions reflect both clinical outcomes and the comprehensive infrastructure supporting complex cardiac care.
The transplant program performs heart, lung, liver, and kidney transplants, with 40-50 heart and lung transplants annually. Clinical integration with MD Anderson Cancer Center for the Gayle & Tom Benson Cancer Center creates access to cutting-edge oncology protocols and multidisciplinary tumor boards that elevate cancer care beyond what standalone community hospitals can provide. Ochsner's ENT program ranks in the nation's top 50 (#43), while five specialties rank in the nation's top 10 percent: Gastroenterology & GI Surgery, Neurology & Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, Pulmonology & Lung Surgery, and Urology.
Beyond specialty rankings, Ochsner has earned recognition from the Leapfrog Group for safety, received the Most Wired Digital Excellence award for health information technology integration, achieved Excellence in Lab Innovation recognition from Vizient, earned Best in Class designation from WebMD Choice Awards, and received commendation from the American Medical Association for promoting healthcare worker well-being. The Joint Commission has recognized Ochsner for excellence in total hip and knee replacement. These diverse recognitions span clinical outcomes, patient safety, technology integration, and physician wellness, demonstrating comprehensive institutional excellence rather than isolated strengths.
Ochsner Medical Center serves as the tertiary and quaternary referral center for Louisiana, Mississippi, and the broader Gulf South region. The cardiovascular program draws patients from across southern Louisiana, Mississippi's Gulf Coast, and occasionally from Alabama and Texas when patients require expertise or procedures unavailable at closer facilities. Following Hurricane Katrina, Ochsner's absorption of Tenet hospitals (St. Anne, St. Bernard, St. Charles) expanded access to underserved populations in outlying parishes who previously faced significant barriers to advanced cardiac care.
The payor mix reflects Louisiana's demographics and healthcare landscape, with substantial Medicaid and uninsured populations requiring safety-net services that nonprofit mission drives Ochsner to provide. Commercial insurance and Medicare populations provide financial stability supporting mission-driven care for vulnerable populations. The system's integrated structure allows cross-subsidization where profitable service lines support money-losing but medically necessary programs, maintaining access to specialized care regardless of ability to pay.
The 1.6 million people Ochsner cared for in 2024 came from every U.S. state and 63 countries, reflecting both regional reputation and specific expertise in complex conditions. International patients often seek Ochsner for cardiovascular surgery, transplantation, and complex oncology care unavailable in their home countries. This patient diversity creates clinical learning opportunities uncommon in more homogeneous patient populations.
As the largest non-university based academic medical center in Louisiana, Ochsner maintains robust education and research programs typically associated with university hospitals. The UQ-Ochsner Clinical School (partnership with University of Queensland, Australia) trains medical students in clinical rotations. Graduate medical education programs span anesthesiology, internal medicine, surgery, pediatrics, and multiple subspecialty fellowships, with more than 45 anesthesiology residents and fellows rotating through the department.
The research infrastructure supports clinical trials, translational research, outcomes research, and nursing research. More than 700 clinical trials are currently enrolling patients across oncology, cardiovascular disease, neurosciences, and other specialties. Physicians interested in research can access biostatistical support, regulatory expertise, and funding mechanisms through established research offices. The Ochsner-Xavier Institute for Health Equity and Research addresses healthcare disparities affecting Louisiana's diverse populations, creating opportunities for physicians interested in health equity scholarship.
Publication support through Ochsner's medical library and dedicated publishing resources facilitates manuscript development for physicians who want to contribute to medical literature. The Ochsner Journal, a peer-reviewed publication, provides an accessible outlet for case reports, clinical research, and scholarly work. However, publication is not required or pressured, allowing physicians to choose their level of academic engagement.
Ochsner is actively constructing a Neuroscience Center of Excellence and a Cardiovascular Center of Excellence on the north side of the Jefferson Highway campus. These dedicated facilities will consolidate neuroscience and cardiovascular services in purpose-built environments designed around optimal patient flow, advanced technology integration, and interdisciplinary collaboration. The cardiovascular center will provide your program with state-of-the-art facilities supporting the growing case volumes and rising acuity that are driving program expansion.
The Xavier Ochsner College of Medicine will welcome its inaugural class in 2027, making Ochsner the sponsoring institution for a full medical school. This development transforms Ochsner from an academic medical center affiliated with external medical schools into a true academic health system with end-to-end physician training from medical school through residency and fellowship. For faculty physicians, this creates opportunities to teach medical students, participate in curriculum development, and contribute to building Louisiana's physician workforce.
Definitive Healthcare data shows Ochsner Health as a financially stable health system with 286.6 days of cash on hand, reflecting financial reserves that protect against economic disruptions and allow strategic investments in facilities, technology, and program development. The debt-to-assets ratio of 36.6 percent indicates manageable leverage, and the positive operating profit margin demonstrates sustainable operations. These financial metrics matter for physicians because financially unstable health systems often implement sudden compensation cuts, eliminate benefits, or make desperate decisions that undermine physician satisfaction and patient care quality.
The system's net patient revenue exceeds $3 billion annually, creating economies of scale for negotiating supply costs, investing in expensive capital equipment like advanced imaging and surgical robotics, and maintaining specialized programs with limited patient volumes but high community need. Nonprofit status means financial performance margins are reinvested into mission rather than distributed to shareholders, aligning institutional incentives with community benefit and quality care.
Ochsner has earned recognition as Most Wired for Digital Excellence, reflecting comprehensive integration of health information technology. The Epic electronic medical record system provides seamless documentation across inpatient and outpatient settings, with remote access supporting efficient night coverage and the ability to review patient data before arriving for urgent situations. MyOchsner patient portal gives patients direct access to test results, medication lists, and secure messaging with care teams, reducing phone call volume and improving patient engagement.
The Digital Medicine program provides virtual care options including Connected Anywhere virtual visits, expanding access to patients in rural areas and creating convenience for routine follow-up that does not require physical examination. The BioDesign Lab supports clinician innovation, helping physicians develop and test new devices, protocols, or care delivery models addressing unmet clinical needs. These innovation pathways create opportunities for entrepreneurial physicians to translate clinical insights into solutions while maintaining clinical practice.
You will practice at an institution that combines the clinical volume and complexity of major academic medical centers with the collaborative culture and physician autonomy often sacrificed at bureaucratic university hospitals. Ochsner provides the resources, infrastructure, and support systems essential for managing the region's most critically ill cardiac patients while maintaining the values-driven culture that prevents the depersonalization and burnout common in high-intensity tertiary care.
The opportunity to care for patients who cannot receive this level of expertise elsewhere in the region, to teach the next generation of cardiac intensivists and cardiac anesthesiologists, to participate in building a program transitioning from promising to world-class, and to do this work supported by colleagues who genuinely collaborate and an organization that invests in physician well-being creates the combination many cardiac critical care physicians seek but rarely find. You will practice medicine the way it should be practiced: expert, collaborative, sustainable, and genuinely focused on serving patients and communities.